Medieval England

Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization, they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

This is a historical adventure. This is the story of a passionate and idealistic young man named Joseph in fourteenth century England. He gives up his career as a butcher with his trade guild in York and follows a young woman, Dorothy, and her family into the border country to the north. Dorothy and her family are going to take over the farm they inherited when her uncle died. The English-Scottish war is heating up and the border region is very unstable. This is the time of Edward I, (Longshanks), and William Wallace. Every effort has been made to ensure the historical events and flavor of ...

The Battle of Hastings has been lost and the iron fist of William the Bastard has begun to squeeze the life out of England, but there is one who still stands against the foreign invasion - Hereward, the winter warrior. 1067. Following the devastating destruction of the Battle of Hastings, William the Bastard and his men have descended on England. Villages are torched; men, women and children are put to the sword as the Norman king attempts to impose his cruel will upon this unruly nation.

The year is 1066. The Duke of Normandy has arrived on English soil, quickly quashing any uprising from the native Saxons and wresting the crown from King Harold. The men of Tresche are a strong Saxon family. Made up mostly of bastards, the men are warriors from the moment they are old enough to hold a wooden sword in their tiny hands. Nothing could prepare them for the army of Duke William, and nothing could prepare them for the losses they suffer at the Battle of Hastings. They are left with only their memories of the past as they embark on a journey to bring the shattered pieces of their ...

There are very few national relationships quite as complicated and enigmatic as the one that exists between the English and the Irish. For two peoples so interconnected by geography and history, the depth of animosity that is often expressed is difficult at times to understand. At the same time, historic links of family and clan, and common Gaelic roots, have at times fostered a degree of mutual regard, interdependence, and cooperation that is also occasionally hard to fathom. During World War I, for example, Ireland fought for the British Empire as part of that empire.

What happens after happily ever after? After falling through time itself, modern-day Lucy Merriweather finds purpose in her new medieval life with her husband, Lord Blackford. But when a cryptic note costs her dearly, Lucy risks all to protect those she loves. As villains and explosive secrets emerge, Lucy must draw on courage she never knew she possessed, facing impossible choices and vengeful forces determined to destroy all she holds dear. Callan Graham, a mysterious highlander with secrets of his own, offers to aid Lucy as they race to save her family before it’s too late. This ...

A historical novel set in the early Middle Ages where the young Welsh Princess, Nesta Ferch Rhys, transforms from a naive young girl into a woman who cultivates and manipulates allies and uses her royal connections to achieve her ultimate goal of securing her family's place in history. Nesta was a consort to King Henry I, wife to Gerald of Pembroke and the captive-lover to Owain of Poweys. She is thought to be the original mother to the Tudor and Stuart Dynasties which Princess Diana and John F Kennedy are both descendants.

With her sultry brown eyes and winsome beauty, Alana Ingen looks every bit the innocent maiden, but Jacques Legrand knows that hidden beneath is a precocious wench in need of taming. Alana’s mischievous nature means she finds herself in trouble with the powerful Norman knight more often than not and, despite her cunning ways, realizes he is not a man to be toyed with. Dominant by nature, Jacques uses his own method to tame the rebellious firebrand. With her Uncle, King Donald III, on the Scottish throne, Alana is vulnerable to those who wish to depose him. Jacques would keep her safe, but...

1198 A.D A hooded man brings rebellion to the forest… Lionheart’s England, with the King fighting in Normandy… For the oppressed villagers of Sherwood there is no escape from persecution and despair. They exist under the sufferance of their brutal overlords. When a mysterious stranger saves a miller’s son from cruel punishment, the Sheriff of Nottingham sends the ruthless Sir Guy of Gisborne to hunt him down. His past life destroyed, Robin of Loxley must face his greatest challenge yet. Deadly with a longbow and a sword, he will fight tyranny and injustice, encounter allies and ...

The Year of our Lord 1071 – Saxon rebel, Hereward the Wake is, yet again, creating trouble for the new King of England, William the Conqueror. Sending an army to the Isle of Ely, the king seeks his surrender. Elvina, Hereward’s daughter, hates the Normans as passionately as her father does. Trapped on the island in the abbey, the abbot urges her to leave for her own safety before the Normans invade. Taking his advice, she attempts to flee but is quickly seized by seasoned knight, Sir Arthur de Clairvoy, and taken into custody. Against her wishes, the king immediately orders the feisty ...

Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer's Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Used throughout much of Britain more than a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven't changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise), and some that are mystifying even in translation ( gafol-fisc, or tax-fish).

Anise Wynford stumbles down the porch steps of her farmhouse in 21st century Massachusetts and into the nightmare of a raging battlefield of armor and sword fighting. When she later awakens in a medieval forest in the presence of a gallant white knight, their connection is immediate. Concerned for her safety, the knight carries her to his castle. Her knight turns out to be King Richard III, the villain of Shakespeare's most famous play. The truth dawns that she has been transported through time by a magic ring. As Anise navigates the complex rules of politics and etiquette in the king's ...

"Mesmerizing medieval romance! A vivid portrayal of love flourishing amidst the turbulence of the years after the Norman Conquest." -- Kathryn Le Veque, USA Today Bestselling Author York, England 1069… three years after the Norman Conquest The North of England seethes with discontent under the heavy hand of William the Conqueror, who unleashes his fury on the rebels who dare to defy him. Amid the ensuing devastation, love blooms in the heart of a gallant Norman knight for a Yorkshire widow. A LOVE NEITHER CAN DENY, A PASSION NEITHER CAN RESIST Angry at the cruelty she has witnessed at the...

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from listening to Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.

In May 1315 it started to rain. It didn't stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe's livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives - one eighth of Europe's total population.

Juliane Fitzroy is the illegitimate daughter of Henry I--one of his twenty-two bastards. When her father weds her to a young Norman lord, Eustace de Breteuil, she thinks she has done well in life for the daughter of a Saxon concubine. But Eustace wants a castle he cannot have. He starts hostilities with its castellan, Ralph Harenc, egged on by the dubious Amaury de Montfort. To keep the peace, King Henry orders a hostage exchange between Eustace and Ralph. Juliane's pretty young daughters for Ralph's son. In a drunken rage, fuelled on by Amaury, Eustace breaks the truce and blinds Harenc's ...

Richard II was young, handsome, and elegant. Last living child of the brilliant Black Prince, he came to the throne bearing the hopes of his people on his shoulders. His court glittered; his tastes were refined; his portraits shone with gold. Regal, composed, aloof, he was the very picture of majesty. He became a murderous, capricious tyrant. His favorites plotted against his family. He rewrote the laws of England to give himself absolute power. He raised an army against his own subjects. His subjects deposed him.

Richard the Lionheart remains one of England's most famous kings. His statue stands proudly outside the Houses of Parliament, yet who was Richard? Was there more to him than we see depicted in modern media - the great, missing king from the Robin Hood films who was always having his throne threated by his younger brother John! Or was Richard not worthy of the legend that seems to have been built up around his name?

In the rich turbulence of English history, one day stands magnificently apart: June 15, 1215, the day of the signing of the Magna Charta. On this day, the first blow for English freedom was struck and forever affected the Western world. Here is the story of three true men, Stephen Langton, Williams Marshall, and Hubert de Burgh, whose heroic deeds are set against those of the ever deceitful and crafty King John.

In Richard III’s Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity, Jeffrey Wilson tracks disability over 500 years, from Richard’s own manuscripts, early Tudor propaganda, and x-rays of sixteenth-century paintings through Shakespeare’s soliloquies, into Samuel Johnson’s editorial notes, the first play produced by an African American Theater company, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the rise of disability theater.