Medieval English

The year is 1180 A.D. and times are very dark. England is lawless for the most part and the people live in fear. Rising to power during this time is the vicious and brutal knight Ajax de Velt. His mission is to conquer a large stretch of the Scots and Welsh border, commandeering wealth and property along the way. He wants to be the most feared and powerful warlord in all of England, Wales, and Scotland, and he is well on his way.

1298 A.D. - Lady Diamantha de Bocage Edlington lost her husband at the Battle of Falkirk. Grieving, she is unprepared for the visit of Sir Cortez de Bretagne, King Edward's garrison commander at Sherborne Castle. Dark and fiery from his Spanish heritage, Cortez is a knight with sultry good looks and a quick temperament. He has also come on a mission.

At the side of the most famous warlord of history, Matilda worked, not as a quiet, modest wife, but as a leader...as a ruler just as ruthless as her husband. Under her soft mask of beauty and modesty there lay the heart of a woman powered by ambition. A woman who was strong, courageous, and devious.... Through the eyes of one of the most extraordinary women of history unfold the events leading to the invasion of England and the battle that would decide its fate....

After proving himself on the field of battle, Ramon de Segrave is appointed to the Council of Barons by Richard the Lionheart. But instead of taking his most formidable warrior on his latest crusade, the king assigns Ramon an even more dangerous task - woo and win the lady of Thistle Keep. Isabel of Camoys is a capable widow with no intention of surrendering her valuable estate. She's fought long and hard for her independence, and if the price is loneliness, then so be it.

Sir Valor "Val" de Nerra is one of Henry II's most trusted knights. As the Itinerant Justice of East Hampshire, Val's word is law. A fair and just man, and a very handsome one, he enjoys a good deal of attention and respect. His life is a prestigious and wealthy one until he faces a decision one day that will change the course of his life.

Set during the fierce Trojan War, Troilus and Criseyde is the poignant tale of love won and lost. The beautiful Criseyde becomes the object of desire for Troilus, the son of King Priam, and he is able to win her affection through the machinations of his uncle, Pandarus. They experience a brief time of bliss together, but despite their vows of faithfulness, they are soon separated by the fortunes of war.

Medieval knights were like armoured tanks in combat. They often made quick work of their enemies. They may not have realized it, but they owed their success to science. Learn how science helped medieval knights win victory!

Back in his element, Kieran is determined to finish his mission of peace. He must return the crown of thorns to England. But the same assassins who tried to kill him the first time are after him again, patterns of life repeating themselves, and Kieran, now with Rory, finds himself back on the run. Over dry land and heavy seas, he and Rory flee the assassins, struggling to make their way back to England.

Along the ancient Pilgrim Trail traveled by countless crusaders from Europe to The Holy Land, Dr. Rory Osgrove is in charge of her first archaeological dig. A Biblical Archaeologist by degree, her target is a holy relic of unimaginable power. But what she discovers instead is the tomb of a long-buried Crusader, one of the thousands who came to this desert land in search of glory and riches. Deterred from her original goal, Rory is fascinated by the English knight and the journal buried with him.

As the youngest of the Sinclair Jewels, Pearl has made a place for herself among her clan, serving her people and doing her best to care for those who need help. Unlike her sisters, she has no interest in ever leaving her family. But when she's forced to choose between an unwanted marriage or taking holy vows, she makes a fateful mistake. If she can't stay with her clan, she'll become a nun. But once her sire tasks the Hound to escort her to the abbey, Pearl is forced to admit two things: she never wanted to take holy vows and her fascination with the Hound can no longer be denied.

A life of Matilda - empress, skilled military leader, and one of the greatest figures of the English Middle Ages.

When Lucifer and his mates intercept a merchant ship sailing from Ireland to Plymouth, little does Lucifer realize the treasure on board the vessel goes far beyond monetary gain. A woman named Genevieve proves to be far more than merely a captive, and in that instant, Lucifer’s life is changed forever.

In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the...

Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love, and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different from our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or where the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule.

Oxford, Spring 1353. When young bookseller Nicholas Elyot discovers the body of student William Farringdon floating in the river Cherwell, it looks like a drowning. Soon, however, Nicholas finds evidence of murder. Who could have wanted to kill this promising student? As Nicholas and his scholar friend Jordain try to unravel what lies behind William's death, they learn that he was innocently caught up in a criminal plot.

His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn. Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she's keeping secrets, and dare not give him her heart.

Chandra de Avenell might look like a golden princess, but she fights like a warrior, dreams a warrior’s dreams, and wears a warrior’s pride like a suit of armor. She wants to be strong, independent, and free. She has no use at all for a husband. Enter the man her father has selected for her. Jerval de Vernon takes one look at Chandra, and he wants her. After he saves her from a very bad situation, he sets himself to wooing her—not an easy task.

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.

Medieval queens were seen as mere dynastic trophies, yet many of the Plantagenet queens of the High Middle Ages dramatically broke away from the restrictions imposed on their sex, as Alison Weir shows in this gripping group biography of England's fourteenth-century consorts. Using personal letters and wonderfully vivid sources, Alison Weir evokes the lives of five remarkable queens: Marguerite of France, Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois.

* A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest...