Laura Ashe

The Anomalous King of Conquered England

This chapter discusses some of the problematic idiosyncracies of kingship in post-Conquest England. It suggests that these strands may be brought together into a coherent whole. The picture which emerges paradoxically illustrates that in the face of numerous, unprecedented challenges to English kingship, the idea and the institution proved to be astonishingly robust. As a result, however, consequences for the person of the king were not so predictable. The chapter casts suspicion that the ideological work done on and with the figure of the king, in the culture and literature of conquered England, was both symptom of and contributor to a dramatic political development. In gathering up the strands, the chapter suggests something mildly paradoxical about the ideology of kingship, as it evolved under the anomalous conditions of conquered England. Keywords:anomalous king; conquered England; English kingship