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The Pale Horseman Bernard Cornwell Analysis

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Historical Fiction Novel Project “The Pale Horseman” by Bernard Cornwell, is in 871-899 AD in Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon territory in England. The main character, Uhtred, is a warrior. He was born a Viking but adopted into an Anglo-Saxon clan and as his story unfolds in a series of conflicts with his own clan, the church and outsiders, his background differences from Anglo-Saxons highlight many features of this time period. The author is careful to be historically accurate in many details, including the civil and military power of kings, how military authority and tactics are carried out, and the armor and weapons used by knights. Kings in England had both civil and military power during this time period. In the novel, King Alfred was the leader …show more content…

But King Alfred also had the power to judge people and had the power to decide how to punish or discipline people who he determined had done wrong things (Cornwell). In the “Warfare, Western European”, author John Beeler talks about the powers that a king would have had in the time period. “Military and civil authority were kept separate at the upper level, although at the king's convenience the two were sometimes combined." This demonstrates that although there was some separation of military and civil authority, the king was the ultimate head of both, and had both political and military power. The historian and the novel’s author agree in their description of the broad power of kings at that time as a military and civil authority. Between 871-899 AD the form of government was feudalism. Feudalism was when kings with land would sell their land to other people in exchange for things. In this case the kings were selling land to knights. This was good for both the knight and the king because they both got what …show more content…

Chain mail armor is a bunch of metal chains that are put together by bending them In the novel when Uhtred is fighting against Steapa one on one Uhtred is wearing light armor made of skins while steapa is wearing a heavy chainmail suit and a large helmet to go along with his massive sword(Cornwell). In “Medieval Weapons and Warfare” by Paul Hilliam he talks about the armor of most knight's "Chain mail was worn as the main form of protective armor"(16). This concludes that a majority of knights during the 9th century wore chain mail for armor, but also they both show that there were some people who didn’t use chain mail armor because Uhtred didn’t always wear chain

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