In this sweeping chronicle, historical figures and major campaigns such as Charlemagne, the Magyars, and the Crusades are presented not as icons but as a living part of their times, with all their achievements and human failures. Santosuosso asserts that war, for most of the Middle Ages, was carried out for God, personal gain, and honor. Both Christians and Muslims often explained their acts of violence in war as the will of God. Besides the religious motivation, soldiers, if upper class, believed that acts of bravery were a necessary aspect of gaining honor in society. Finally, war constituted a way to make material gains in a period of chronic underemployment and low prosperity. Particular emphasis is given to massive transitions from one period to the next in the medieval era. The author explains how these changes reflected an environment where charismatic leaders, the Church, and the aristocracy played leading roles as "managers" of the art and practice of war and normally as main actors on the battlefield.

    When the sheriff of Perth demands that Sir Law show that the death was not an inconvenient murder, Law thinks this looks like an easy job. But circumstances seem to conspire against him, and another murder follows. Soon the King's chancellor becomes involved, making the mystery even more dangerous. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls, his friend Cormac plunges into danger; and Law again encounters the thief who has already been a thorn in his side. When answers start to emerge, Sir Law gets more than he bargained for…

    Professor Lynch's admirable survey (concentrating on the western church, and emphasising ideas and trends over personalities) meets a long-felt need for a single-volume comprehensive history, designed for students and non-specialists.

    He charts the long struggle toward nationhood, explores the roots of the original Scots, and examines the extent to which Scotland was shaped by the Romans, the Picts, the Vikings, and the English. Encompassing everything from the first Mesolithic settlers in 7000 B.C. to the present movements for independence, Scotland: The Story of a Nation is history on an epic level, essential reading for anyone interested in the rich past of this captivating land.

     An immortal Highlander. A modern-day heroine. An ancient war. When Ree Hamilton is flung back in time to the medieval Scottish Highlands, she becomes a pawn in an ancient battle between the immortals of Clan Lewis and the mortals of Clan Gunn. Alone in a strange time and place, Ree doesn’t know which side to trust. Niall Lewis, immortal chief of Clan Lewis, can’t help but be intrigued by the bonnie lass brought before him. Not only is Ree strong and brave in the fight, but she has the intellect to create the Cipher’s Kiss elixir that will hand his people victory in the war against the Gunns. Can he win Ree’s love and convince her to side with the immortals? Or will she spurn Niall’s advances and help her fellow humans destroy the remaining immortals once and for all? Immortal Flame is the first book in the Cipher’s Kiss series. If you like burly Highlanders, strong heroines, mystery, magic, sword fighting, and romance, then you’ll love this exciting series. Pick up your copy today!

    Once she has told her story, she throws herself at his mercy.Blair soon realizes that Roselyn is as much a victim of her half-brother as anyone, but his people's demands for justice cannot be ignored entirely, so he strips the young Englishwoman bare and chastises her firmly with a switch applied to her naked backside.The painful, humiliating punishment both assuages Roselyn's guilt and leaves her yearning to be even more thoroughly mastered by the handsome laird. Though Blair makes it clear that she is free to return home, she instead chooses to remain with the him in his castle... and in his bed. Their passion soon blossoms into romance, but can the highlander protect his beautiful Sassenach when the villain who caused them both so much pain tries to tear her away from him?Publisher's Note: The Laird and the Sassenach includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don't buy this book.

    Find out whether people bathed, what they did when they got sick, and what actually happened to people accused of crimes. Learn about medieval table manners, tournaments, and toothpaste, and find out if people really did poop in the moat.

     History student Rachel Fisher has dreamed of the past all her life. When a mysterious box sends her back through time to twelfth century Scotland she thinks her dreams have come true, especially when she falls straight into the arms of a burly Highland Laird who vows to protect her from the evil that's chasing her. Grizzled warrior Cam MacGregor knows one thing. He must not fall for the beguiling lass from the future. Already whispers are spreading among the clan. He has taken her in because she's bewitched him. The omens are coming true. The Sassanach does not belong. She must be sacrificed. In a world that wants her dead, Rachel’s only hope lies with the brawny Highlander. As their mutual desire grows into an all-consuming need, Rachel is forced into an impossible choice. Save herself and run from the man she’s come to love or sacrifice her own life to save his clan from oblivion? The Key in the Loch is the spellbinding first book in the clean and sweet Clan MacGregor series. If you like rugged heroes, passionate heroines, and time travel romance with a happy ending, you’re sure to enjoy this brand-new series. Enjoy a vacation in the Medieval Highlands by picking up a copy today.

    Life among the warring factions in Scotland was dangerous for the infant Queen, however, and at age five Mary was sent to France to be raised alongside her betrothed, the Dauphin Francois. Surrounded by all the sensual comforts of the French court, Mary's youth was peaceful, charmed, and when she became Queen of France at the age of sixteen, she seemed to have all she could wish for. But by her eighteenth birthday, Mary was a widow who had lost one throne and had been named by the Pope for another. And her extraordinary adventure had only begun. Defying her powerful cousin Elizabeth I, Mary set sail in 1561 to take her place as the Catholic Queen of a newly Protestant Scotland. A virtual stranger in her volatile native land, Mary would be hailed as a saint, denounced as a whore, and ultimately accused of murdering her second husband, Lord Darnley, in order to marry her lover, the Earl of Bothwell. She was but twenty-five years old when she fled Scotland for the imagined sanctuary of Elizabeth's England, where she would be embroiled in intrigue until she was beheaded "like a criminal" in 1587. In her stunning first novel, The Autobiography of Henry VIII, Margaret George established herself as one of the finest historical novelists of our time. Now she brings us a new, mesmerizing blend of history and storytelling as she turns the astonishing facts of the life of Mary Queen of Scots into magnificent fiction that sweeps us from the glittering French court where Mary spent her youth, to the bloodstained Scotland where she reigned as Queen, to the cold English castles where she ended her days. Never before have we been offered such arich and moving portrayal of the Scots Queen, whose beauty inspired poetry, whose spirit brought forth both devotion and hatred, and whose birthright generated glorious dreams, hideous treachery, and murdered men at her feet.

    Previously published by Poseidon.In an age alive with portents and magic, a spirited young beauty rode out of the rugged Celtic lands to wed the great warrior king, Arthur. Now, at last, Guinevere herself unfolds the legend.Born a princess, raised to be a queen, Guinevere traveled the length of England protected by the wise enchanter Merlin. As Britain struggled out of a long darkness, scattered armies raised the cry for war and old gods challenged the new in combats mortal and immortal. And Guinevere encountered her destiny in the fabled dreams of her king. She would reign as High Queen of all Britain, but her most perilous adventure was yet to come...the journey from royal innocent to passionate lover.

    His reign was one of the most dramatic and important of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale, and leaving a legacy of division between the peoples of Britain that has lasted from his day to our own.Edward I is familiar to millions as ‘Longshanks’, conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (‘Braveheart’). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king’s astonishingly action-packed life. Earlier Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled across Europe to the Holy Land on crusade; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers, and constructing – at Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris and Caernarfon – the most magnificent chain of castles ever created. He raised the greatest armies of the English Middle Ages, and summoned the largest parliaments; notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom. The longest-lived of all England’s medieval kings, he fathered no fewer than fifteen children with his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, and after her death he erected the Eleanor Crosses – the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England’s destiny – a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward’s opponents (including Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Robert Bruce) to resist him, and the very different societies that then existed in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The result is a sweeping story, immaculately researched yet compellingly told, and a vivid picture of medieval Britain at the moment when its future was decided.

    The son of middle-class Norman parents, Becket rose against all odds to become the second most powerful man in England. As King Henry II’s chancellor, Becket charmed potentates and popes, tamed overmighty barons, and even personally led knights into battle. After his royal patron elevated him to archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, however, Becket clashed with the King. Forced to choose between fealty to the crown and the values of his faith, he repeatedly challenged Henry’s authority to bring the church to heel. Drawing on the full panoply of medieval sources, Guy sheds new light on the relationship between the two men, separates truth from centuries of mythmaking, and casts doubt on the long-held assumption that the headstrong rivals were once close friends. He also provides the fullest accounting yet for Becket’s seemingly radical transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout man of God.   Here is a Becket seldom glimpsed in any previous biography, a man of many facets and faces: the skilled warrior as comfortable unhorsing an opponent in single combat as he was negotiating terms of surrender; the canny diplomat “with the appetite of a wolf” who unexpectedly became the spiritual paragon of the English church; and the ascetic rebel who waged a high-stakes contest of wills with one of the most volcanic monarchs of the Middle Ages. Driven into exile, derided by his enemies as an ungrateful upstart, Becket returned to Canterbury in the unlikeliest guise of all: as an avenging angel of God, wielding his power of excommunication like a sword. It is this last apparition, the one for which history remembers him best, that will lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the king’s minions—a grisly episode that Guy recounts in chilling and dramatic detail.   An uncommonly intimate portrait of one of the medieval world’s most magnetic figures, Thomas Becket breathes new life into its subject—cementing for all time his place as an enduring icon of resistance to the abuse of power.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYKansas City Star • Bloomberg

    * Tom Holland, author of RUBICON and PERSIAN FIRE, gives a thrilling panoramic account of the birth of the new Western Europe in the year 1000

    The last thing she expects is for her wish to be granted. Magically transported to the middle of a clan skirmish in the sixteenth-century Highlands, she comes face to face with her kilted fantasy man.Tall, handsome, and heir to his uncle’s lairdship, Darcy Keith should be the most eligible bachelor in Ackergill. Instead, thanks to a prank played on him in his teenage years, he is known for being too large under his kilt to ever make a proper husband. “Big Darcy” runs his deceased father’s windmills and lives alone at his family manor, believing he will never marry.But a strangely dressed woman he rescues from a clan skirmish makes him long for more. When the woman’s claims of coming to Ackergill by magic reach the laird’s ears, she is accused of witchcraft. Darcy determines to protect her any way he can, even if it means binding her to him forever.ISBN: 978-1-941239-00-1 (alternate cover edition)

    But when sinister intentions surface and his new wife is captured Broderick is forced to see past the deceptions and begin another campaign of vengeance. But can the memories of the past be put aside for the sake of love? Book 2 - The Highlander’s Challenge How can jealousy and betrayal really spoil the life of a rich young noblewoman? Alina Du Mas seems to have everything she could desire in the wild and untamed Scottish Highlands—she is loved by most, breathtakingly beautiful, and high-born. However, the man she loves, though he is the son of a thane and has already saved her life, is not good enough to suit her cruel uncle. It’s up to Alina, her brother and sister-in-law, and wise old Aunt Aili to save the day…guided by her visions of a dark future that she must avoid at all costs. Should Alina trust the wisdom of her uncle when it seems he’s determined to kill the man she loves—or trust her visions instead? Can the beautiful seer trust her glimpses into such a dark future when love is clouding her judgment? Book 3 - The Highland Hero Should a brave and bold Highland warrior take a beautiful lass as his bride when he discovers her terrible secret? Blaine McNeil has loved Chrissie Connolly for much longer than he’d care to admit, but only allows his feelings to show when he makes a daring rescue of the captive maiden. The lass has been hurt, though he doesn’t know the extent of her injuries until after they are wed…and he discovers that she’s with the child. What should be done now—should the babe be destroyed or allowed a chance to live? What if it belongs to his enemy instead of the fruit of their newfound love? Does Blaine have what it takes to love and support his injured wife through her darkest hours—or has he discovered the limit of his endurance at last? Have his years on the battlefield prepared him for the toughest battle he will ever face? Inspirational romances that will warm your heart! If you love highlands romances, Scottish romances with a strong woman heroine, and a decisive male character, then this collection is for you! These are stand-alone romances. Each book in the series is approximately 65,000 words (around 300 pages). No cliffhangers, pure content and an awesome happily ever after, guaranteed to ignite your imagination in one sitting. Get this book for free with Kindle Unlimited!