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A royal abbess educated five bishops and was instrumental in deciding the date of Easter; another took on the might of Canterbury and Rome and was accused by the monks of fratricide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnglo-Saxon women were prized for their bloodlines - one had such rich blood that it sparked a war - and one was appointed regent of a foreign country. Royal mothers wielded power; Eadgifu, wife of Edward the Elder, maintained a position of authority during the reigns of both her sons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eÆthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was a queen in all but name, while few have heard of Queen Seaxburh, who ruled Wessex, or Queen Cynethryth, who issued her own coinage. 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Under Alaric the Visigoths sacked Rome itself in 410 and went on to establish a kingdom in Gaul (France). They helped the Romans defeat the Hunnic invasion of Gaul at Chalons in 451 but continued to expand at Roman expense. Defeated by the Franks they then took Spain from the Vandals. The Ostrogoths had a similar relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire before eventually conquering Italy. Adrianople, the events of 410 and the Ostrogoths’ long war with Belisarius, including the Siege of Rome, are among the campaigns and battles Simon MacDowall narrates in detail. 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Harald’s transition from exiled semi-royal to a famed adventurer and warrior saw him weave a circuitous route from the steppes and trading post of Kievan Rus to the shining palaces of Constantinople and the ancient war-torn cities of Sicily. As a commander of the Byzantine Empires legendary Varangian Guard Harald travelled extensively before leveraging his hard-won wealth, experience and political connections in a ruthless play for the throne of Norway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe world of eleventh-century Europe was neither self-contained nor compartmentalized, benefiting as it did from long-established routes of commerce and communication. Hardrada’s journeys and his interactions with the many overlapping cultures and political entities that he encountered further illuminate this essential interconnectivity. The eleventh century was a particularly formative one in the history of Europe that saw the emergence of a crop of pugnacious new kingdoms and setting of the foundations upon which the Europe to come would be built atop. As eleventh-century Europe roiled and struggled to find a new equilibrium in response to the cultural, political and demographic changes being wrought upon it, incredible opportunities were open to those adventurers bold enough to take advantage of this era of uncertainty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReturning to Norway after his long exile Harald’s ambitions stretched far beyond the Norwegian throne to encompass the recreation of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, his family’s greatest foe. Harald has often been called, with no small amount of admiration or respect, the Last Viking. Yet this title underestimates the depths of Harald’s achievements and the profound effect he had on the form and internal coherency of the Kingdom of Norway. Part biography, part medieval travelogue, this book extends its critical and incisive examination of Harald’s career to the many European and Mediterranean polities he travelled and fought through during his long exile. 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Beginning with the Norse and Norse-Gaelic worlds of Man, the Hebrides and the western Highlands, the book follows rulers such as Somerled and the dynasties that created powerful lordships with substantial independence from neighbouring kingdoms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe narrative also considers Orkney and the shifting influence of Norway and Scotland before following the Lords of the Isles and the clan structures that succeeded them into the later medieval and early modern periods. By treating the islands and western coast as a political world in their own right, Venning highlights the region’s maritime connections, contested loyalties and distinctive culture. 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