Medieval History

From the author of the bestselling Tahoe Mystery series... When a Forest Service Ranger is killed near Lake Tahoe, the ranger’s wife contacts the governor of California. She wants the governor, who is a family friend, to convince UCLA Professor Josie Strong to investigate. When Professor Strong resists the request, the governor cancels the professor’s classes and blackmails her into tracking down the killer. But the murderer is an Army-trained sniper. He has weapons and the best training, while all Josie Strong has is her medieval knowledge. Josie designs a classic medieval trap. If she...

This is a book about how medieval weapons were used, according to medieval people who used them. It discusses the use of eight weapons or weapon combinations from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, selected with an eye toward their iconic status in popular culture, as well as five different combative contexts. The aim of this book is to familiarize the listener with the use of medieval weaponry in a general way. It is not a how-to book on martial arts, but the listener will come away with a fresh appreciation for the sophistication of medieval fencing.

Defending Heaven brings together, for the first time in one volume, a complete history of the Jin, Song, and Ming dynasties' wars fought against the Mongols. Lasting nearly two centuries, these wars, fought to defend Chinese civilization against a brutal and unrelenting foe, pitted personal heroics against the inexorable Mongol war machine and involved every part of the Chinese state.

In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.

In a saga reminiscent of Game of Thrones and The Last Kingdom, Battle for the Island Kingdom reveals the life-and-death struggle for power which changed the course of history. The six decades leading up to 1066 were defined by bloody wars and intrigues, in which three peoples vied for supremacy over the island kingdom. In this epic retelling, Don Hollway (The Last Viking) recounts the clashes of Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, their warlords and their conniving queens.

Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history.

For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

Step back into the forgotten world of medieval Ireland, to uncover intriguing stories from the world of our distant ancestors. Beyond well-known figures such as Strongbow, the Norman invader, lies a tapestry of untold stories of ordinary men and women—those who held no titles, owned no lands, and whose voices have faded into obscurity. In Life in Medieval Ireland, Fin Dwyer—creator of the Irish History Podcast—breathes life into an era often overshadowed by conquest and chaos.

The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome tells the stories of the people who built their political and literary careers around promises of Roman renewal as well as those of the victims they blamed for causing Rome's decline. The story begins during the Roman Republic just after 200 BC. It proceeds through the empire of Augustus and his successors, traces the Roman loss of much of western Europe in the fifth century AD, and follows Roman history until its fall in 1453.

Our capital city has always been a thriving and colorful place, full of diverse and determined individuals developing trade and finance, exchanging gossip and doing business. Abandoned by the Romans, rebuilt by the Saxons, occupied by the Vikings and reconstructed by the Normans, London would become the largest trade and financial center, dominating the world in later centuries. London has always been a brilliant, vibrant, and eclectic place.

Here, from New York Times best-selling historian Francis Russell, is the dramatic story of Germany - from the rise of Charlemagne to the age of Martin Luther, from the 30 Years' War to the iron rule of Otto von Bismarck, and from the formation of the Weimar Republic to the fighting of two world wars.

Adrianne Percy was hidden in the Western Isles, safe from her family's enemies - until her sisters sent a notorious pirate to return her to the Highlands. But when she hatches a plan to free her kidnapped mother, it requires her to marry the handsome rogue. But what begins as a simple matter of business quickly flares into an uncontrollable desire. As Adrianne's heart smolders, their calculated arrangement threatens to ignite into a burning passion....

In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.

Valkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows, and sword blades into the bodies of others. Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war - to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings.

Worried that old age will inevitably mean losing your libido, your health, and possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero has some good news for you. In How to Grow Old, the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all - and why you might discover that reading and gardening are actually far more pleasurable than sex ever was.

NEW AND IMPROVED SECOND EDITION - 2025 Initially published by Peter Owen Publishers, 2013 FROM THE BACK PAGE Henry III’s reign was the longest of any king in medieval Europe, spanning an unprecedented 56 years from 1216 until 1272. The first child king in England for 200 years, his time on the throne oversaw more significant change than any other monarch, in which England prospered. Though often overlooked by historians, Henry III was a unique figure emerging from this chivalric yet gothic era. A compulsive builder of daunting castles and glorious cathedrals, Henry was an intelligent, ...

When you think of democracy, what comes to mind? Comparing democracy to monarchy, are you thankful to be living free rather than suffering oppression under a medieval tyrant? What if you could be evidentially shown that the democracy you hold so dear is not only less ideal than you’ve been taught, but is actually inferior to the kingdoms of the Middle Ages?Get ready for a real history lesson you won’t soon forget. In Jeb Smith’s latest work Missing Monarchy, he uncovers eye-opening facts about the Medieval period, kingship, democracy, and more. When you learn how societies of our past...

Until Scandinavia converted to Christianity and came under the rule of powerful kings, the Vikings were a dominant force in the medieval world. Outfitted with wind-powered sailing ships, they left their mark, spreading terror across Europe, sacking cities, deposing kings, and ransacking economies. But as much as we know about this culture, there is a large missing piece: its women. In this revisionist portrait, science journalist Heather Pringle turns those assumptions on their head, using the latest archaeological research and historical findings to reveal this group as they actually were.

In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ages—with its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladies—was born in the 20th century. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: it had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention.