Book Review: "Edward the Confessor: Last of the Royal Blood" by Tom Licence

I have read a few books on kings and queens in my time. A lot of them, though have been on the queens of England and the monarchy of France. The only real books I've read on the kings of England have to be, as I can recall: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones, Edward II: An Unconventional King by Kathryn Warner, Edward II by JRS Phillips, The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser and a number of books by Alison Weir and others. To be perfectly honest, most of my interest when it comes to the men in the monarchy of England has been focused on to Edward II and Richard II as I feel that they were probably the most wronged in terms of what happened to them.

So, for this challenge that I am carrying into the new year, I will be starting with Edward the Confessor and reading a book about every single king and queen of England in order. I'm both very excited and quite scared - there are some stories out there that I have heard of and I don't know whether I want to know more in detail.

From what I already knew about Edward the Confessor, he was the only King of England to ever be canonised. But that was unfortunately where my knowledge ended and so, I turned to this book by Tom Licence which basically goes through every single last detail about this man's reign. If you come out of this book not knowing about Anglo-Saxon politics, then you haven't read the book properly.

Tom Licence presents Edward the Confessor as a ruler who was kind and compassionate, but one who was also an Anglo-Saxon King. On the cusp of invasion, this monarch navigates a peace-time but is constantly prepared for something far beyond his own rule. One thing I liked about this book is its writing style. Though a little dense in places, you can really get lost in the world of Edward the Confessor. Licence brings to life the court of the king and the people around him, some of which are not there for the better. Lies and deceit litter the rooms of castles and the people in Edward the Confessor's life are not always as great as they seem to be.

Edward the Confessor has since been blamed for the invasion of 1066 - known better as the Battle of Hastings. One thing Licence tries to do is clear up why this is and present the reader with alternative viewpoints on to what actually happened. An extensively researched campaign to show a truer side to Edward the Confessor as an Anglo Saxon King, this book details each step of his reign from his childhood, through to his exile and all the way through to his death and the outbreak of all out war.

I think that the biggest surprise for me in this book was getting to see Edward the Confessor's childhood and the way he grew up. I have never read about his childhood before. I saw that there were so many people with royal blood who were strong masculine characters and Edward was slightly different from them, recognising that he too, required to ensure there was a strong masculine character lined up to take the torch from him when the time came. I think that this was one of the biggest challenges he never succeeded in within his lifetime and brought about the people trying to figure it out for themselves.

Tom Licence's book is a wonder of the question: what makes a king? But also, answering that, we see that this king here has many qualities to ensure a fine and peaceful rule, but is peace really the thing that keeps a king on his throne? In further books on further rulers, I hope to find out.