She chose Royce, a baron warrior whose fierce demeanor could not conceal his chivalrous and tender heart. A resourceful, rebellious and utterly naive, Nicholaa vowed to bend Royce to her will despite the whirlwind of feelings he aroused in her. Ferocious in battle, seasoned in passion, Royce was surprised by the depth of his emotion whenever he caressed his charming bride.In a climate of utmost treachery, where Saxons still intrigued against their Norman invaders, Royce and Nicholaa revelled in their precious new love ... a fervent bond soon to be disrupted by the call of blood, kin and country!

    Stealing the delicate beauty on her wedding day, he vows to keep her safe—and untouched—for she is a hostage to be bartered for the freedom of his beloved Scotland. But soon he discovers that his lovely captive has unexpected strength, fire—and plans of her own. From a besieged French castle to the untamed Scottish Highlands, Darach and Laurien are swept up in wild adventure, dangerous secrets…and forbidden love that puts their honor and their lives at risk.An RWA Golden Heart Award Finalist: Best Historical Romance of the Year“A compelling, memorable romance. HIS STOLEN BRIDE joins the ranks of the finest medieval captive/captor stories along with those by Elizabeth Stuart and Johanna Lindsey. 4 1/2 stars (highest rating)." -RT Book ReviewsAn earlier edition of this novel was originally published by Avon Books under the title Falcon on the Wind. This extensively revised Author's Preferred Edition includes new scenes never before published.The Stolen Brides SeriesThese regal brides are about to discover that falling in love with a warrior is the most dangerous adventure of all. Each book is a stand-alone, steamy historical romance:Book 1: HIS STOLEN BRIDE (Darach and Laurien)Book 2: FOREVER HIS (Gaston and Celine)Book 3: HIS FORBIDDEN TOUCH (Royce and Princess Ciara)Book 4: HIS CAPTIVE BRIDE (Hauk and Avril)Book 5: HIS SCOTTISH BRIDE (Henri and Aileen)

    Such clothing and textile finds have figured prominently in excavations of medieval sites in London in the past two decades; they have included knitting, tapestries, silk hair-nets and elaborately patterned oriental, Islamic and Italian fabrics, which reveal for the first time the wide range of cloths available to medieval Londoners; there are beautifully made buttons, and buttonholes and edgings which display superb craftsmanship and a high level of needlework skills; the way that clothes were cut and sewn can be studied in detail. This highly readable account will be of wide general interest; dress historians and archaeologists will also find a wealth of new insights into the fashions, clothing and textile industries of medieval England and Europe. Contents include: The Excavations, Techniques used in Textile Production, Wool Textiles, Goathair Textiles, Linen Textiles, Silk Textiles, Mixed Cloths, Narrow Wares, Sewing Techniques and Tailoring, Dyes. THE AUTHORS Past and present staff of the Museum of London.

    And the magnificent Warrick deChaville is the perfect choice to sire her child--though it means imprisoning the handsome knight...and forcing him to bend to her amorous whims.SLAVE OF PASSIONVowing to resist but betrayed by his own virility, noble Warrick is intoxicated by Rowena's sapphire eyes and voluptuous beauty. Yet all the while he plans a fitting revenge--eagerly awaiting the time when his sensuous captor becomes his helpless captive ... and is made to suffer the same rapturous torment and exquisite ecstasy that he himself has endured.

    As Scottish invaders plunder her convent sanctuary, she defiantly resists the blond warrior who claims her as his prize. But his brute strength is overpowering and Jennet is forced to ride with him through the lawless lands, tending to the wounded, protected and desired by a man she wants to hate ... but cannot ...Sir Hacon Gillard is moved by Jenner's compassion and mercy. As a loyal knight, he's pledged fealty to his king's command, even as he loses his heart to this remarkable woman. Merciless in combat ... yet there burns within him a spark for something far beyond the heat of battle ...

    A further title from the MEDIEVAL CRAFTSMEN series.

    This elegantly bound, richly illustrated encyclopedic guide presents information about the history, land, and characters of Cadfael's world.

    She devotes herself to managing the great family estate in Wales, vowing to protect it and her younger brother until he comes of age to inherit. Then Madoc of Powys enters her life, and all her beliefs are turned upside down. For Wynne and Madoc have been lovers in another time, another place. And an unfinished destiny lies between them . . .

    It will appeal widely to medievalists, to Welsh and Celtic scholars and to those non-specialists who have felt the fascination of the figure of Arthur and wish to know more. Little, if anything, is known historically of Arthur, yet for centuries the romances of Arthur and his court dominated the imaginative literature of Europe in many languages. The roots of this vast flowering of the Arthurian legend are to be found in early Welsh tradition and this volume gives an account of the Arthurian literature produced in Wales, in both Welsh and Latin, during the Middle Ages. The distinguished contributors offer a comprehensive view of recent scholarship relating to Arthurian literature in early Welsh and other Brythonic sources. The volume includes chapters on the "historical" Arthur, Arthur in early Welsh verse, the legend of Merlin, the tales of Culhwch ac Olwen, Geraint, Owain, Peredur, The Dream of Rhonabwy and Trystan ac Esyllt. Other chapters investigate the evidence for the growth of the Arthurian theme in the Triads and in the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and discuss the Breton connection and the gradual transmission of the legend to the non-Celtic world.

    Malcolm Miller's illuminating text is supported by Sonia Halliday and Laura Lushington's stunning photographs. Look out for more Pitkin Guides on the very best of British and French history, heritage and travel. Contents:Plan of the windows of Chartres Cathedral --The History of the Chartres Cathedral: Chartres from Roman Times Until 1194 --1194-1260: The Gothic Cathedral --The Donors' Windows --Chartres Cathedral Since 1260 --Architechture --The 12th Century: Sculpture --The Royal Portal --Glass --The Jesse Window --The Incarnation Window --The Passion and Resurrection Window --The Blue Virgin Window --The 13th Century: Sculpture --The North Proch --Glass --The North Rose Window --The Symbolic Window of the Redemption --The Joseph Window --The Noah Window --The john the Divine Window --The Mary Magdalene Window --The Good Samaritan and Adam and Eve Window --The Assumption Window --The Life of Mary Window --The Zodiac Signs Window --The Charlemagne Window --The Parable of the Prodigal Son Window --The Upper Storey Windows --Sculpture --The South Porch --Glass --The West Rose Window --The South Rose Window --The Heavenly Jerusalem --

    This book recounts the stirring saga of the Knights Templar, the Christian warrior-monks who occupied the sacred Mount in the aftermath of the butchery of the First Crusade. Recruited to a life intended to lead only to martyrdom, they were totally dedicated to the pious paradox that the wholesale slaughter of non-believers would earn the eternal gratitude of the Prince of Peace. The Templars amassed great wealth, which they used to finance their 200 years of war against Moslems on the desert battlefields. The Templar's reward for those two centuries of military martyrdom was to be arrested by Pope and King, tortured and finally decreed out of existence. But their legend and legacy just would not die.

    His influence was enormous. Yet modern readers associate this remarkable scholar-monk only with his History of the English Church and Nation and ignore the works he saw as his chief accomplishment.

    

    Among the 200 or so biographies in this volume are those of the intriguingly named Edmund Crouchback, younger son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence; the notorious Piers Gaveston, Edward II's favorite, about whose death "the country rejoiced and all its inhabitants were glad"; the father of English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer; and Walter Stapledon, the learned Bishop of Exeter who was murdered by the mob in London in 1326.

    Pope Joan was not betrayed by a lover or discovered by an enemy; her downfall came when she went into labor during a papal procession through the streets of Rome. From the myth of Joan to the experiences of saints, nuns, and ordinary women, The Oldest Vocation brings to life both the richness and the troubling contradictions of Christian motherhood in medieval Europe.After tracing the roots of medieval ideologies of motherhood in early Christianity, Clarissa W. Atkinson reconstructs the physiological assumptions underlying medieval notions about women's bodies and reproduction; inherited from Greek science and popularized through the practice of midwifery, these assumptions helped shape common beliefs about what mothers were. She then describes the development of "spiritual motherhood" both as a concept emerging out of monastic ideologies in the early Middle Ages and as a reality in the lives of certain remarkable women. Atkinson explores the theological dimensions of medieval motherhood by discussing the cult of the Virgin Mary in twelfth-century art, story, and religious expression. She also offers a fascinating new perspective on the women saints of the later Middle Ages, many of whom were mothers; their lives and cults forged new relationships between maternity and holiness. The Oldest Vocation concludes where most histories of motherhood begin-in early modern Europe, when the family was institutionalized as a center of religious and social organization.

    The evidence in this edition supports Haywood's earlier arguments, and advances the view that Viking ships and sea borne activities were not as revolutionary as is commonly believed.

    Anselm, Sir Richard Southern provides the definitive study of one of the most complex and fascinating philosophical minds in Christian history. St. Anselm brings together all the elements of a man whose intensely concentrated search for God filled all the phases and aspects of his life and work. Nothing in Anselm's thinking was simply ordinary or typical of his age.

    Although much of this art has been lost, enough survives to illuminate this fascinating account of the methods and motivation of the medieval painter.Within the Church, the painters worked to illustrate doctrine as well as to beautify God's house, but as the medieval economy prospered they translated their skills to the adornment of domestic architecture too. Combining documentary evidence with a study of surviving paintings, the author is able to reconstruct in detail the processes involved in creating the works of art. He also examines who the painters were, how they chose their images, and the social and economic background to their creativity.

    

    marvels at the inestimable beauty of the glass and the infinitely rich and various workmanship." (Theophilus, early twelfth century) But what do we really know of the men and women who made stained glass windows, and the methods they used?Stained glassed was an invaluable medium for communicating religion to a largely illiterate populace and the glass-painter was its creator. This book describes the fascinating origins of the cragt and the techniques emplyed - including the design, colouring, and use of pattern books. The authors explain the circumstances of commission, who the patrons were, and how the glass-painter both designed and executed the window. They then discuss evidence of the education, position in society, and working practices of glass-painters. Finally, the recount the decline of this resplendent craft and the sad destruction of the windows as the Reformation and changes in fashion both took their toll.Beautifully illustrated with examples from cathedrals, churches, and castles throughout Europe, this book will enrich the understanding of all lovers of medieval art and architecture.

    Renowned scholar of medieval literature, Lee Patterson,  presents a compelling vision of the shape and direction of Geoffrey Chaucer’s entire career in Chaucer and the Subject of History.    Chaucer's interest in individuality was strikingly modern.  At the same time he was profoundly aware of the pressures on individuality exerted by the past and by society—by history.  This tension between the subject and history is Patterson's topic.  He begins by showing how Chaucer’s understanding of history as a subject for poetry—a world to be represented and a cultural force affecting human action—began to take shape in his poems on classical themes, especially in Troilus and Criseyde.  Patterson's extended analysis of this profound yet deeply conflicted exploration of the relationship between "history" and "the subject" provides the basis for understanding Chaucer's shift to his contemporary world in the Canterbury Tales.  There, in the shrewdest and most wide-ranging analysis of late medieval society we possess, Chaucer investigated not just the idea of history but the historical world intimately related to his own political and literary career.    Patterson's chapters on individual tales clarify and confirm his provocative arguments.   He shows, for example, how the Knight's Tale represents the contemporary crisis of governance in terms of a crisis in chivalric identity itself; how the Miller’s Tale reflects the social pressures and rhetoric of peasant movements generally and the Rising of 1381 in particular; and how the tales of the Merchant and Shipman register the paradoxical placement of a bourgeois class lacking class identity.  And Patterson's brilliant readings of the Wife of Bath’s Tale—"the triumph of the subject"—and the Pardoner’s Tale —"the subject of confession"—reveal how Chaucer reworked traditional materials to accomplish stunning innovations that make visible unmistakably social meanings.  Chaucer and the Subject of History is a landmark book, one that will shape the way that Chaucer is read for years to come.

    Art historians also have considered illuminated manuscripts as important repositories for works of art. But in recent decades new interest has developed in the over-all physical format of the medieval book and its historical context - how manuscript books were made and how they have deepened our understanding of the intellectual and social milieu of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.One of the richest storehouses of early manuscripts is Yale University's Beinecke Library. Its collection provides the basis for Barbara Shailor's fully illustrated study of the medieval book and its place in society.Shailor first examines the manuscript books as an archaeological artifact of a period when mass-production was unknown and every volume had to be written and assembled by hand. She then groups books by genre - both religious and secular - to show how the contents of a volume and its function within society influenced its physical appearance and the way in which it was produced. A brief look at the transition from manuscript to printed book concludes the survey.Originally published by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1988, this work has quickly become an indispensable guide for scholars in a wide range of medieval studies.

    That makes "Dark Sovereign" the only text in almost four centuries to be crafted to the nearest idiom and syllable in the language of the "Golden Age", the apex of the High Renaissance in English literature.

    His influence was enormous. Yet modern readers associate this remarkable scholar-monk only with his History of the English Church and Nation and ignore the works he saw as his chief accomplishment.

    Drawing on unprecedented research, Constance Brittain Bouchard demonstrates that the Cistercian monks of Burgundy were exemplary in both spheres. Bouchard explores the web of economic ties that linked the Cistercian monasteries with their secular neighbors, especially the knights, and reaches some surprising conclusions about Cistercian attitudes.

    Folk Narratives contains tales told for edification or delight, but not thought to be factually true. Folk Legends presents tales the tellers believed to be records of actual events.

    Reproduces an album with the poems and imaginary portraits of the great writers that flourished in the imperial court of Japan from the ninth to thirteenth centuries.

    Jack Straw is rare and admirable in its uncompromising, unpatronizing identification with a peasant—an intelligent, vulnerable man caught up in the dream of equality that flared into the Peasant Revolt. The novel lets the reader stand at that crossroads of politics and mysticism and see 1776, 1848, 1917, Tiananment Square—the same dream, the same betrayal. A very moving, honest book."Kirkus Reviews: "A fast-paced, intriguing account of the failed Peasant Revolt in 14th Century England: First-novelist Zelitch provides a rendering that is evocative and plausible as well as convincing in its historical sweep...Zelitch offers a satisfying variety of incident, with enough texture and historical detail—costume, festivity, songs—to evoke the medieval milieu. The Middle Ages are rendered not on silver plattersor thrones but on the dusty roads and straw beds of peasants, who are given center stage here, not limited to comic relief."The Confession of Jack Straw won the Hopwood Award for Major Fiction.

    He writes this hoping we, on the eve of the third millennium, will take time also to look at who we are and at our world. . . . This engaging book lucidly carries the reader through an amazing amount of material. Medieval scholars will find it resourceful and challenging; the nonscholar will find it fascinating and enlightening."—A. L. Kolp, Choice"Living in the Tenth Century resembles an anthropological field study more than a conventional historical monograph, and represents a far more ambitious attempt to see behind the surface of avowals and events than others have seriously attempted even for much more voluminously documented periods. . . . It is remarkably rich and readable."—R.I. Moore, Times Higher Education Supplement"Fichtenau offers a magnificent survey of all the main spheres of life: the social order, the rural economy, schooling and religious belief and practice in both the secular and monastic church. His command, especially of the narrative sources, their fine nuances of attitude emotion and underlying norms, is masterly and he employs them here with all the sensitiveness and feel for the subject that have always been the hallmarks of his work."—Karl Leyser, Francia

    Miracle cures and charms as well as drugs and surgery fall within the scope of the authors represented here, as does advice about diet and regimen. As well, the volume looks at wellness and illness in broad contexts, avoiding the tendency of modern medicine to focus on the isolation and definition of pathological states.

    Weiss examines how a seminal Jewish thinker negotiates the philosophical conflict between Athens and Jerusalem in the crucial area of ethics. Maimonides, a master of both the classical and the biblical-rabbinic traditions, reconciled their differing views of morality primarily in the context of Jewish jurisprudence. Taking into consideration the entire corpus of Maimonides' writings, Weiss focuses on the ethical sections of the Commentary on the Mishnah and the Mishneh Torah, but also discusses the Guide of the Perplexed, the letters of Maimonides, and his medical works. The gulf between classical philosophy and the Torah made the task of Maimonides extraordinarily difficult. Weiss shows that Maimonides subtly preserves the tension between those traditions while producing a practical accommodation between them. To explain how Maimonides was able to accomplish this twofold goal, Weiss takes seriously the multilevel character of Maimonides' works. Weiss interprets Maimonides as a heterodox thinker who, with utter integrity, faces the Law's encounter with philosophy and gives both the Torah and philosophy their due.

    Composed mainly of medicinal recipes, it offered advice on diagnosis, medicinal preparation, and prognosis. In the fifteenth-century it was translated into Middle English to accommodate a widening audience for learning and medical “secrets.”    Faye Marie Getz provides a critical edition of the Middle English text, with an extensive introduction to the learned, practical, and social components of medieval medicine and a summary of the text in modern English. Getz also draws on both the Latin and Middle English texts to create an extensive glossary of little-known Middle English pharmaceutical and medical vocabulary.

    -- Brings together the best criticism on the most widely read poets, novelists, and playwrights-- Presents complex critical portraits of the most influential writers in the English-speaking world -- from the English medievalists to contemporary writers

    These Middle English poems attack ecclesiastical corruption; most of the poems were written by disgruntled Lollards about clerics and friars in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Piers the Plowman's Crede deals with a poor man trying to learn the Apostle's Creed from friars, who cannot teach him and only want his money; eventually the man can only learn the creed from Piers the Plowman. The Plowman's Tale casts an anticlerical tale in the mold of one of the Canterbury Tales. Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, and Upland's Rejoinder comprise a debate over the hypocrisy of friars. Meanwhile, Why I Can't Be a Nun decries the sins of nuns in convents. These texts are well glossed and include introductions and copious notes, making them approachable for students of Middle English of any level of experience.