A Presentment of Englishry.

Are you English?

A Presentment of Englishry in the 11^th century was the offering of proof that a slain person was English (therefore unimportant), in order to escape the fine levied upon hundred or township for the murder of a ‘Frenchman’ or ‘Norman’. Sometime in the 12th century, Laȝamon, a priest living in the small settlement of Areley Kings wrote the first English version of the Legendary History, tracing the story of Britain from the arrival of the Trojans to the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon domination of the Island. 

His 16,000 lines can be read as A Presentment of Englishry. That was certainly his stated intention: to tell the noble deeds of the English, who they were and where they came from. 

 'A Presentment of Englishry' retells his stories, treating his work the way he treated his sources. It also explores a possible version of his life, taking off from the little that is known about him. Stories from Bede and Gerald of Wales are also retold, and the final section takes the story to the end of Roman Britain as a prelude to the story of Vortigern. 

The book is now available on line, from Shearsman Books at A Presentment of Englishry 

and from the bookdepository at https://www.bookdepository.com/Presentment-Englishry-Liam-Guilar/9781848616622?ref=grid-view&qid=1550755372197&sr=1-12

You can also hear a reading of the title poem here