Patrick Brown

About

Patrick Brown was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated Magna cum Laude from Georgetown University, where he won the Morris Medal for best senior history honors thesis. He currently teaches high school social studies in the Mississippi Delta through Teach for America.

Godwine Kingmaker: Part One of The Last Great Saxon Earls

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Harold Godwineson, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, owed everything to his father. Who was this Godwine, first Earl of Wessex and known as the Kingmaker? Was he an unscrupulous schemer, using King and Witan to gain power? Or was he the greatest of all Saxon Earls, protector of the English against the hated Normans? The answer depends on who you ask. He was befriended by the Danes, raised up by Canute the Great, given an Earldom and a wife from the highest Danish ranks. He sired nine children, among them four Earls, a Queen and a future King. Along with his power came a struggle to keep his enemies at bay, and Godwine's best efforts were brought down by the misdeeds of his eldest son Swegn. Although he became father-in-law to a reluctant Edward the Confessor, his fortunes dwindled as the Normans gained prominence at court. Driven into exile, Godwine regathered his forces and came back even stronger, only to discover that his second son Harold was destined to surpass him in renown and glory.

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"My hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania was a cauldron of change and conflict during the period from 1840 to 1900. Patrick Brown's excellent book sheds new light on Scranton's transformation from wilderness to industrial center and the development of our country's earliest labor movements. Perhaps more importantly, it introduces us to the people who drove this process and helps us understand how they thought about their changing world and about themselves."- Robert P. Casey, Jr.,<a href="http://casey.senate.gov/"> U.S. Senator</a>

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