English Medieval History

Before the Reformation: Two Lives, One Legacy Dive into the extraordinary stories of two fearless pioneers who laid the foundation for a movement that would transform the world. Before the Reformation: John Wycliffe and Jan Hus brings you two books in one—a compelling look at the lives, battles, and sacrifices of the visionaries who paved the way for the Protestant Reformation. Meet John Wycliffe, the "Morning Star of the Reformation": Discover how this bold thinker defied the Church, translated the Bible into English, and dared to put divine truth into the hands of the common people. ...

In this account of Europe’s rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths. Myth One: that Europe’s leap forward occurred suddenly in the “Renaissance,” following centuries of medieval stagnation. Myth Two: that Europe achieved its primacy through “Western” superiority.

From the Hebrew Bible's shadowy realm of Sheol to 21st-century visions of Hell on Earth, The Penguin Book of Hell takes us through 3000 years of eternal damnation. Along the way, you'll take a ferry ride with Aeneas to Hades, across the river Acheron; meet the Devil as imagined by a 12th-century Irish monk - a monster with a thousand giant hands; wander the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno, in which gluttons, liars, heretics, murderers, and hypocrites are made to endure crime-appropriate torture; and witness the debates that raged in Victorian England when new scientific advances cast doubt on the idea of an eternal hereafter.

Join Matthew Lewis and the creators of History Hit on a guided tour spanning more than five centuries of English medieval history and witness spectacular changes in military, political and economic spheres. At home and overseas, England's status and identity was in constant flux, and yet through it all, the nation withstood the turmoil of everything from the 9th century attack of the Great Heathen Army to the year of three kings in 1483 - just.

The Goths are the most enigmatic of all the ancient German tribes. Their name today is still widely in use for a variety of cultural and artistic movements. But unlike other famous German tribes whose names are still descriptive of nations they founded - the Franks, the Lombards, the Angles, the Saxons and the Alemanni - the Goths simply disappeared. The subject of Henry Bradley's splendid short history is tracing the rise, the migrations, and the impact of the Goths on European history along with their spectacular fall.

The Song of Roland is acknowledged today as the first masterpiece of French vernacular literature and one of the world’s greatest epic poems. Written down around the year 1090, The Song of Roland finely crafted verses tell of the betrayal and defeat of Charlemagne’s beloved nephew at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees and of the revenge subsequently sought on his behalf.

The Knights Hospitaller formed in the 12th century and continue to exist in contemporary times, albeit in a considerably different form. Over the last millennium, the organization has fulfilled different roles, served varying masters, and continued to uphold the tenets of crusading even when there was no Crusade to fight. All the while, as it went through centuries of murkiness, including the development of a notorious reputation, the Knights Hospitaller continued to adapt.

It could be said that European kings and nobles in the Middle Ages were Crusade mad. The enormous amount of fighting men who periodically sailed off to the Near East to do battle with Muslims are evidence of the widespread popularity of overseas adventurism at the time. The notion of a Crusade, in which large armies assembled from various regions of Europe for the purpose of doing battle with Turkish and Arab Muslims, became so fixed that it was expanded to include Crusades against heretical European Christian sects.

The 15th century Romanian Prince Vlad III Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, is one of the most fascinating personalities of medieval history. Already during his own lifetime, his true story became obscured by a veil of myths. As a result, he has been portrayed both as a bloody tyrant - who degenerated down throughout the centuries into the fictional vampire of the same name created by Bram Stoker at the end of the 19th century - and as a national and Christian hero who bravely fought to defend his native land and all of Europe against the invading Turkish infidels.

As the Christian hold on the Holy Land crumbles, Templar Knight, Salvatore and his leader, the Mason fight to defend the ancient city of Acre. They have a duty to defend their last bastion in the region and to defend a mysterious artifact whose very existence cannot be revealed to the man tasked with its safety. In today's world. Peter Sparke and Professor Tilly Pink take on the challenge of uncovering the fate of the fabled Silver Scroll, unsure whether it even exits.

Throughout history the world’s greatest conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but in the societies they have transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms and bravery, but he ruled by commerce and religion. He created the world’s greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion.

It goes without saying that Eleanor of Aquitaine was a force of nature. She was the wife of kings, the mother of kings, a duchess in her own right, and a tool of no man. She was headstrong and independent in an age when women were essentially to be seen and not heard.

Over 400 years before Columbus "discovered" the New World, it is believed that someone else already had - Icelander Bjarni Herjolfsson. Over the years 985-986, Herjolfsson was attempting to reach Eirik the Red's colony on Greenland when he was blown off-course. He sighted a coastline covered with woods, and thus was the first to glimpse a piece of North America.

Brienna is a mistress of knowledge and is beginning to settle into her role as the daughter of the once-disgraced Lord Davin MacQuinn. Though she’d just survived a revolution that will return a queen to the throne, she faces yet another challenge: acceptance by the MacQuinns. But as Queen Isolde Kavanagh’s closest confidant, she’ll have to balance serving her father’s house as well as her country.

This book is a history of early medieval Spain. The book begins with the early histories of Castile, Galicia, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal. The history of both Spain and Portugal start in the early 800s. The ruling families' histories are interrelated through their marriages. There are also sections devoted to the early history of each of the major counties.

Nowhere else in Britain in the modern era, or indeed in Europe, did civil order break down over such a wide area, or for such a long time, as on the border country between Scotland and England. For more than a century, the hoofbeats of countless raiding parties drummed over the border. From Dumfriesshire to the high wastes of East Cumbria, from Roxburghshire to Redesdale, from the lonely valley of Liddesdale to the fortress city of Carlisle, swords and spears spoke while the law remained silent

On October 21, 1600, two massive Japanese armies, totaling an estimated 200,000 soldiers armed to the teeth with swords, yari (spears), arrows, muskets, and cannons, faced off on a battlefield near the town of Sekigahara. A bitter fight to the death ensued, and the results would determine the course of Japanese history for the next 250 years. On the battlefield was the warlord Leyasu Tokugawa, a man desiring domain over the entire island of Japan, but standing in his way was Ishida Mitsunari, a warlord controlling vast swaths of western Japan.

What do you think of when you consider the Middle Ages? Knights in armor and damsels in distress? Vikings plundering monasteries? Religious dissenters burning at the stake? The dead bodies piling up as war, famine, and plague devastated Europe? Think again. While all these are part of the tapestry of the medieval era, the threads of politics, personality and war, culture, religion, education and the arts are vastly more intricate and fascinating.

This magnificent story of 1,000 years of English history is told through the lives and deeds of Kings and Queens, from the Normans to the Windsors. Understand how the power of the crown has changed as a result of both the character and ability of each monarch and evolving historical circumstances. Eight specialist contributors depict the whole spectrum of royal life in a succinct and fascinating way. Newly revised in 1998, this edition offers expanded coverage of the House of Windsor, including recent events that have greatly affected the Royal Family.

Mary Stuart was born into a powerful royal dynasty that was at war with the rest of Europe and with itself. Mary’s ascent to the throne was disarmingly easy and she reached adulthood completely unprepared for the plots and betrayals she would be subject to. As the head of a resolutely unstable country, Mary struggled to maintain her grip on the precarious crown on her head and was removed from the throne by an armed rebellion.