Medieval Lives

William Butler Yeats remains one of the most popular poets of the 20th century.

"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," "Down by the Salley Gardens," "The Secret Rose": these are just a few of the poems that made William Butler Yeats an international figure. Born in Dublin in 1865, Yeats drew strength from the Irish tradition, as can be seen in this special audiobook, which presents the most important poems in the context of his life and ambitions.

Step Into the Life of a Revolutionary Who Changed History Meet John Wycliffe, the trailblazer who dared to challenge the medieval Church and ignite a movement that would forever alter Christianity. His relentless pursuit of truth and unwavering courage gave birth to ideas that laid the foundation for the Reformation, inspired generations of believers, and reshaped how we understand faith today. Discover Why His Ideas Changed the World Learn how Wycliffe championed the first English Bible, making scripture accessible to ordinary people for the first time. Explore his bold critiques of ...

Epictetus (c. AD 50-135) was a former Roman slave (he was also lame in one leg, and walked with a crutch) who went on to become a great teacher. His philosophy, Stoicism, was practical, not theoretical - aimed at relieving human suffering here and now. The Manual is a collection of Epictetus' essential teachings and pithy sayings, compiled by one of his students.

Iamblichus' famous biography of Pythagoras, which has been republished by the MSAC Philosophy Group. Details the interesting life narrative of the one of the great thinkers in the early Greek world.

Outlaw Princess of Sherwood is award-winning author Nancy Springer's third delightful tale of Rowan Hood. Her popular adventure novels provide a fresh new vision of the medieval period. When Princess Ettarde refuses to marry the man her father, King Solon, has chosen for her, she flees to Sherwood Forest and joins Rowan Hood's band of outlaws.

On the night Ronia was born, a thunderstorm raged over the mountain, but in Matt's castle and among his band of robbers there was only joy - for Matt now had a spirited little black-haired daughter. Soon Ronia learns to dance and yell with the robbers, but it is alone in the forest that she feels truly at home. Then one day Ronia meets Birk, the son of Matt's arch-enemy. Soon after Ronia and Birk become friends the worst quarrel ever between the rival bands erupts, and Ronia and Berk are right in the middle.

Of all the Catholic Church’s great saints, few are as venerated as Saint Francis of Assisi. The founder of one of the largest religious orders in the Catholic Church today, his is a story that captivates the faithful and historians alike. This biographical work is a window into that incredible tale. Author Nick Pascoe unspools the remarkable story of the saint and his Franciscan Order with captivating prose and thorough historical research. Delve into the history of Saint Francis in The Canticle of the Sun: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi and the Birth of the Franciscan Order by Nick ...

K.M. Grant pens an exciting tale of historical fiction set in the 12th century. Will is permitted to chose his own warhorse now that he has turned 13. Much to everyone's amusement, he selects a rather small chestnut. But Will sees something magical in this horse. As they accompany King Richard on a crusade to the Holy Land, the noble stallion galvanizes young Will with his displays of strength, courage, and loyalty.

The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period - one not easily chronicled within a single book. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation.

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

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. ...

For 700 years, Japan was ruled by military commanders who waged war against one another incessantly. Shogun tells the fascinating story of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who finally unified and brought lasting peace to the nation. He established a new central government which enabled his descendants to rule Japan for the next 260 years—a period in which Japanese culture as we know it today flourished.

Eleven-year-old Adam loved to travel throughout 13th-century England with his father, a wandering minstrel, and his dog, Nick. But when Nick is stolen and his father disappears, Adam suddenly finds himself alone.

In his dialogues, the Stoic philosopher Seneca outlines his thoughts on how to live in a troubled world. Tutor to the young emperor Nero, Seneca wrote practical philosophical exercises that draw upon contemporary Roman life and illuminate the intellectual concerns of the day. The dialogues also have much to say to the modern listener, as they range widely across subjects such as the shortness of life, tranquility of mind, anger, mercy, happiness, and grief at the loss of a loved one.

Edmund is the second son of Richard, Duke of York. Whisked away to Ireland as a child in troubled times, his best friend is his brother Edward, a year older, with whom his shares a special bond. Later, the family returns to England and the boys begin knightly training at Ludlow Castle, where they encounter bullying and intrigue as they grow from children to young men of royal blood and high destiny. Their father strives for peace but his motives are always questioned, and his enemy, Edmund Beaufort, fills the sickly King Henry VI's ears with slander and lies. Peace will not last. St Alban's...

The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and secure a place at the revered Fulda monastery. So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of Fulda, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome.

In an assiduously researched biography of a 16th-century Jewish woman who managed a powerful business empire, Brooks, an associate fellow at Yale, has illuminated a mostly forgotten corner of history. Famed during her lifetime both in the Sephardic Jewish community for her unstinting philanthropy and in the wider world of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, where she fled to escape the Inquisition, Beatrice de Luna Mendes, better known as Doña Gracia Nasi (1510-1569), was a woman of formidable business acumen, personal courage, outstanding altruism and devotion to the Jewish religion, which, as a ...

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.

Surrounded once again by harsh men with full knowledge of the shocking event that led to his banishment, Galen has only one person he can depend on. But Alcuin is being pulled away by family duty and a new obsession. Is it time for Galen to stop relying upon others and solve his own problems? Will Galen survive this dangerous new world and forge a safer future for himself and his friend?

In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.