Medieval Ages

In the time period between the fall of Rome and the spread of the Renaissance across the European continent, many of today’s European nations were formed. The Catholic Church rose to great prominence. Some of history’s most famous wars occurred. And a social class system was instituted that lasted over 1,000 years.

Joan of Arc was born in a small French village during the worst period of the Hundred Years' War. For generations, France had been besieged by the British. At age 11, Joan began to see religious visions telling her to join forces with the King of France. By the time she was a teenager, she was leading troops into battle in the name of her country. Though she was captured and executed for her beliefs, Joan of Arc became a Catholic saint and has since captured the world's imagination.

Even if she must sell herself in marriage to the highest bidder, Lady Laura Middleton is determined to provide her daughter a home and protector. But when Queen Eleanor presents her cousin with four suitors, among them is one who believes Laura betrayed him 10 years past. Despite her attempts to discourage his pursuit, he is determined to have her for the dowry needed to save his lands.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle Ages gives listeners the beginning, middle, and end of the era, starting with the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 550 and ending with the Renaissance in 1500, and covers some uncomfortable similarities between the so-called "Dark Ages" and today's "modern world".

Ethan shouldn’t exist. Not in Agartha, or anywhere. In Agartha, people belong to six nations according to the color of their aura, each with their own abilities derived from their souls. Fourteen-year-old Ethan has a green aura. There is a significant problem with that. The Dragon Lady wiped the Green aura nation twenty years ago. Only one person knows the answer to Ethan’s mystery, The Chronicler of Agartha, but to reach him, Ethan has to travel thousands of miles in dangerous lands, infested with mythical and magical predators. Can he persevere or will he die alone? And if he ...

Lady Adelaide Soames of scandalous repute counts the days, months, and years until justice is served. At last, King Edward’s masked ball not only brings her face to face with the nobleman who ruined her sister, but the sheriff she deems his accomplice.

When a crusader army of Western European Franks took Jerusalem by storm on July 15, 1099, it was one of the more unexpected conquests in history. Everything seemed to be against them for the previous three years of crusades right up to the final siege, yet they finally prevailed. And when they did, they massacred most if not all of the population before establishing a Christian realm in a region that had been taken over by the Muslims in 634 CE.

The great poetic tradition of pre-Christian Scandinavia is known to us almost exclusively though the Prose Edda, a collection of narrative literature, and its companion, the Poetic Edda. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and 13th centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the Codex Regius. The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative.

King Arthur is probably the most famous and certainly the most legendary medieval king. From the early ninth century through the middle ages, to the Arthurian romances of Victorian times, the tales of this legendary figure have blossomed and multiplied. And in more recent times, there has been a continuous stream of books claiming to have discovered the "facts" about, or to unlock the secret or truth behind, the "once and future king". Broadly speaking, there are two Arthurs.

The once beauteous Lady Ondine Wulfrith holds close a secret for which she conceals her face, surrounds herself with all things lovely, and is drawn to those of broken wing. When she happens on an enemy of the Crown wounded during his escape from the king’s men, she delivers the warrior to her family’s abandoned hunting lodge to tend his injury. While thwarting his efforts to return to flight until he heals, attraction to her resistant patient becomes something more—and unexpected—once the two are discovered by her brother in what appears a compromising position.

1444. Three princes. Two clashing empires. One deadly game few survive. Vlad Dracula is shattered. After a daring escape sets him free, his kindness gets him recaptured, and he fears he ran out of chances. When his brother Radu saves his head, but the sultan’s mercy throws him back in jail, Vlad vows to get even or die. Can Vlad best Radu and clear his honor in the sultan’s blood? Or will his enemies break his spirit in a fate worse than death? Throne of Blood is the second installment in the Curse of the Dracula Brothers sweeping saga, where dark medieval history meets Romanian ...

She summoned a monster to destroy her enemies. Now she’s the one chained to the altar. Aeloria Betrayed by the coven and cast out with scars still healing, I wanted revenge. The ritual was supposed to bind a demon to my will, a weapon to grind Elarion and the others to ash. But what came through the flames wasn’t just power—it was Kraven. Towering, horned, and far too sentient. The bond didn’t make him mine. It made me his. My body betrays me every time he draws near, and the heat only deepens. I told myself this was about control. Now I’m soaked in ritual blood and shame, and ...

Although many have heard of the Crusades and some of the more famous orders like the Templars, few know about the Livonian Crusade or the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. This organization was one of many Catholic military orders that sprung up during the Middle Ages in response to the papacy’s call for holy war, and the Livonian Crusade is the term used to group together dozens of military actions undertaken by German knights in Eastern Europe. The order would go on to become one of the most influential of religious knighthoods by incorporating into the Teutonic Knights.

If you were taught that the Middle Ages were a time of intellectual stagnation, superstition, and ignorance, you were taught a myth that has been utterly refuted by modern scholarship. As a physicist and historian of science James Hannam shows in his brilliant new book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, without the scholarship of the "barbaric" Middle Ages, modern science simply would not exist. The Middle Ages were a time of one intellectual triumph after another.

Max, a knight of Swabia in the 10th Century during the reign of Otto the Great, chronicles his life as it parallels the historical events of the time. His tale begins with his boyhood on Lake Zurich and how he develops his love for horses and his skill at training them. It is also the story of his relationship with Verena, first, when they meet as children, and then later as they grow to love each other. Finally, it is the story of how Max becomes a valued knight in the service of Otto l, Holy Roman Emperor, and travels across Europe as both a warrior and as an ambassador for one of the ...

What if your childhood was a lie? Girl King introduces us to the daughter of a simple cloth merchant who discovers there is a secret in her mother’s past, and her own. A line of kings, stretching back a thousand years, is at stake. But it is her destiny, not her mother’s, to set the world right – or fail in the process. Ayla’s visions were merely annoying at first. Now, they have become increasingly invasive. On the eve of her arranged marriage, they reveal a truth she’s compelled to explore. With a single decision, she discards her well-ordered life. Soon her loving family and ...

Slavery was widespread all over Europe during the early Middle Ages and Scandinavians, as Stefan Brink illustrates in this book, became a major player in the northern slave trade. Using a wide variety of source materials, including archaeology, runes, Icelandic sagas, early law, place names, personal names, and not least etymological and semantic analyses of the terminology of slaves, Thraldom provides the most comprehensive survey of slavery in the Viking Age.

Thomas Bulfinch introduces us to the gods of the Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies. We learn their stories and we also observe the similarities between the deities of yore. Comparing these stories and characters to those of some modern religions may produce some surprising results!

In order to get the man she had been obsessing about, Shelby Hollier has done unimaginable and unladylike things. Like stealing Solomon Tremaine’s wallet, stalking his home and trespassing upon his property. Before she knows it, she is sucked into a wormhole and into a world she never imagined still existed. Welcome to Dover Castle. A place where things are never what they seem...

The term Moor is a historical rather than an ethnic name. It is an invention of European Christians for the Islamic inhabitants of Maghreb (North Africa), Andalusia (Spain), Sicily and Malta, and was sometimes use to designate all Muslims. It is derived from Mauri, the Latin name for the Berbers who lived in the Roman province of Mauretania, which ranged across modern Algeria and Morocco. Saracen was another European term used to designate Muslims, though it usually referred to the Arabic peoples of the Middle East.