Medieval English

When Columbus triumphantly returned from America to Spain in 1493, his discoveries inflamed an already smoldering conflict between Spain's renowned monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Portugal's João II. Which nation was to control the world's oceans? To quell the argument, Pope Alexander VI issued a proclamation laying the foundation for the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, an edict that created an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean dividing the entire known (and unknown) world between Spain and Portugal.

In the Robin Hood reimagining, a beautiful maiden poaches to feed the poor, while a handsome forester is on a mission to catch her.

From the best-selling author of The Templars, Dan Jones' epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones' trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive Western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world.

Paris de Norville (The Wolfe) and Jemma Scott Hage (The Wolfe) find love in their sunset years...with each other? It seems like an impossible suggestion. Paris and Jemma first met in The Wolfe in a fiery explosion of temper and taunting. Her temper mostly, because he was taunting. Handsome and arrogant in his youth, Paris was a powerful knight, second in command to the great William de Wolfe, and he found great sport in taunting a Scots captive named Jemma Scott.

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known...of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul...of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame...and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother.

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.

AD 1301. Following the great quest north with Cortez de Bretagne ( The Questing), de Bretagne's knight, Sir Drake de Winter, returns home to the great de Winter empire in Norfolk, but it is not the safe and wonderful haven he remembers. Family unrest causes him to flee to London and into the service of the elderly King Edward I, a personal friend of Drake's father. In Edward's service, Drake finds himself in Scotland as a major player in the Siege of Caerlaverock Castle.

In a nasty battle on the Welsh marches, Dane is forced to make a bargain with the dying duke of Shrewsbury. On his deathbed, he rewards Dane with his only child, his heiress. Now, it is Dane who will inherit the dukedom of Shrewsbury and become a powerful man in his own right. It is a gift any man would be glad to accept, and Dane is no exception. Except for the marriage part. Only on his wedding day does he catch a glimpse of his bride, the Lady Grier de Lara, for the first time. Then, the situation changes markedly.

Hrald, Jarl of Four Stones, has forfeited the golden treasure of his wife, Pega, the richest heiress in Mercia. The shrewd and powerful Lady Æthelflaed, daughter of Ælfred, King of Wessex, knows just what to do with that gold, and with the young woman to whom it belongs. She moves with swift decision. Hrald must undertake a startling penance for the harm he has caused. The one reward at the end will be his right to again wed Dagmar, the daughter of the late King of the Danes in Angle-land. If he survives.

In the winter of 1271, death stalks the corridors of Wynethorpe Castle on the Welsh border. When the Grim Reaper touches the beloved grandson of the castle lord, Baron Adam sends for his daughter, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, and her subinfirmarian, Sister Anne, to save the child with their prayers and healing talents. Escorting them to the remote fortress is Brother Thomas, an unwilling monk fighting his private demons.

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.

Simon the Loyal has vowed never to love, for love makes a warrior weak. His arranged marriage to a beautiful Norman heiress would be duty and no more. But more than duty stirs his blood when he first sees Ariane. She has known only coldness from men - and a betrayal so deep it all but killed her soul. Wanting no man, trusting no man, speaking only through the sad songs she draws from her harp, Ariane comes to Simon an unwilling bride.

Richard "Roi" de Lohr is the second son of Richard the Lionheart's champion, Christopher de Lohr. Roi was raised in the finest homes and with the finest training. Emerging as a powerful and intelligent knight, he married the woman he wanted and enjoyed the life of prestige he had earned. When his wife gave birth to a son, Roi's life was complete. Until tragedy strikes. When Roi's wife dies in childbirth with their second child, he is devastated. But he's a de Lohr, and de Lohrs don't crumble. He raises his son alone, proud that the lad promises to take his place among the great de Lohrs.

The cunning Queen Rhin has conquered the west and High King Nathair has the cauldron, most powerful of the seven treasures. At his back stands the scheming Calidus and a warband of the Kadoshim, dread demons of the Otherworld. They plan to bring Asroth and his host of the Fallen into the world of flesh, but to do so they need the seven treasures. Nathair has been deceived but now he knows the truth. He has choices to make, choices that will determine the fate of the Banished Lands.

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.

Welcome to de Wolfe Pack Generations...grandsons of the great William de Wolfe. Meet Markus de Wolfe, Patrick “Atty” de Wolfe’s son...and he is every inch his father’s boy. As an elite knight for the de Wolfe domain, Markus is called upon to help defend an allied castle. The Scots have overrun the place, killing the lord, and the de Wolfe army moves in to protect it. Markus takes command, appointing himself the personal protect of the lady of the castle and her two small children. The problem begins.

Gavin Mac Brodie fears the thought of becoming the man his father was. Driven into solitude by visions of what he would not be and could not have, he vows never to wed. But this last of the available Brodie men is about to encounter a wee bit of Highland magic... Catrìona is no stranger to solitariness. Driven deep into the Highland mountains, her kinsmen have become little more than legend. But no one knows better than Cat that you cannot hide from fate.

Symon MacKinnon, eldest son of the chieftain, spends his days training with his sword and his nights drinking his clan’s famous whisky. But after many peaceful years, the clan is unprepared for the attack that seems to come from all sides. He fights like the devil but seeing his father and brothers slaughtered and the keep laid low by the marauders, he is barely able to escape with his sister and one young clansman in tow.

Sir Torston de Royans is known on the border as a man of reason, wisdom, and great strength. He also happens to serve a greatly respected liege who slips further into dementia with each passing day. Lord Lionel Harringham believes himself to be a Roman Caesar, and Torston is his great centurion. Unfortunately, Lord Lionel also commands one of the largest castles in the north, and Torston finds himself in a position of not only the protector of the castle known as The Lyceum, but the protector of Lord Lionel’s reputation.

The reign of King John means dark days for all of England. Not one man, woman, or child lived without fear. Magnifying this fear is the man they call The Lord of the Shadows - a terrifying figure who sits at the right hand of the King, manipulating the royal moves like a puppet master. The Lord of the Shadows has been known to tear men apart with his bare hands and can, with a snap of his fingers, alter the future of anyone he chooses.