Bloodfeud - R. A Fletcher

One gusty morning in March 1016, Earl Uhtred of Northumbria came with forty followers to a wooden hall at a place called Wiheal outside York, to parley with the recently crowned King Canute who was attempting to bring his mighty northern subjects properly under his control. They were given guarantee of safe conduct, and came unarmed. But they were ambushed in the hall by an old enemy of Uhtred's, with Canute's connivance, and murdered, every one. Thus was set in motion the dramatic saga of feudand revenge which is the subject for this book. By following the unfolding of these dramatic events, Fletcher is able to illuminate England in the eleventh century, at the time of the Danish and Norman conquests, in entirely new and surprising ways.