Richard Abels
professor of history at the United States Naval Academy
Richard Abels (born 1951) is an American educator, historian, and professor emeritus at the United States Naval Academy. Abels is a specialist in the military and political institutions of Anglo-Saxon England.
Quotes
edit- All quotes are from the first edition hardcover in the Penguin Monarchs series, ISBN 978-0-141-97949-6
- Academic historians are by nature revisionists.
- Introduction (p. 4)
- The poem is literature, however, not history. As such it provides a window on the mentality and the values of its audience. Loyalty is lauded, betrayal and failure to fulfill one’s duty condemned.
- Chapter 3, “The Viking Challenge” (p. 38)
- Loyalty to the person of the king was the glue that unified an English kingdom so recently forged from separate peoples.
- Chapter 3, “The Viking Challenge” (p. 46)
- Æthelred was the only king in Western Christendom in 1002 who could reasonably expect that his decrees would be conveyed throughout his kingdom and perhaps even obeyed.
- Chapter 5, “Law and (Dis)order” (p. 72)
- One suspects that many landowners thought Æthelred overly eager to find reasons to confiscate property.
- Chapter 6, “Losing the Kingdom” (p. 101)
