Book picks similar to
Spes Scotorum, Hope of Scots: Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland by Dauvit Broun
church-history
hagiography
medieval-history
as-history
The Healer's Gift
Willa Blair
But her victim did more than heal Coira's fatal wound that awful night. Now drowning in the unwelcome emotions of others, Coira wonders if her new empathic ability was meant as a gift or a curse. Logen MacDugall must discover who killed three previous lairds if he hopes to survive for long in the position. He believes Coira’s new sense can help him root out the conspirators, but after her disastrous time in the Highlands, the last thing she wants is to get involved with another laird. Logen must help Coira gain control of her talent in time to save him and their clan from those intent on destroying MacDugall. Can Coira believe this laird truly loves her? Or will her memories lead her to madness again?
Lady of the Glen
Jennifer Roberson - 1996
a time when countrymen battled for their freedom and usurpers sought crowns. At the novel's center is a love story of breathtaking scope: a man and a woman - enemies from birth - know from the moment they meet that they will lie in each other's arms someday. But their love, for centuries forbidden, comes at the most dangerous of times. Lady of the Glen tells of Catriona Campbell's enduring love for Alasdair Og MacDonald, the second-born son of her clan's most powerful enemy, the Laird of Glencoe. It is MacDonald who alone shows the young Catriona kindness in a harsh and violent world. As the years pass, the heart proves stronger than the sword, and they boldly pledge their love ... to handfast forever. While the Dutch King William conspires against the Scottish rebels who seek to return the exiled James Stuart to the throne, Catriona and Alasdair share a passion that joins them forever - although the lovers become pawns of war ... and of history.
Robert the Bruce: King of Scots
Ronald McNair Scott - 1982
After years of struggle, Scotland had been reduced to a vassal state by Edward I of England and its people lived in poverty. On the day he seized the crown Bruce renewed the fight for Scotland's freedom, and let forth a battle cry that would echo through the centuries.Using contemporary accounts, Ronald McNair Scott tells the story of Scotland's legendary leader, and one of Europe's most remarkable medieval kings. It is a story with episodes as romantic as those of King Arthur, but also one which belongs in the annals of Scottish History, and has shaped a nation.
Constantine and the Conversion of Europe
A.H.M. Jones - 1948
As emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. The government was restructured and civil and military authority separated. A new gold coin, the solidus, was introduced to combat inflation. It would become the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years.
The Forest Laird: A Tale of William Wallace
Jack Whyte - 2010
So begins The Forest Laird, the first book in Jack Whyte’s masterful new trilogy.Wallace's story leads us through his many lives—as an outlaw and a fugitive, a hero and a patriot, a rebel and a kingmaker. He is the first heroic figure from the Scottish Wars of Independence brought blazingly to life in Jack Whyte's new trilogy, the Guardians, and will be followed by his two compatriots Robert the Bruce, King of Scots; and Sir James Douglas, known as The Black Douglas. Their exploits and escapades, desperate struggles and medieval savagery, high ideals and fierce patriotism are the stuff of legends, and the soul and substance of these epic novels.
Celtic Tempest
Ria Cantrell - 2013
In Fourteenth Century England, landless knights are forced to obey the ruthless monarch without question. Sir Andrew Brandham, knight of the Realm and captain of the Elite Guard of Ragnorsen Keep is called to do just that. When his best friend, Sir Erik Ragnorsen is commanded to nullify his marriage to the beautiful Rhianna Du Montefort because they have yet to produce an heir, Sir Andrew accompanies him to do battle with the will of the king. Erik is being forced to marry the daughter of a Scottish Laird in order to form a tenuous Peace between the Highlanders and England. The idea of divorcing his beloved wife to marry a loathsome Scot is beyond Erik’s vow of obedience and honor. He is imprisoned for his impulsive disobedience and Drew is left to form a scheme to save his friend. When he sees the Scottish lass who has been chosen for Sir Erik, he is instantly drawn to her and while his plan unfolds to aid Erik, Drew forms a friendship with Bronwyn, daughter of the Laird and High Chief of the Clan MacCollum.
Bronwyn MacCollum was raised in the Highlands, where the past is steeped in traditions of the “Old Ways”. A long time ago, Bronwyn had a vision of her intended, but realizing he was an Englishman, she vowed to change her destiny. The English were always the enemies of her people and she would not bring danger to her beloved clan. Only, she becomes a pawn in the sadistic game of the King of England and Robert the Bruce and is being forced to marry an English knight after all. Upon seeing the man she is betrothed to, she knew her vision had been false because he looked nothing like the man who had invaded her dreams since childhood. With vehement disregard for the king’s decree, she declares her hatred for Sir Erik Ragnorsen and would rather risk war than to marry him. Only, when she meets Sir Erik’s personal guard, Bronwyn realizes that sometimes you cannot fight what is destined from the start. Sir Andrew Brandham was familiar; more than familiar. He was the man of her visions and nothing she could do could make her deny it.
Bronwyn and Drew are filled with distrust and betrayal seeps into both of their hearts. They suffer through many storms that batter their hearts and souls like rocks at the edge of the tempestuous sea. Can their love survive the lies and heartache they are each guilty of? Can Bronwyn escape the Destiny and the pull of the Old Ways and create a path without Drew or will love help them both to embrace the course Destiny has chosen?
The Scottish Chiefs
Jane Porter - 1809
First published in 1809 to spectacular success throughout Europe, this new edition captures the grandeur of the earlier edition, with Wyeth's glorious paintings reproduced from the original canvases.
A Needle in the Right Hand of God: The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry
R. Howard Bloch - 2006
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.
The Cambridge Medieval History, Vols 1-5
John Bagnell Bury - 1957
Planned by one of the most renowned Byzantinists and Medievalists of the day, John B. Bury, it became the de facto standard by which all comprehensive period histories would be measured. Its impact on the field of medieval scholarship is every bit as great as Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.Volume One – The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms begins with the accession of Constantine to the Imperium and ends roughly with reign of Justinian in the East. It covers the migration of Germanic tribes into Roman territories. Significant attention is given the ecumenical church councils of the 4th Century, with particular emphasis on the Arian controversies.Volume Two – The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire covers the time period from roughly 500 CE to 814 CE. Beginning with Justinian, it also looks at the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, the Lombard Kingdom in Italy, the Restoration of the Imperium in Italy, and ends with the transition of power from the Merovingians to the Carolingians through Charlemagne’s reign. Chapters covering England and English institution and the conversion of the Celts. Finally, attention is given to the birth and spread of Islam and the growth of the Islamic Caliphate.Volume Three – Germany and the Western Empire covers the period from roughly 814 CE through the end of the first millennium. Beginning with the reign of Louis the Pious, it traces the decline of the Carolingian Empire and the foundation of the Capetian Dynasty. Attention is paid to the Holy Roman Empire in Germany through Henry III. The impact of the Norse Vikings on the political landscape is examined as is the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England through the death of Edward the Confessor. Throughout the volume development of feudalism as a primary labor, land-owning, and social way of life is highlighted. Finally, the continued growth of the Western Caliphate is looked at.Volume Four – The Eastern Roman Empire focuses primarily on the Byzantine East from roughly 700 CE through the end of the Empire in 1483. The different dynasties (Isaurian, Phrygian, and Macedonian) receive their own chapters, and in-depth attention is paid to the struggle with the emerging Islamic Caliphate. The religious and political relationship with the West is considered and significant attention is paid to the Comneni and Fourth Crusade.Volume Five – The Contest of Empire and Papacy is concerned primarily with the century and a half from 1050 CE to 1200 CE. It looks at the surging political power of the Church and the corresponding growth of nations of Western Europe. The Holy Roman Empire and the Norman Invasion of England, the establishment of the Plantagenet Dynasty in Norman Britain, and the emergence of Monasticism and Scholasticism in the period receive attention.Volumes 6-8 were published after 1923 and are therefore not in the public domain. Plantagenet Publishing will not be able to make them available in this format.
The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 Rebellion
Diana Preston - 1996
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (Complete - Volume 1, 2 and 3)
Henry Charles Lea - 1887
CHAPTER III - THE FRATICELLI CHAPTER IV - POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE CHURCH CHAPTER V - POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE STATE CHAPTER VI- SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS CHAPTER VII - WITCHCRAFT CHAPTER VIII - INTELLECT AND FAITH CHAPTER IX - CONCLUSION
The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades
Robert Payne - 1984
Calling themselves "pilgrims of Christ," thousands of Europeans from all stations in life undertook the harsh and bloody quest to reclaim Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and Christ's tomb for Christendom. Robert Payne brings to life every step of the Crusaders' thousand-mile journey: the deprivation; the desperate, rapacious, and brutal raids for food and supplies; the epic battles for Antioch, Jerusalem, and Acre; the barbarous treatment of captives; and the quarreling European princes who vied for power and wealth in the Near East. An epic tale of the glorious and the base, of unshakable faith and unspeakable atrocities, The Dream and the Tomb captures not only the events but the very essence of the Crusades.
In the Land of Giants: A Journey Through the Dark Ages
Max Adams - 2015
From York to Whitby, from London to Sutton Hoo, from Edinburgh to Anglesey, and from Hadrian's Wall to Loch Tay, each of his ten walking narratives form free-standing chapters as well as parts of a wider portrait of a Britain of fort and fyrd, crypt and crannog, church and causeway, holy well and memorial stone.Part travelogue, part expert reconstruction, In the Land of Giants offers a beautifully written insight into the lives of peasants, drengs, ceorls, thanes, monks, knights, and kings during an enigmatic but richly exciting period of Britain’s history.
Rob Roy MacGregor
Nigel Tranter - 1965
Scott's romantic image is however, far from the rogue which Nigel Tranter portrays in this classic work.
Highlander's Captive
Joanne Wadsworth - 2013
Hers is to turn the tide. Twenty-two-year-old Julia MacLeod discovers a secret tunnel leading from Dunvegan Castle, the stronghold of her MacLeod clan. Her chief would never allow her to leave without a guard during this time of war, but up for an adventure, she scurries along the dank passageway and through a maze of twists and turns. Highland warrior Ivor MacDonald is on a solitary mission to secure a bargaining chip against his chief’s rival clan. While scouting the cliffs near Dunvegan Castle for a way in, a lone woman topples from the cliffs and into the frigid waters of the ocean. Honor demands he rescue her, even though it might bring his mission into jeopardy. Then he discovers she’s the chief’s cousin, and his bargaining chip has just fallen right into his hands. Ivor steals his captive away, and on a journey across the ocean, his mission soon takes a turn. Julia’s trust in him sees his honor battling to override his need for revenge. Has his captive now turned the tide, and became the captor instead? A Historical Highlander Romance