Of all the civilisations existing in the year 1000, that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness This book is a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000 This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state This is the story of how the distinctive culture of Europe was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times