WINCHESTER POWERHOUSE (HB)

Presenting portraits of the Winchester bishops down to the Norman Conquest, this is the first volume of a study covering the lives of some one hundred holders of the high ecclesiastical office. Characterised overwhelmingly by benevolence, the pre-Conquest prelates were at the forefront of the reconversion of southern Britain to Christianity. The book reveals how, beyond their spiritual role, they also helped to make Winchester (rather than London or Canterbury) the powerhouse of the expanding kingdom of Wessex and eventually of all England helping ensure that it remained the most prized and prestigious diocese in England down to the Reformation.