The capital is simmering with dissent. The conflict is ready to boil over.But Thomas soon has other troubles to contend with. A wealthy merchant, Sir Joseph Venell, is savagely killed; then his partner Sir Hugh Swofford plunges to his death, in the Tallant household.Suspicion falls on Thomas, who is sucked into a mire of treachery and rumour within the City of London. As the merchant struggles to clear his name, he becomes captivated by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, whose passion for astronomy and mathematics is matched only by her addiction to the gaming tables.Pursued by the authorities, Thomas races to unmask the real killer who claims a third victim to implicate him further, toying with his future in a deadly cat and mouse game.In a desperate race against time, Elizabeth applies her powers of logic and deduction to unearth the clues that will point to the killer, but her way is barred by a secret message from the grave.Can she crack its code before Thomas, now a wounded and exhausted fugitive, succumbs to the chase?And, if she succeeds, has Thomas the strength to face his tormentor and win his life and reputation back?Rags of Time is the first book in an engaging and entertaining new historical crime series, set during the upheaval of the 17th Century.

    These tiny creatures are everywhere, even inside us. But who will believe him? Not his wife, not his neighbors, not his fellow merchants-- only his friend Reinier De Graaf, a medical doctor. Then he meets an itinerant goose girl at the market who lives surrounded by tiny, invisible voices. Are these the animalcules also? Leeuwenhoek and the girl form a curious alliance, and gradually the lives of the little animals infiltrate everything around them: Leeuwenhoek's cloth business, the art of his friend Johannes Vermeer, the nascent sex trade, and people's religious certainties. But Leeuwenhoek also needs to cement his reputation as a natural philosopher, and for that he needs the Royal Society of London-- a daunting challenge, indeed, for a Dutch draper who can't communicate in Latin.Ursula K. Le Guin wrote of The Little Animals, ''A vigorous, satisfying historical novel full of interesting and likable characters. To people who do truly unusual things, such as discover microscopic life, or paint Vermeer's pictures, or hear what plague bacilli are saying, these things are just what they do. Sarah Tolmie's novel catches this intersection of the everyday with the unearthly and holds it for us like a drop of pond water under the lens, vibrant with life and activity, fascinating in its strangeness and its familiarity.''

     Groomed to be the perfect lady, Miss Theodora Kent grew up believing in the romantic ideals of old. Ideals, that she believes she has found in the face of a Duke’s son. Chased away from home, Naomhan Grant, son of the Laird of Grant, flees to England, where he hides in plain sight by assuming the mantle of deacon. A meeting with his friend’s fiancé challenges not only his beliefs but also his self-control. But you can only run for so long before fate finally catches up to you. For Theodora and Naomhan, two letters mark the end: Theodora is getting married in a week and Naomhan is being called back to the one place he must never return to. For his father is dead and someone just tried to kill his brother… *Under a Highlander's Spell is a steamy Scottish historical romance novel of 80,000 words (around 400 pages). No cheating, no cliffhangers, lots of steam and a happy ending. Get this book for free with Kindle Unlimited!

     Anthony Redbourn, Earl of Crofton, delights in his reputation as a charming rogue. Life is never quiet at the court of King James I, especially with his good friend and secret lover, Sebastian Hewel, by his side. As an actor with the celebrated King’s Men, Sebastian has his own admirers, but neither man has eyes for anyone else. When a plot against His Majesty is uncovered it threatens Anthony and Sebastian’s charmed lives, and they are dragged into the political intrigue and the race to save the king from danger. Fear that a traitor is linked to the King's Men leaves Sebastian and Anthony with no choice but to stage a very public dissolution of their friendship, so Anthony can be free to be the patron of a new rising actor, and Sebastian can be the prodigy of another noble. It is a dangerous game they are playing to expose the plotters and still find a way to meet in secret, as Anthony is adamant that they will not sacrifice the love they have fought so hard to win. They will do whatever it takes to protect the king’s life, and their commitment to each other.

     James I of England and VI of Scotland was the first king to rule both countries. He was faced with division between his realms and caught between the religious wars of the Reformation. Spending most of his reign at odds with the religious and parliamentary powers around him, James did little to unite his people. Unable to take a firm stand on critical issues, he spent his life avoiding them. Inside you will read about... ✓ James’ Bride and the Witch Hunt ✓ The Mystery of the Gowrie Plot ✓ Taking over Elizabethan England ✓ King James Bible ✓ The Gunpowder Plot ✓ The King’s Favorite Men And much more! Still, James was not a bad king. He is best remembered for the translation of the Bible into English, making it accessible to all. During the start of the bloody Thirty Years’ War that would engulf Europe, James did his best to keep England out of the turmoil. His descendants, however, brought about a bloody civil war that was to last for several generations. James I and VI continues to have a reputation as a lazy king who gave too much power to his male favorites.

    Oxford is hosting the English Parliament under the ‘merry monarch’, King Charles II. As politicians and their hangers-on converge on the divided city, an MP is found murdered, triggering tensions that threaten mayhem on the streets. Luke Sandys, Chief Officer of the Oxford Bailiffs, must solve the crime and thwart the plot. On his side is the respect for evidence and logic he absorbed in his student days, as a follower of the new science. On the other, a group of political conspirators are stirring up sectarian hatreds in their scheme to overthrow the Crown.Struggling to protect all he holds dear, Luke leans heavily on his cavalry officer brother, his friends, and his faithful deputy, Robshaw. But he has a secret, which may be clouding his judgement. At the moment of truth, will he choose love or duty?

    Today, Baptists have developed into one of the world's largest Protestant denominations. Despite this impressive transformation, those first English Baptists remain chronicallymisunderstood. In Orthodox Radicals, Matthew C. Bingham clarifies and analyzes the origins and identity of Baptists during the English Revolution, arguing that mid-seventeenth century Baptists did not, in fact, understand themselves to be a part of a larger, all-encompassing Baptist movement.Contrary to both the explicit statements of many historians and the tacit suggestion embedded in the very use of Baptist as an overarching historical category, the early modern men and women who rejected infant baptism would not have initially understood that single theological stance as being initself constitutive of a new collective identity. Rather, the rejection of infant baptism was but one of a number of doctrinal revisions then taking place among English puritans eager to further their on-going project of godly reformation.Orthodox Radicals complicates of our understanding of Baptist identity, setting the early English Baptists in the cultural, political, and theological context of the wider puritan milieu out of which they arose. The book also speaks to broader themes, including early modern debates on religioustoleration, the mechanisms by which early modern actors established and defended their tenuous religious identities, and the perennial problem of anachronism in historical writing. Bingham also challenges the often too-hasty manner in which scholars have drawn lines of theological demarcationbetween early modern religious bodies, and reconsiders one of this period's most dynamic and influential religious minorities from a fresh and perhaps controversial perspective.By combining a provocative reinterpretation of Baptist identity with close readings of key theological and political texts, Orthodox Radicals offers the most original and stimulating analysis of mid-seventeenth-century Baptists in decades.

    Yet there is another, largely overlooked marvel in the Dutch world of the seventeenth century: books. In this fascinating account, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen show how the Dutch produced many more books than pictures and bought and owned more books per capita than any other part of Europe. Key innovations in marketing, book auctions, and newspaper advertising brought stability to a market where elsewhere publishers faced bankruptcy, and created a population uniquely well-informed and politically engaged. This book tells for the first time the remarkable story of the Dutch conquest of the European book world and shows the true extent to which these pious, prosperous, quarrelsome, and generous people were shaped by what they read.

    Molto Grande spans three countries, tracking the danger-fraught journeys of two young Italian brothers in servitude, who are separated after plague destroys their family.Nicolo, determined by the church to have vocal potential, must undergo a perilous castration to join the music conservatoire. But even there, a powerful force is dedicated to his failure and to ensuring that he will not achieve success as one of Europe’s celebrity castrati.Luca, after being discovered near death by a nomadic Roma (Gypsy) band, is brought into the tribal life of a long-despised and often persecuted people. He will soon know the fear of an ethnicity that must literally run for its life.Despite their contrasting paths, each will draw needed strength from a special woman, unique in her own domain. For Nicolo, it is Princess Andora, daughter to the Spanish king, and for Luca, it is Donka, daughter to the Gypsy chieftain.The arcs of the brothers’ lives, notwithstanding the cultural chasm between them, will inexorably bring them back together, but in the most surprising and deadly ways. The Duke of Savoy, the kings of France and Spain, and the intellectuals of the day will all make their marks on the lives of these siblingsDick Franklin is also author of novels Serpent at the Well, LUCY: FOR ALL THE MARBLES, and Joshua Rye, and the blog series Writing from Behind the Curve.

    S. Quinn, S. G. MacLean and Alison Weir. How do you solve a murder when you are one of the suspects… 1664, London Life should be good for Major Thankful Russell and his new bride, Thomazine. Russell, middle-aged and battle-scarred, isn’t everyone’s idea of the perfect husband for an eligible young woman but the moment Thomazine set eyes on her childhood hero, she knew they were destined for one another. But Russell, a former Roundhead, now working for the King’s intelligence service, was never going to have a simple life in Restoration London. Unable to shake suspicions of his Parliamentarian past, someone seems hell-bent on ruining his reputation — and his life. Whispers about his sister’s violent murder follow him and accusations of treason abound. When more deaths occur Russell finds himself under suspicion. He is ready to escape from the capital, but Thomazine is determined to find the truth and clear the name of the man she loves. But who is the real killer and why are they so keen to frame Russell? More importantly, will they succeed? And has Thomazine’s quest put them all in mortal danger? An Abiding Fire is the first book in the Thomazine and Major Russell Thriller series, compelling historical mysteries with a dash of romance, set in seventeenth century England.

    Long before the inception of SIS and the CIA, in the period of the Renaissance, the Republic of Venice had masterminded a remarkable centrally-organised state intelligence organisation that played a pivotal role in the defence of the Venetian empire. Housed in the imposing Doge's Palace and under the direction of the Council of Ten, the notorious governmental committee that acted as Venice's spy chiefs, this 'proto-modern' organisation served prominent intelligence functions including operations (intelligence and covert action), analysis, cryptography and steganography, cryptanalysis, and even the development of lethal substances. Official informants and amateur spies were shipped across Europe, Anatolia, and Northern Africa, conducting Venice's stealthy intelligence operations. Revealing a plethora of secrets, their keepers, and their seekers, Venice's Secret Service explores the social and managerial processes that enabled their existence and that furnished the foundation for an extraordinary intelligence organisation created by one of the early modern world's most cosmopolitan states.

    Collectively, these people would become known to history as “the Pilgrims.”The story of the Pilgrims has taken on a life of its own as one of our founding national myths—their escape from religious persecution, the dangerous transatlantic journey, that brutal first winter. Throughout the narrative, we meet characters already familiar to us through Thanksgiving folklore—Captain Jones, Myles Standish, and Tisquantum (Squanto)—as well as new ones.There is Mary Chilton, the first woman to set foot on shore, and asylum seeker William Bradford. We meet fur trapper John Howland and little Mary More, who was brought as an indentured servant. Then there is Stephen Hopkins, who had already survived one shipwreck and was the only Mayflower passenger with any prior American experience. Decidedly un-puritanical, he kept a tavern and was frequently chastised for allowing drinking on Sundays.Epic and intimate, Mayflower Lives is a rich and rewarding book that promises to enthrall readers of early American history.

    They lived in a society that sought to systematically deprive them of liberty and other human rights. This history of Free Blacks in Virginia reveals the human ability to persevere against adverse odds arising from the color of their skin, or their gender, or both. It interweaves legal history with stories of what happened to those African Americans who were free before the Civil War and lived their lives in the shadows of a complicated world"--

    The tumultuous times of the English Civil War leap from the pages like blasts from the matchlocks and cannons over Marston Moor. Jemahl Evans does for the seventeenth century what George MacDonald Fraser did for the nineteenth. Blandford Candy is as endearing a rogue as you are likely to find in any work of literature. Captain Candy is a truly stunning character." Matthew Harffy.1646.Blandford Candy, rake and spy, travels to the colonies on family business. He becomes embroiled in a quest for a priceless emerald cross, once destined for the Pope in Rome but lost in the American wilderness.Our hero has to escape a mutinous pirate crew, warring settlers, and hostile native tribes, but Blandford soon realises that there are others searching for the jewel. A Jesuit agent, Father William Francis, and his renegade band hunt for Candy along the banks of the Susquehanna River.Blandford cannot escape from England’s civil war, as the colonies burn during The Plundering Time. The pioneering colonist, Margaret Brent, struggles to hold Maryland together in the conflict. Candy must choose a side, if he is to make it home before the relentless Father Francis can catch him.It is a new world but Blandford has the same old problems.Recommended reading for fans of George Macdonald Fraser, Michael Arnold and Michael Jecks.Jemahl Evans is the author of the acclaimed Sir Blandford Candy series of novels. He lives in West Wales. Praise for The Blandford Candy Series:“The research is impeccable and the writing full of verve.” Antonia Senior, The Times“Blandford Candy is as endearing a rogue as you are likely to find in any work of literature.” Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles“It's great fun and a rollicking good read.” Historical Novel Society“Frankly, glorious.” Michael Jecks

     In 1653, the Dutch East India Company’s Sparrowhawk is wrecked on a Korean island, and Hae-jo, a local fisherman, guides the ship’s bookkeeper to Seoul in search of his surviving shipmates. The two men, one who has never ventured to the mainland, and the other unable to speak the language, are soon forced to choose between loyalty to each other, and a king determined to maintain his country’s isolation. Three-hundred years later, in the midst of the Japanese occupation, Yoo-jin is taken from her family and forced into prostitution, and a young soldier must navigate the Japanese surrender and ensuing chaos of the Korean War to find her. '…brilliantly original, persuasive, revelatory and affecting.' — Gail Jones, author of The Death of Noah Glass

    By the eve of the American Revolution, enslaved people comprised only about 4 percent of the population, but slavery had become instrumental to the region's economy and had shaped its cultural traditions. This story of slavery in New England has been little told.In this concise yet comprehensive history, Jared Ross Hardesty focuses on the individual stories of enslaved people, bringing their experiences to life. He also explores larger issues such as the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England's deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of New England.

    Its twenty-one chapters provide diverse perspectives on Shakespeare and early modern literature that engage innovation, collaboration, and forward-looking practices. They model ways of mobilizing justice with early modern texts and claim the intellectual benefits of integrating social justice into courses. The book reconceives the relationship between students and Renaissance literature in ways that enable them - and us - to move from classroom discussions to real-life applications.

    He must find a way to stop Wentworth, who plans to seize clan properties and establish an English-only plantation. A woman at the castle, Denisa Dumalin, also spies on Wentworth, but for very personal reasons. Together they discover Wentworth’s true plan, more terrible than anyone imagines, involving political and religious domination in the service of King Charles I. Their common mission binds them and takes them to London and Hampton Court; to York and Scotland; and to the highest levels of court intrigue and power. But secrets, fears, war and betrayal threaten their love, and even their lives. And as Wentworth’s power grows, so grow the deadly plans of his most treacherous and driven enemies.The story is built around the true life of Wentworth, who became the first Earl of Strafford and chief advisor to King Charles I.

    They may have failed in their aim to restore the house of Stuart to the British throne, but in that failure the Jacobites changed the course of history.Intrigue, espionage, corruption and betrayal, as well as constancy to the cause in the face of terrible risks are all ingredients of this extraordinary tale. Few novels can boast such a colourful cast of characters - from the brilliant, mercurial Viscount Bolingbroke and the stiff, impossible Lord George Murray to the the half-mad Charles XII of Sweden and the suave and wily Cardinal Alberoni, not to mention one of the most well-known historical figures of all time - Bonnie Prince Charlie. Desmond Seward brings them all to life in this vivid, sweeping narrative, full of insight, anecdote and analysis.

    The "cessation" or truce which King Charles reached with the Irish Confederates in September 1643 enabled him to begin shipping over troops from Ireland to reinforce the Royalist armies.During the following year the "Irish", as they were frequently if inaccurately known by both sides were an important factor in the war. The Nantwich campaign (December 1643-January 1644), the consolidation of Royalist control in the Welsh Marches during the spring of 1644, the Marston Moor campaign, and the Battle of Montgomery (September 1644) all received major contributions from the troops from Ireland.Other troops from Ireland, mainly from the province of Munster, provided important reinforcements for the Western and Oxford Royalist armies during the 1644 campaigns in western and southern England. The "Irish" were still a significant part of the Royalist army during the Naseby campaign of 1645, and elements remained in action until the end of the war.The book will look at the Irish campaign and its influence on the experience and behaviour of the troops when they reached England. It will examine their equipment, logistical care, and experience following their return.It will look at the performance of some of the troops, such as the "firelocks" who changed sides and became valuable additions to the Parliamentarian forces. Also examined is the controversial topic of "native Irish" troops who were involved, and a number of prominent indiduals who also srved in the war.Full use is made of extensive contemporary primary sources and also later research.

    Sumptuary laws were a tool on the part of states to regulate not only manufacturing systems and moral economies via the medium of expenditure and consumption of clothing but also banquets, festivities and funerals. Leading scholars on Asian, Latin American, Ottoman and European history shed new light on how and why items of dress became key aspirational goods across society, how they were lobbied for and marketed, and whether or not sumptuary laws were implemented by cities, states and empires to restrict or channel trade and consumption. Their findings reveal the significance of sumptuary laws in medieval and early modern societies as a site of contestation between individuals and states and how dress as an expression of identity developed as a modern 'human right'.

    However, now many scholars have come to accept that the Ottoman Empire was one of the - not very numerous - long-lived 'world empires' that have emerged in history. This comparative social history compares the Ottoman to another of the great world empires, that of the Mughals in the Indian subcontinent, exploring source criticism, diversities in the linguistic and religious fields as political problems, and the fates of ordinary subjects including merchants, artisans, women and slaves.

    Witch-trials were clearly a gendered phenomenon, but witchcraft was not a uniquely female crime. While women constituted approximately three quarters of those tried forwitchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire, a significant minority were men. Witchcraft was also a crime of unbridled passion: it centred on the notion that one person's emotions could have tangible and deadly physical consequences. Yet it is also true that not all suspicions of witchcraft led to a formalaccusation, and not all witch-trials led to the stake. Indeed, just over half the total number put on trial for witchcraft in early modern Europe were executed. In order to understand how early modern people imagined the witch, we must first begin to understand how people understood themselves andeach other; this can help us to understand how the witch could be a member of the community, living alongside their accusers, yet inspire such visceral fear.Through an examination of case studies of witch-trials that took place in the early modern Lutheran duchy of Wurttemberg in southwestern Germany, Laura Kounine examines how the community, church, and the agents of the law sought to identify the witch, and the ways in which ordinary men and womenfought for their lives in an attempt to avoid the stake. The study further explores the visual and intellectual imagination of witchcraft in this period in order to piece together why witchcraft could be aligned with such strong female stereotypes on the one hand, but also be imagined as a crimethat could be committed by any human, whether young or old, male or female. By moving beyond stereotypes of the witch, Imagining the Witch argues that understandings of what constituted witchcraft and the 'witch' appear far more contested and unstable than has previously been suggested. It alsosuggests new ways of thinking about early modern selfhood which moves beyond teleological arguments about the development of the 'modern' self. Indeed, it is the trial process itself that created the conditions for a diverse range of people to reflect on, and give meaning, to emotions, gender, andthe self in early modern Lutheran Germany.

    This is the first collection of essays to examine how elite women in early modern Europe marshalled clothing and jewellery for political ends.