General Mcaulliffe decided that despite the odds and the lack of supplies and ammunition his troops would continue to hold the important communication hub of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. This dramatic, yet authoritative account brings all of the action to the fore as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne wrote their names into legend."THIS STORY OF BASTOGNE was written from interviews with nearly all the commanders and staff officers and many of the men who participated in the defense of Bastogne during the first phase of that now celebrated operation—the days during which the American forces were surrounded by forces of the enemy…Thus it is essentially the account of how a single strong defensive force was built from separate commands of armor, airborne infantry and tank destroyers—a force convinced that it could not be beaten."-Introduction.

    His wife, Marguerite, has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape. A deadlocked court decrees a “trial by combat” between the two men that also leaves Marguerite’s fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris. What follows is a fierce duel, the final one sanctioned by governing powers, before a massive crowd that includes the teenage King Charles VI, during which both combatants are wounded—but only one fatally.Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, THE LAST DUEL brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge. THE LAST DUEL is at once a moving human drama, a captivating true crime story, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue with themes that echo powerfully centuries later.

    And in doing so, you’ll get a fresher understanding of an era in history with which we’re still trying to come to terms.How the Crusades Changed History plunges you into the series of Crusades to the Holy Land (and elsewhere), from the calling of the First Crusade in November 1095 until the collapse of the last crusader state, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1291. Delivered by master medieval historian and award-winning professor Philip Daileader of The College of William & Mary, these 24 lectures are more than just an enriching recount of captivating historical events. They’re an intellectually rewarding exploration of the ways in which the Crusades shaped the history of the medieval world—and laid the seeds for our own.Dispel Misconceptions about the CrusadesThe Crusades remain lively topics of debate among historians and scholars, and they’re rife with contradictions and misconceptions that require us to peel back layers of history and confront some startling truths that go against what we traditionally think about medieval crusading.Take, for example, these points:Most Christians weren’t motivated to join the Crusades out of economic considerations but in hopes of gaining indulgences from the Catholic Church to decrease or eliminate time in purgatory.Crusading campaigns reached far beyond Jerusalem and the surrounding Holy Land, extending all along the Mediterranean and throughout much of northern Europe.The Crusades were not universally supported; rather, the period saw critics who questioned particular campaigns—many of which were disastrous failures.As you’ll learn with this course, these and other truths about the Crusades demonstrate that, rather than being grand wars, many of these military campaigns were tangled misadventures. And yet you’ll see that, for all their messiness, the Crusades made an indelible impact on the identity of Western civilization.A Fascinating, In-Depth HistoryProfessor Daileader spends the first 17 lectures of the course delivering a riveting in-depth narrative history of the Crusades that takes you in and around the medieval world and sweeps you up in the crusading fervor that led to some of the era’s most intriguing—and disastrous—campaigns. You’ll immerse yourself in the causes, battles, and consequences of the period’s major crusades—as well as some campaigns often overlooked.The First Crusade: Rather than a single expedition, the First Crusade was a series of loosely coordinated waves that left Europe over the space of several years after Pope Urban II’s initial call in 1095. More than 90% of those who were part of the First Crusade were not professional knights; rather, they were the populous, peasants and craftsmen led by a smattering of minor nobles and a popular preacher named Peter the Hermit.The Northern Crusades: Crusading was not just relegated to the Holy Land. Crusading campaigns also took place in parts of Europe. The Northern Crusades facilitated German and Christian expansion into eastern Europe and opened up a theater of war that was easier for crusaders to access than Syria and Palestine, but they siphoned off crusaders who might otherwise have worked to reclaim Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.The Children’s Crusade: One of the period’s oddest crusades, the Children’s Crusade of 1212 consisted primarily of processions of French youths—many between the ages of 6 and 14—carrying religious symbols toward Jerusalem to reclaim it for Christendom. More peaceful than other crusades, the Children’s Crusade lacked the militaristic overtones of other campaigns; medieval chroniclers make no mention of its participants bearing arms.View the Era with a More Inquisitive EyeOnce you reach the end of the major crusading period in the late 13th century, you take a step back in a series of thematic lectures that treat a host of topics with an inquisitive eye. Professor Daileader’s goal with this section of the course: to clarify your picture of the Crusades and to provide you with a stronger grasp of their broader historical consequences.You’ll get a chance to probe issues and questions that have intrigued historians for centuries:What did contemporary religious thinkers and critics say about the Crusades? What effects did their views have?What was the experience like for individuals who took up the crusader’s call? Why did they go? What did they take with them? How did they live day to day?How did everyday life in western Europe compare with that in the vulnerable crusader states?How did medieval Islam respond to the Crusades?By taking this approach, you’ll come to see how this frenetic period of warfare paved the way for subsequent historical movements and moments, including the centuries-long dominance of the Ottoman Empire, the Protestant Reformation, the prevalence of missionary campaigns around the world, and more.Learn from One of America’s Best ProfessorsHow the Crusades Changed History places you in the hands of a historian and teacher named one of the best professors in the United States by The Princeton Review and a four-time winner of Harvard University’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.Just minutes into the first lecture of this engaging course, you’ll find out why Professor Daileader’s lecturing style—filled with eye-opening insights, clear-cut explanations, gripping stories, and touches of ironic humor—has been praised by so many of our customers around the world.“Whether the Crusades deserve admiration, opprobrium, or something else entirely is a matter for individuals to decide for themselves,” notes Professor Daileader at the start of his engrossing lecture series. “Our goals are to understand the Crusades and to assess their consequences.”And by doing so with this course, you’ll have the knowledge necessary to come to your own conclusions about just how important and consequential these centuries of warfare were to Western civilization.

    The records that talk about him are quite conflicting as they often are with mythical and historical figures. This book will do it's best and take a closer look to his origins, family and his notable exploits. We will also catch a glimpse into the possibilities of his demeanor and behavior without moving away from the fact that he is one of the most ruthless men to ever invade England in the 9th century. It is our hope that you'll enjoy this book and learn many new and exciting things about Ivar the Boneless!

    A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests.Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. Then on Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

    and did outlaws never wear trousers?Terry Jones and Alan Ereira are your guides to this most misrepresented and misunderstood period, and they point you to things that will surprise and provoke. Did you know, for example, that medieval people didn't think the world was flat? That was a total fabrication by an American journalist in the 19th century. Did you know that they didn't burn witches in the Middle Ages? That was a refinement of the so-called Renaissance. In fact, medieval kings weren't necessarily merciless tyrants, and peasants entertained at home using French pottery and fine wine. Terry Jones' Medieval Lives reveals Medieval Britain as you have never seen it before - a vibrant society teeming with individuality, intrigue and innovation.

    A saint in her own right, she married Ferdinand of Aragon, and they forged modern Spain, cast out the Moslems, discovered the New World by backing Columbus, and established a powerful central government in Spain. This story is so thrilling it reads like a novel. Makes history really come alive. Highly readable and truly great in every respect! 576 pgs, PB

    But when Henry of Anjou, the young and dynamic future king of England, arrives at the French court, he and the seductive Eleanor experience a mutual passion powerful enough to ignite the world. Indeed, after the annulment of Eleanor’s marriage to Louis and her remarriage to Henry, the union of this royal couple creates a vast empire that stretches from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees—and marks the beginning of the celebrated Plantagenet dynasty. But Henry and Eleanor’s marriage, charged with physical heat, begins a fiery downward spiral marred by power struggles and bitter betrayals. Amid the rivalries and infidelities, the couple’s rebellious sons grow impatient for power, and the scene is set for a vicious and tragic conflict that will threaten to engulf them all.

    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.

    The time is A.D. 1250 and the city is Troyes, capital of the county of Champagne and site of two of the cycle Champagne Fairs—the “Hot Fair” in August and the “Cold Fair” in December. European civilization has emerged from the Dark Ages and is in the midst of a commercial revolution. Merchants and money men from all over Europe gather at Troyes to buy, sell, borrow, and lend, creating a bustling market center typical of the feudal era. As the Gieses take us through the day-to-day life of burghers, we learn the customs and habits of lords and serfs, how financial transactions were conducted, how medieval cities were governed, and what life was really like for a wide range of people.For serious students of the medieval era and anyone wishing to learn more about this fascinating period, Life in a Medieval City remains a timeless work of popular medieval scholarship.

    Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story: how many people died; how farm output and trade declined. But statistics can’t convey what it was like to sit in Siena or Avignon and hear that a thousand people a day are dying two towns away. Or to have to chose between your own life and your duty to a mortally ill child or spouse. Or to live in a society where the bonds of blood and sentiment and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can murder or rape or plunder anyone else without fear of consequence.In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.

    This haunting gem of medieval art, a subtle and beautiful portrait of a wealthy Bruges merchant and his wife, intrigues all who see it. Is the painting the celebration of marriage or pregnancy, a memorial to a wife who died in childbirth, a fashion statement or a status symbol? Using her acclaimed forensic skills as an art historian, Carola Hicks set out to decode the mystery.She also tells the fascinating story of the painting's survival through fire and battle, and of its owners. Uniquely, for a masterpiece of its age, its provenance can be tracked through every single owner - from the mysterious Mr Arnolfini via various monarchs to being an early star of the National Gallery in 1842- and these owners have a cameo appearance too, in this enthralling story of how an artwork of genius can speak afresh to each new generation.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    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.

    Queen. Saint. In eleventh-century Scotland, a young woman strives to fulfill her destiny despite the risks . . . Shipwrecked on the Scottish coast, a young Saxon princess and her family—including the outlawed Edgar of England—ask sanctuary of the warrior-king Malcolm Canmore, who shrewdly sees the political advantage. He promises to aid Edgar and the Saxon cause in return for the hand of Edgar’s sister, Margaret, in marriage.A foreign queen in a strange land, Margaret adapts to life among the barbarian Scots, bears princes, and shapes the fierce warrior Malcolm into a sophisticated ruler. Yet even as the king and queen build a passionate and tempestuous partnership, the Scots distrust her. When her husband brings Eva, a Celtic bard, to court as a hostage for the good behavior of the formidable Lady Macbeth, Margaret expects trouble. Instead, an unlikely friendship grows between the queen and her bard, though one has a wild Celtic nature and the other follows the demanding path of obligation. Torn between old and new loyalties, Eva is bound by a vow to betray the king and his Saxon queen. Soon imprisoned and charged with witchcraft and treason, Eva learns that Queen Margaret—counseled by the furious king and his powerful priests—will decide her fate and that of her kinswoman Lady Macbeth. But can the proud queen forgive such deep treachery?Impeccably researched, a dramatic page-turner, Queen Hereafter is an unforgettable story of shifting alliances and the tension between fear and trust as a young woman finds her way in a dangerous world.From the Hardcover edition.