Medieval

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization....

A heroic queen who shaped the course of history. Isabel of Spain led with courage during the Reconquista, reformed her nation through justice, and launched a new era by supporting Columbus’s voyages. Her bold, faith-filled reign eclipses even that of England’s Elizabeth.

Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization....

This is the story of a thousand years, a must-listen narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury, and madness....

The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women reveals the overlooked yet fascinating lives of middle age women who did not fit the conventional mold.

A riveting and authoritative history of the single most important event in English history: The Norman Conquest....

This erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled....

In The Temple and the Lodge, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh reveal the survival and evolution of a world-changing order through the birth of the Masonic lodge....

Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from the beloved and best-selling historian Alison Weir....

Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat....

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today....

A vibrant and illuminating exploration of medieval thinking on women's beauty, sexuality, and behavior....

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness provides a rare and valuable glimpse of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion, and sexual practices, including the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation.

The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague....

Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring the festivals, customs, and traditions linked to the different seasons....

Old Songs fuses short stories, histories, lyrics and music in an enthralling reimagining of traditional folk ballads. Sunday Times Bestselling historian Amy Jeffs and her creative collaborators combine forces to create a rich compendium, singing of travel, mystery, magic and the essential urges...

Here, from New York Times best-selling historian Francis Russell, is the dramatic story of Germany....

The Mongol queens of the thirteenth century ruled the greatest empire the world has ever known. Yet sometime near the end of the century, censors cut a section from The Secret History of the Mongols, leaving a single tantalizing quote from Genghis Khan: “Let us reward our female offspring.”...

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried....

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) - one of the most prominent Catholic authors of his time - gives a common-sense explanation of why the Crusades were necessary and why they ultimately failed....

The Plantagenets reigned over England longer than any other family - from Henry II to Richard III....

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized—and largely mythical—notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different....

The First King of England is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “kingdom of the English.”

The fifteenth century was a turbulent age: the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses dominated the lives of people both inside and out of the royal courts.

The First King of England is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “kingdom of the English.”

Rares sont ceux qui n'ont pas entendu parler des redoutables Vikings et de leurs audacieux exploits. Ces navigateurs du Nord, le fléau du Moyen Âge, ont marqué l'histoire du monde d'une manière grandiose. Courageux, rebelles et animés par le désir d'exploration, les hommes du Nord furent les conquérants médiévaux les plus redoutés. Beaucoup les croyaient invincibles, et ils maintinrent sous leur emprise de nombreuses nations chrétiennes en difficulté.

In the 50 years following the First Crusade, the Latin states in the East were consolidated, but there were also growing tensions and new challenges. Against this backdrop, the fall of the County of Edessa in December 1144 at the hands of Zengi, the atabeg of Aleppo and Mosul, was a catastrophic event. Founded in 1098 by the future King Baldwin of Boulogne, Edessa was the first Crusader state, as well as the northernmost, weakest, and least populated.

Of the many campaigns during the Middle Ages, few are as remarkable or seemingly impossible to win at the start as the First Crusade (1095-99), and the true crowning achievement of that crusade, which resulted in two centuries of Western European Christian states in the Middle East and the permanent firing of the European imagination, was the conquest of Jerusalem on July 15, 1099 after three weeks of siege.

A thorough introduction to Saint Francis’s extraordinary character and spiritual journey, Chesterton’s biography is both a fascinating historical account of the man’s life, as well as a profound meditation on holiness and humility. Chesterton portrays Saint Francis not only as a holy man, but also as a gentle lover of animals, and a radical spiritual revolutionary. He unveils how Saint Francis renounced a life of comfort and wealth to dedicate himself wholly to God, evoking the man’s loving and joyful spirit.