Winchester Tales : Chattaway and Spottiswood : 9781916194441 : 11 Aug 2022 : Invading a prosperous neighbouring country brings its own set of problems: maintaining power at home while your back is turned, distributing the loot among your supporters while holding most for yourself, keeping the remnants of the defeated army at bay, taking control of the native estates and squeezing out ever-increasing taxes and, all the while, placing a resentful population firmly under the thumb. Gilbert of Bayeux, orphan, a young, natural administrator, brilliant linguist, is called to Winchester from Normandy to oversee the theft of lands from the English who fell at Hastings. He finds his Lord, bishop Odo, the new king's half-brother, is the most avaricious and devious of all the invaders.Gilbert witnesses or takes part in many of the events through to 1110 which affect the city: the propaganda of the Bayeux tapestry, the murder of the established clergy and nobility, Domesday Book, the building of