Medieval English

The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe - these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill.

""This is a serious, meticulous history that will also appeal to Game of Thrones fans, who will discover intriguing parallels between history and fiction.” — Booklist ""An enlightening portrait of the medieval mindset.” — Publishers Weekly The authors of The Bright Ages return with a...

In 1282, David and his sister Anna crashed through time to save the life of their father, the last Prince of Wales. Thirteen years later, David is a grown man - husband, father, and high king of Britain. He is also the Duke of Aquitaine, a fact which King Philip of France appears to resent. So, when Philip summons David to Paris to bend the knee for the right to remain Aquitaine's duke, David is the first to suspect treachery.

July 1284. King Edward has invited the nobility of England, Ireland, and Scotland to Nefyn, one of the most remote spots in Wales, for a Round Table—a tournament as in the tales of King Arthur to celebrate Edward's victory over the Welsh and his ascension to Arthur's throne. Not everyone sees the tournament as a friendly competition, however, and in short order, Rhys and Catrin are called to investigate the death of a knight in the retinue of the Earl of Gloucester.

Warwick “War” Herringthorpe was born of a Northumberland de Percy daughter and the Wolfe of the Border, William de Wolfe, back in the days when William was a rising hero, unencumbered by marriage, free to do, and love, whom he so chooses. A brief relationship with Jane de Percy left Jane pregnant and William unaware of the situation. Jane’s father had bigger aspirations for his daughter than a mere knight and quickly married her to a much-older, titled husband who was willing to overlook her indiscretion.

Titus de Wolfe is the youngest of four talented and accomplished sons of the Earl of Berwick. On a visit to London on behalf of his father, Titus meets the woman who will change the course of his future. Katiana de Edington is that woman. Daughter of a very rich merchant, she’s not of the nobility. But she’s smart, educated, and vivacious, and undeniably beautiful. Titus is smitten. So smitten, in fact, that he marries Katiana without permission.

Scholars, journalists, and politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain - "al-Andalus" - as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: It is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity", Fernández-Morera sets the record straight.

1197 A.D. - Smarting from the loss of his betrothed, Sir Keller de Poyer has learned not to trust women. A bear of a man with a brilliant mind, Keller is socially awkward but an accomplished knight. He is so accomplished in fact that his liege William Marshal gifts the man with lands in Wales for his meritorious service. But there is a catch - in order to secure the lands and titles, he must marry the Welsh heiress.

Acclaimed actress Claire Danes burnishes an epic story of heroes, gods, and monsters in a groundbreaking translation of The Odyssey, the first great adventure story in the Western literary tradition. When the wily warrior-king Odysseus sets off for home after the Trojan War, he doesn’t realize this simple undertaking will become a perilous journey of 10 years. Beset at every turn, he encounters obstacles, detours, and temptations—both supernatural and human—while his wife Penelope fends off would-be suitors desperate to take the throne.

Young Duncan M'Kethe finds himself caught in the web of Sir James Turner, the former Covenanter turned military leader of the persecutors. Duncan is torn by his hatred of Turner's dragoons, who have treated his friends cruelly, and his father's instructions to love them. He must be true to Jesus Christ while attempting to rescue his father from enemy hands.

Lady Nicola Aubrey-Thorne is the widow of a great Edwardian supporter. When Kenton conquers her home of Babylon Castle, she offers him nothing but resistance and hatred. Kenton sees a beautiful, spoiled woman who fights him on every turn, yet the spark of attraction is there. As Kenton comes to learn the darker secrets of Babylon, he comes to understand Lady Thorne and her sorrows. And his attraction toward her grows beyond his control.

Pale rider. For all the wives lost to him, it is what some call England’s renowned trainer of knights, a name that reaches beyond those losses to the plague come out of the east. Believing it God’s will he not wed again, Hector Wulfrith resists being drawn to the courageous lady who enters a country at war with her own and, disguised as a man, trespasses on his home.

Caius d'Avignon, the knight known as The Britannia Viper, finds himself on the opposite side of William Marshal...and the Executioner Knights are caught in the middle...Welcome to another Executioner Knights' tale! When Caius d’Avignon is sent north at the request of a cousin of William Marshal to help in a dispute between neighbors, Caius couldn’t have imagined how his life would change. When Caius goes to speak to the neighbors to demand their unconditional surrender, the first thing he sees is a woman of astounding beauty. Emelisse de Thorington is that woman.

In the city of Kortufan, spies, assassins, mercenaries, arms dealers, rebels, smugglers, and informants do dirty deals dirt cheap. The Poxy Dragon is a rough bar outside the worst part of the medieval Silk Road. It takes serious courage just to walk into the place, not only from its reputation, but because of the rough clientele, questionable food, awful beer, and abysmal hygiene. Lots of taverns in Kortufan are home to ruffians and illegal dealings, but the Poxy Dragon is the proving ground for heroes - with a cemetery out back for the ones who don't make the cut.

Love. Magic. Faith. By the autumn of 537 AD, all who are loyal to King Arthur have retreated to a small parcel of land in North Wales. They are surrounded on all sides, heavily outnumbered, and facing near certain defeat. But Myrddin and Nell, two of the king's companions, have a secret that neither has ever been able to face: Each has seen that on a cold and snowy day in December, Saxon soldiers sent by Modred will ambush and kill King Arthur. And together, they must decide what they are willing to do, and to sacrifice, to avert that fate.

The fifteenth century was a turbulent age: the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses dominated the lives of people both inside and out of the royal courts. Joan of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Wydeville and Anne Neville were the queens who stood by England's sovereigns, caught up in wars that changed the course of their lives, and the course of history. They were also formidable women who defied the limitations of their times, often living out the brutal consequences of their determination.

Findlater Castle in the Scottish Highlands becomes a place of mystery and doom for Jamison Munro and his wife, Havilland. Traveling across the highlands one dark and stormy night, they stumble upon a lonely Host in Findlater Castle, a pathetic soul waiting for his wife to return to him. It is a terrible tale of a tragic love story that the Host tells the travelers but when Havilland becomes curious about mysterious tapping sounds that go on in the middle of the night, she soon realizes the danger that she and her husband are in.

It's 1208 A.D. - Sir Cullen de Nerra is a knight's knight. The son of the Sheriff of Hampshire, Val de Nerra (Vestiges of Valor), Cullen has been heavily involved in the politics of William Marshal for many years, but never more involved than when the Marshal gifts his services to a powerful, but unpredictable, warlord, Preston de Lacy. De Lacy is a rich man with too much time on his hands and a great hatred for King John. Cullen’s task is to keep watch on de Lacy and pass information to William Marshal on his movements and actions.

From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth, the Renaissance.

Join Patrick and Brigantia as they overcome politics, wars, prejudices, and most of all, resistance to each other. Some loves are unexpected, some are instantly realized. But their love is something that comes from a deeper place of understanding and attraction, a powerful love that cannot be denied.