History / Medieval

Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages

by Leah DeVun

In the middle of the fourteenth century, the Franciscan friar John of Rupescissa sent a dramatic warning to his followers: the last days were coming; the apocalypse was near. Deemed insane by the Christian church,...

Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire

by William Rosen

The epic story of the collision between one of nature?s smallest organisms and history?s mightiest empire

During the golden age of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian reigned over a territory that stretched...

Warlords: The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain

by Stuart Laycock

The centuries after the end of Roman control of Britain in AD 410 are some of the most vital in Britain's history - yet some of the least understood. 'Warlords' brings to life a world of ambition, brutality...

Medieval Hunting

by Richard Almond

Hunting was a major economic and leisure activity throughout the European Middle Ages, and while aristocratic practices have featured in studies of romantic and narrative literature, hunting in its wider sense,...

Harald Hardrada: The Warrior's Way

by John Marsden

One of the greatest medieval warriors Harald Sigurdsson, nicknamed Hardrada (Harold the Ruthless or hard ruler) fell in battle in an attempt to snatch the crown of England. The spectacular and heroic career...

She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England

by Elizabeth Norton

She Wolves is a history of the 'bad girls' of England's medieval royal dynasties - the queens who earned themselves the reputation of being somehow notorious. Some of them are well known and have been the subject...

King John: England's Evil King

by Ralph V. V. Turner

King John long ago acquired the epithet 'Bad', and he is reputed to be the worst of England's kings. Before his death in 1216, his desperate exploitation of his subjects for ever more money had turned him into...

Anne Neville: Queen to Richard III

by Michael Hicks

Anne Neville was queen to England's most notorious king, Richard III. She was immortalised by Shakespeare for the remarkable nature of her marriage, a union which brought together a sorrowing widow with her...

Edward III

by W M M Ormrod

The fifty-year reign of one of England's most charismatic leaders is assessed in this lucid and incisive work. W.M. Ormrod traces Edward's life from his birth, when the very future of the monarchy in England...

The Tudor Housewife

by Alison Sim

The political and military history of the sixteenth century is well known, and much written about, but what of the thousands of women who have, for the most part, eluded the historian's pen? The Tudor Housewife...

SOE's Secret Weapons Centre: Station 12

by Des Turner

The full story of Aston House in the Second World War has never been told before. Its activities were top secret and as important to the Allied war effort as those of Bletchley Park, but in a different way....

The Deeds of the Franks and Other Jerusalem-Bound Pilgrims: The Earliest Chronicle of the First Crusade

by Nirmal Dass

This new translation offers a faithful yet accessible English-language rendering of the twelfth-century Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolomitanorum, the earliest known Latin account of the First Crusade. The...

Battle Story: Bosworth 1485

by Mike Ingram

Battle Story is the only series that will ensure you understand what happened and why at every key battle throughout history. These concise and accessible overviews are written by military history experts for...

Caliphs and Kings: Spain, 796-1031

by Roger Collins

Roger Collins, a leading historian, investigates a time in Spanish history known for its multi-religious society - when Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in apparent harmony - revealing a fuller, more complex...

Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua

by Donald Sanders

In Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua, Donald C. Sanders examines the history of musical composition and performance at the northern Italian court of Mantua from the fifteenth century to the seventeenth century....

Japanese Fortified Temples and Monasteries AD 710-1062

by Stephen Turnbull & Peter Dennis

From the 10th century onwards the great Japanese monastic foundations of Nara and Mount Hiei maintained large armies of warlike monks. The tempestuous political rivalries that developed between the different...

Fortifications of the Incas: 1200-1531

by H. W. Kaufmann & Adam Hook

The greatest period of Inca expansion occurred during the reigns of Pachacuti (1438–71), Tupa Inca (1471–93), and Huayna Capac (1493–1527). From the mountain stronghold of Cuzco, they subjugated the surrounding...

Medieval Russian Fortresses AD 862-1480

by Konstantin Nossov & Peter Dennis

Using archaeological evidence and first-hand sources, Konstantin Nossov charts the history of the medieval Russian fortress from its early beginnings until the 14th century.

According to Russian legend, in AD...

Indian Castles 1206-1526: The Rise and Fall of the Delhi Sultanate

by Konstantin Nossov & Brian Delf

From the beginning of the 11th century onwards, the constant sate of war amongst the various Indian kingdoms left them open to outside attack, and Muslim Turkic tribesmen began to pour over the north-west border...

Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603

by Stephen Turnbull & Wayne Reynolds

From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'),...