Early History: c 500 to c 1450/1500

Edward the Elder succeeded his father Alfred the Great to the kingdom of Wessex, but was largely overlooked by his contemporaries (at least in term...

This comprehensive and detailed survey of English royal tombs from 1066-1509, including junior royals as well as kings and queens, is combined with...

Writing on a small island in the Firth of Forth in the 1440s, Walter Bower set out to tell the whole story of the Scottish nation in a single huge ...

In January 1547 Henry VIII lay dying. His heir was just 9 years old and all England waited expectantly to see who would hold the reins of power unt...

On 4 July 1187 the legendary Muslim leader Saladin destroyed the Crusader army of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem with a terrible slaughter at the b...

'Here lies our leader all cut down, the valiant man in the dust.' The elegiac words of the Battle of Maldon, an epic poem written to celebrate the ...

The latest definitive biography in the acclaimed Yale English Monarchs series Edward II (12841327), King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of A...

The Byzantine Empire was one of the most impressive imperial adventures in history. It ruled much of Europe and Anatolia for a remarkable eleven hu...

The Age of the Silk Roads (c 200 BC- c 900 AD) shaped the course of the future. The foundation by the Han dynasty of an extensive network of interl...

The Magna Carta has long been considered the foundation stone of the British Constitution, yet few people today understand either its contents or i...

There have been many books about the Vikings, but few that see them from their own point of view. Most accounts rely heavily on the records of prej...

Ask anyone what single object they associate with China and the most common answer will be a Ming vase. Probably without even knowing the dates of ...

Richard III. The name will conjure an image for any reader: Shakespeares hunchback tyrant who killed his own nephews or a long-denigrated, misunder...

The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard in 2009 has captured the imagination and stimulated renewed interest in the history and culture of the Ang...

The Ming dynasty (13681644) is regarded as Chinas golden age, equivalent in British history to the Elizabethan era. Through the themes of people an...

A source of enduring fascination, the Vikings are the most famous raiders of medieval Europe. Despite the exciting and compelling descriptions in t...

One of the most remarkable personalities of the Middle Ages, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen was born in 1194. His parents the reigning Holy Roman Emp...

The women who wielded the real power behind the throne in Renaissance Italy, from a bestselling historian.This book is one of drama on a grand scal...

On 5 July 2009 a metal-detectorist started to unearth gold objects in a Staffordshire field. Thus began the discovery of the largest hoard of Anglo...

In 1485 the Battle of Bosworth marked an epoch in the lives of two great houses: the house of York fell to the ground when Richard III died on the ...

Thoroughly updated and with a new foreword'The Viking Age is shot through with the spirit of adventure. For 300 years, from just before AD800 until...

The Lost Book of King Arthur reveals the ancient written source that proves King Arthur's origin as a Northern King - and identifies two Grails tha...