Medieval Ages

“I've summoned you because you're the only man I could ever fully trust with Nathalia's virtue. You're my foster brother and best friend. I need someone to protect and guard Nathalia, and I can think of no one else I would trust with this.” Sir Kay is a retired Knight of the Round Table. For the last decade, he's lived alone in a coastal cottage, taking odd jobs and drinking too much. After many years of solitude, Kay gets an unexpected summons from King Arthur, his foster brother and old friend. What could King Arthur possibly need from him after all this time? King Arthur is living in...

He bought me, chained me, but nothing prepared me for the beast who now claims me. Zivra They sold me as a prize to the highest bidder—Korvax, a minotaur warlord with a savage reputation. He’s monstrous, relentless, and intent on breaking me. Yet each brutal touch ignites desires I never knew existed. My mind screams for freedom, but my traitorous heart yearns to surrender completely to the beast whose darkness matches my own. Korvax She’s mine by right of purchase, a beautiful, defiant treasure I intend to tame. Zivra fights me at every turn, her fiery resistance fueling my obsession...

Eilean was born a “wretched”—a lowly foundling raised by the Aldermaston of Tintern Abbey. Then she’s chosen to assist in establishing the new abbey of Muirwood, now the site of a castle in the swampy Bearden Muir. Eilean’s role is as night servant to the druid Mordaunt, the king’s exiled advisor—and prisoner. He’s clever, dangerous, and invaluable to the Aldermaston.

After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science, and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today.

Eager to return to his native Norway, Thorgrim agrees to participate in one last raid under the command of a man he does not trust. But the Northmen, he finds, are no longer simply invaders on foreign soil. They have become a part of the Irish kings' ongoing struggle for power, and, far from securing a means to return home, Thorgrim and his men are plunged into a battle for the throne of Tara - a battle that will test their strength and loyalty as none has before.

In this indispensable volume, one of America's ranking scholars combines a life's work of research and teaching with the art of lively narration. Both authoritative and beautifully told, The Middle Ages is the full story of the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance - a time that saw the rise of kings and emperors, the flowering of knighthood, the development of Europe, the increasing power of the Catholic Church, and the advent of the middle class.

Historian Justine Firnhaber-Baker tells the epic story of the Capetian dynasty of medieval France, showing how their ideas about power, religion, and identity continue to shape European society and politics today. Reigning from 987 to 1328, the Capetians became the most powerful monarchy of the Middle Ages. Consolidating a fragmented realm that eventually stretched from the Rhône to the Pyrenees, they were the first royal house to adopt the fleur-de-lys, displaying this lily emblem to signify their divine favor and legitimate their rule.

Leif Erikson was born to be an explorer. His father, Erik the Red, had established the first European settlement in present-day Greenland, and although he didn't yet know it, Leif was destined to embark on an adventure of his own. The wise and striking Viking landed in the area known as Vinland almost five centuries before Christopher Columbus even set sail! "Leif the Lucky" and the other fierce, sea-fearing pirates were accomplished navigators who raided foreign lands for resources, hunted for their food, and passed down Old Norse myths from one generation to the next.

It was an age of hope and possibility, of accomplishment and expansion. Europe's High Middle Ages spanned the Crusades, the building of Chartres Cathedral, Dante's Inferno, and Thomas Aquinas. Buoyant, confident, creative, the era seemed to be flowering into a true renaissance - until the disastrous 14th century rained catastrophe in the form of plagues, famine, and war. In Europe in the High Middle Ages, William Chester Jordan paints a vivid, teeming landscape that captures this lost age in all its glory and complexity.

He is not a man. She is not prepared. And what begins as survival becomes something much darker. In the forgotten places of the world—deep within cursed labyrinths, ancient ruins, or alien prisons—monsters wait. They are not myths. Not legends. They are real, powerful, and bound by instincts older than time. When women fall into their domains, it is not rescue they find. It is possession. Control. Obsession. Each story follows a captive heroine and the beast who claims her—violent, primal creatures who protect what is theirs and destroy anything that threatens it. Survival is not ...

Only Dragon Fire Can Burn Through Their Desire Once Torin pays his debt to his own kingdom by conquering the last magical threat, he vows to find Marseha, his long lost love whose disappearance has left a void no battle can fill. In the shadowed halls of Goetia Castle, the Veiled Queen sends Marseha on a perilous journey to save their people. But soon she discovers that her magic is both a gift and a curse, especially when she reunites with the man who stole her heart only to discover he condemns witches to death. Thrust together by fate, entangled in a web of deception and lies, their ...

The battle of Crécy in 1346 is one of the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet cutting-edge research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong. In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle’s greatest secret.

Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find "Butchers, to be avoided", or "Cows that shite Fire", or even catch "Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne". Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past.

Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.

Having recovered from the wounds of battle and having won for himself a fortune, a crew, and a longship, Thorgrim Night Wolf makes ready to leave the Viking town of Dubh-linn for the long journey back to his home in Norway. But the gods have other plans, and Thorgrim and his men wash up in the small Viking longphort of Vík-ló. Thinking themselves among friends, they soon learn that the opposite is true - that Grimarr Giant, the Lord of Vík-ló, has reason to want Thorgrim and his son, Harald, dead.

Jerusalem, 1119. The roads to the Holy City run red, fraught with danger and betrayal. Pilgrims seeking salvation are easy prey, until a small band of knights dares to take a stand. Hugh de Payens, battle-weary and disillusioned, dreams of peace yet sees only blood. Witnessing firsthand the carnage inflicted upon innocent travelers, he vows to forge an order unlike any other—an order founded not on conquest or wealth, but on protection and sacrifice. With just nine trusted men, Hugh forms the legendary Knights Templar, pledging their swords to defend the vulnerable, uphold sacred vows of ...

We tend to think about the Middle Ages as a dark and backward time, characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. We believe that life was unchanging over the period, so if a peasant fell asleep in in the year 1000 and woke up six hundred years later, he would return to a world that was instantly recognisable. We hold that change is facilitated by science and technological innovation, and that it was the inventions of recent centuries, from the steam engine to the Internet, that created the modern world. We couldn't be more wrong.

Fresh from his defeat of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy has returned home in triumph, accompanied by the English nobles he cannot trust to leave behind. For Waltheof of Huntington, however, rebellion is not at the forefront of his thoughts. From the moment he catches sight of Judith, daughter of the King's formidable sister, he knows he has found his future wife. When Waltheof saves Judith's life, it is clear that the attraction is mutual. But marriage has little to do with love in medieval Europe.

Her life was ordinary, working in the castle kitchen. Until one day it wasn't, now she need to make a decision. Love, heartbreak, friendships, they are all on the line. Is she brave enough? Mary's life began in the artisan quarters. She lived with her parents and had friends she explored the city with. But life takes an unexpected turn when her parents pass away, and Mary finds herself working in the castle kitchen. Mary has to adapt and find a new way of life. New friends come into her life and old ones gives her comfort. But it's hard navigating heartbreak and the feeling of never being ...

In this vivid and alluring history, medievalist Anthony Bale invites listeners on an odyssey across the medieval world. Journeying alongside scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes and the ends of the earth, Bale provides indispensable information on the exchange rate between Bohemian ducats and Venetian groats, medieval cures for seasickness, and how to avoid extortionist tour guides and singing sirens.