Exactly 150 years after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, history came extremely close to repeating itself when another army set sail from the Continent with the intention of imposing foreign rule on England. This time the invasion force was under the command of Louis the Lion, son and heir of the powerful French king Philip Augustus. Taking advantage of the turmoil created in England by the civil war over Magna Carta and by King John's disastrous rule, Prince Louis and his army of French soldiers and mercenaries allied with the barons of the English rebel forces. The prize was England itself. Within months Louis was in control of nearly half of the country, ruling his subjugated territory from London for over a year. Recognising this new political reality, the majority of English barons deserted John for their new French lord, while the king of Scotland, in an early manifestation of the auld alliance, travelled south with his army to pay homage to Louis. England's future hung in the balance. King John's death altered the scene dramatically. His nine-year-old son, Henry III, was crowned king by the royalist resistance and, under the regency of the famous knight William Marshal, a sustained counter-attack was launched until the war reached its bloody conclusion eighteen months after the invasion had begun. The invasion was one of the most dramatic episodes of British history, and was the climax to decades of Anglo-French warfare, marking a key stage in the development of both countries: France emerged as the leading power in western Europe while England enshrined Magna Carta and, the author argues, experienced a pivotal moment in the emergence of its national identity. The text vividly describes and analyses the sieges, battles, campaigns and atrocities of the invasion, including the siege of Chateau Gaillard and the epic encounter at Rochester (depicted in the film Ironclad). - Publisher.
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