Free History BONUS Inside! The Black Death was the first recorded pandemic in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. All across the continent, people learned just how gruesome and horrific disease could be as the plague crossed the boundaries of countries and the lines established by society, killing everyone equally. It showed that no one—not even archbishops and kings—were immune from its grasp. The ferocity with which the plague swept across the continent, even reaching the shores of England, demonstrated how unprepared they were for something on such a large scale. It was the first time that a major disease would strike the continent after the fall of the Roman Empire, but it would not be the last. Over the next few centuries, the bubonic plague would return several times. Although it was incredibly deadly, it never again had the same catastrophic effect on the European population. People began to study it from a scientific perspective instead of the same superstitious angle or religious fatalism, making it possible to understand exactly what was causing the deaths. Today, those in the medical profession can easily treat the bubonic plague if they realize what it is early enough. With examples of the illness occurring in many nations during the last decade, including the US, the Black Death is not gone, but it is no longer the death sentence that it once was. In The Black Death: A Captivating Guide to the Deadliest Pandemic in Medieval Europe and Human History, you will discover topics such as The First Pandemics The Black Death The Unlikely Use of the Black Death Rumors and Arrival Perceptions Vs. The Reality The Ultimate Equalizer Stealing the Future – Princess Joan Decline of the Catholic Church and the Rise of Mysticism Art of the Black Death The First Quarantine and Successful Containment Beyond the Human Toll Lasting Effects on Europe’s Future And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about The Black Death, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

    In this epic family saga, set against the expansive and exhilarating backdrop of medieval Britain, we meet our hero Robin, the dispossessed son of the Earl of Waringham as he fights to reclaim his once prominent position in society. Expertly narrated by Miriam Margolyes OBE and featuring a full cast.

    Many have survived because of an author’s status—part of the reason we have so much of Chaucer’s writing, for example, is because he was a London-based government official first and a poet second. Other works by the less influential have narrowly avoided ruin, like the book of illiterate Margery Kempe, found in a country house closet, the cover nibbled on by mice. Scholar Mary Wellesley recounts the amazing origins of these remarkable manuscripts, surfacing the important roles played by women and ordinary people—the grinders, binders, and scribes—in their creation and survival.  The Gilded Page is the story of the written word in the manuscript age. Rich and surprising, The Gilded Page shows how the most exquisite objects ever made by human hands came from unexpected places.

    The troubadours sing of its mystical loveliness and tell tales of love and honour woven around the constant battles between Christendom and Islam. For Honfroy, a young squire in the service of the Knights Templar, the reality is less poetic and far grimmer. The Kingdom of Jerusalem tenaciously holds onto the ribbon of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, has united his warring factions. He is now determined to wipe the stain of the first crusade from the honour of Islam and regain the Holy City of Jerusalem. When Saladin’s army invades, Honfroy is catapulted into a world of treachery and deceit, where his life is in danger from both Moslem and Christian alike. From the blood-stained sands of the Holy Land to the intrigue of the court in Jerusalem, Honfroy grapples with his meteoric rise in fortune. His friendship with the new king, Baudoin, comes increasingly under threat from the political wiles of his mentor, Odo the Templar Grand Master, and the king’s mother, Agnes of Courtenay. Honfroy is enchanted by the beautiful but older Agnes. Not even the power of the Grand Master, however, can protect him when their secret liaison comes to the attention of the king. Banished from the court, Honfroy’s courage and skills are honed on the kingdom’s frontiers until the day when Odo summons his apprentice once more. Set against the turbulent background of the crusades, the Templar’s Apprentice is a gripping and enthralling tale of courage, friendship, love and treachery, reaching its blistering climax at the battle of Marj Ayyun.

    This dramatic, far-reaching tale brings to life a land of warring kings, Christians and pagans, and tribes divided by language and culture, illuminating a little-known yet critical period in British history.

    It is also one of history’s most mysterious and compelling works of art. This haunting stitched account of the battle that redrew the map of medieval Europe has inspired dreams of theft, waves of nationalism, visions of limitless power, and esthetic rapture. In his fascinating new book, Yale professor R. Howard Bloch reveals the history, the hidden meaning, the deep beauty, and the enduring allure of this astonishing piece of cloth.Bloch opens with a gripping account of the event that inspired the Tapestry: the swift, bloody Battle of Hastings, in which the Norman bastard William defeated the Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, and laid claim to England under his new title, William the Conqueror. But to truly understand the connection between battle and embroidery, one must retrace the web of international intrigue and scandal that climaxed at Hastings. Bloch demonstrates how, with astonishing intimacy and immediacy, the artisans who fashioned this work of textile art brought to life a moment that changed the course of British culture and history. Every age has cherished the Tapestry for different reasons and read new meaning into its enigmatic words and images. French nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century, fired by Tapestry’s evocation of military glory, unearthed the lost French epic “The Song of Roland,” which Norman troops sang as they marched to victory in 1066. As the Nazis tightened their grip on Europe, Hitler sent a team to France to study the Tapestry, decode its Nordic elements, and, at the end of the war, with Paris under siege, bring the precious cloth to Berlin. The richest horde of buried Anglo-Saxon treasure, the matchless beauty of Byzantine silk, Aesop’s strange fable “The Swallow and the Linseed,” the colony that Anglo-Saxon nobles founded in the Middle East following their defeat at Hastings–all are brilliantly woven into Bloch’s riveting narrative.Seamlessly integrating Norman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and Byzantine elements, the Bayeux Tapestry ranks with Chartres and the Tower of London as a crowning achievement of medieval Europe. And yet, more than a work of art, the Tapestry served as the suture that bound up the wounds of 1066. Enhanced by a stunning full-color insert that includes reproductions of the complete Tapestry, A Needle in the Right Hand of God will stand with The Professor and the Madman and How the Irish Saved Civilization as a triumph of popular history.From the Hardcover edition.

    An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This riveting book explains why the Norman Conquest was the single most important event in English history.Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror's attack. Why the Normans, in some respects less sophisticated, possessed the military cutting edge. How William's hopes of a united Anglo-Norman realm unravelled, dashed by English rebellions, Viking invasions and the insatiable demands of his fellow conquerors. This is a tale of powerful drama, repression and seismic social change: the Battle of Hastings itself and the violent 'Harrying of the North'; the sudden introduction of castles and the wholesale rebuilding of every major church; the total destruction of an ancient ruling class. Language, law, architecture, even attitudes towards life itself were altered forever by the coming of the Normans. Marc Morris, author of the bestselling biography of Edward I, A Great and Terrible King, approaches the Conquest with the same passion, verve and scrupulous concern for historical accuracy. This is the definitive account for our times of an extraordinary story, a pivotal moment in the shaping of the English nation.

    Richard III's story, told in first person from his point of view, using, where possible, Richard's actual words (in modern English.) From the battle of Barnet when Richard is only 18 through his marriage to Anne Neville, to unexpected kingship, betrayal by his 'friend' Buckingham...and the mystery of the vanished princes. Then it is on through the pain of the loss of his only legitimate son Edward, to the final deadly conflict on Bosworth Field against Henry Tudor. A different fictional look at England's most loved--and most hated--King.. Not a wooden saint, nor yet Shakespeare's hunchbacked fiend, a flesh and blood, fallible man: King's brother, royal duke, scoliosis sufferer, warrior, husband, father. Called 'a new Ricardian classic.' Approximately 250,000 words. Contains what is probably the most up to date fictional account of Richard's last moments at Bosworth, based on the archaeology and forensics.

    The book covers the young Khan's daring conquests up until his elevation as Ruler of the Steppes in 1206. There are also genealogical tables tracing the familial descent of Genghis Khan.

    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 Henry V was given a triumphal procession after his return from Agincourt and the Lord Mayor s river pageant was a medieval annual spectacular. William the Conqueror built the Tower, Thomas Becket was born in Cheapside, Wat Tyler led the peasants in revolt across London Bridge, Chaucer made a living and a name for himself, and a century later his Canterbury Tales was the first book produced on Caxton s new printing press in Westminster.But beneath the color and pageantry lay dirt, discomfort and disease, the daily grind for ordinary folk. Like us, they had family problems, work worries, health concerns and wondered about the weather.

    But by whom? And out of what?Max Adams scrutinizes the narrative handed down to us by later historians and chronicles, stripping away the most lurid nonsense about Arthur and synthesizing the research of the last forty years to tease out strands of reality from myth. His central theme evolves from an apparently simple question: how, after the end of the Roman state, were people taxed? Rejecting ethnic and nationalist explanations for the emergence of the Early Medieval kingdoms, Adams shows how careful use of a wide range of perspectives from anthropology to geography can deliver a picture of the emergence of distinct polities in the sixth century that survive long enough to be embedded in the medieval landscape, recorded in the lines of river, road and watershed and in place names.

    Across the English coastlands and countryside they raided, torched, murdered, and destroyed all in their path. Farmers, monks, and soldiers all fell bloody under the Viking sword, hammer, and axe.Then, when the hour was most desperate, came an unlikely hero. King Alfred rallied the battered and bedraggled kingdoms of Britain and after decades of plotting, praying, and persisting, finally triumphed over the invaders.Alfred's victory reverberates to this day: He sparked a literary renaissance, restructured Britain's roadways, revised the legal codes, and revived Christian learning and worship. It was Alfred's accomplishments that laid the groundwork for Britian's later glories and triumphs in literature, liturgy, and liberty."Ben Merkle tells the sort of mythic adventure story that stirs the imagination and races the heart―and all the more so knowing that it is altogether true!" ―George Grant, author of The Last Crusader and The Blood of the Moon

    Moving from the first cork tops to screw caps, renowned wine writer Oz Clarke presents such landmarks as the introduction of the cylindrical wine bottle in the 1780s; the first estate to bottle and label its own wine (formerly sold in casks to merchants only); the most expensive bottle sold at auction and the oldest unopened bottle; the change in classifications; and the creation of numerous famous vintages. Fully illustrated with photographs of bottles, labels, and other images, this is a beautiful tribute to the "bottled poetry" that is wine.

    Anglo-Saxon Britain. A gripping, powerful, action-packed historical thriller about vengeance and coming of age. The Bernicia Chronicles are perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell.Beobrand is compelled by his brother's almost-certain murder to embark on a quest for revenge in the war-ravaged kingdoms of Northumbria.The land is rife with danger, as warlords vie for supremacy and dominion. In the battles for control of the region, new oaths are made and broken, and loyalties are tested to the limits.With no patronage and no experience Beobrand must form his own allegiances and learn to fight with sword and shield.Relentless in pursuit of his enemies, he faces challenges which transform him from a boy to a man who stands strong in the clamour and gore of the shieldwall.As he closes in on his kin's slayer and the bodies pile up, can Beobrand mete out the vengeance he craves without sacrificing his honour … or even his soul?PRAISE FOR THE SERPENT SWORD "The Serpent Sword is a stunning debut: fast, confident, adrenaline-pumped, this story of a young warrior's coming of age in the maelstrom of the Dark Ages has the flavour of early Giles Kristian or James Aitcheson: it's raw, rugged and rich in colour and texture." MANDA SCOTT "...a gripping and credible tale of Dark Ages Britain...Historical fiction doesn't get much better than this." ANGUS DONALD "Vivid and compelling, The Serpent Sword is historical fiction at its brutal best." PAUL FRASER COLLARD "A storming debut novel fans of Bernard Cornwell should not miss!" STEVEN A. MCKAY "...a fast-paced tale of historical adventure beautifully written. The Serpent Sword is a story of revenge, passion, betrayal, honour, love and loss. Above all, it contains both a quest and a love story. Harffy’s characters are portrayed with depth and humanity. This novel is a thrilling read.” CAROL MCGRATH "With powerful language and gripping action, Harffy tells a tale of courage, revenge and love..." JUSTIN HILL

    Yet the archaeological and historical records are so scant that the true nature of Viking civilization remains shrouded in mystery.In this richly illustrated volume, twelve leading scholars draw on the latest research and archaeological evidence to provide the clearest picture yet of this fabled people. Painting a fascinating portrait of the influences that the "Northmen" had on foreign lands, the contributors trace Viking excursions to the British Islands, Russia, Greenland, and the northern tip of Newfoundland, which the Vikings called "Vinlund." We meet the great Viking kings: from King Godfred, King of the Danes, who led campaigns against Charlemagne in Saxony, to King Harald Bluetooth, the first of the Christian rulers, who helped unify Scandinavia and introduced a modern infrastructure of bridges and roads. The volume also looks at the day-to-day social life of the Vikings, describing their almost religious reverence for boats and boat-building, and their deep bond with the sea that is still visible in the etymology of such English words as "anchor," "boat," "rudder," and "fishing," all of which can be traced back to Old Norse roots. But perhaps most importantly, the book goes a long way towards answering the age-old question of who these intriguing people were.From sagas to shipbuilding, from funeral rites to the fur trade, this superb volume is an indispensable guide to the Viking world.