Of all the civilisations existing in the year 1000 that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness. Compared to the glittering empires of Byzantium or Islam the splintered kingdoms on the edge of the Atlantic appeared impoverished fearful & backward. But the anarchy of these years proved to be not the portents of the end of the world as many Christians had dreaded but rather the birthpangs of a radically new order. MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute William the Conqueror & Pope Gregory VII of Vikings monks & serfs of the earliest castles & the invention of knighthood & of the primal conflict between church & state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe
- restless creative & dynamic
- was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating & as momentous as any in history.