Plantagenet England 1225-1360 10% off

Prestwich, Michael Normal price £19.99 — Discount price £17.99 — You save £2.00  <convert> 

In this thorough and illuminating work, Michael Prestwich provides a comprehensive study of Plantagenet England, a dramatic and turbulent period which saw many changes. In politics it saw Simon de Montfort's challenge to the crown in Henry II's reign and it witnessed the deposition of Edward I. In contrast, it also saw the highly successful rules of Edward I and his grandson, Edward III. Political institutions were transformed with the development of parliament and war was a dominant theme: Wales was conquered and the Scottish Wars of Independence started in Edward I's reign, and under Edward III there were triumphs at Crecy and Poitiers. Outside of politics, English society was developing a structure, from the great magnates at the top to the peasantry at the bottom. Economic changes were also significant, from the expansionary period of the thirteenth century to years of difficulty in the fourteenth century, culminating in the greatest demographic disaster of historical times, the Black Death.

Social History of England, 1200-1500 15% off

Horrox, Rosemary, Ormrod, W. Mark (ed.) Normal price £22.99 — Discount price £19.54 — You save £3.45  <convert> 

What was life really like in England in the later Middle Ages? This comprehensive introduction explores the full breadth of English life and society in the period 1200-1500. Opening with a survey of historiographical and demographic debates, the book then explores the central themes of later medieval society, including the social hierarchy, life in towns and the countryside, religious belief, and forms of individual and collective identity. Clustered around these themes a series of authoritative essays develop our understanding of other important social and cultural features of the period, including the experience of war, work, law and order, youth and old age, ritual, travel and transport, and the development of writing and reading. Written in an accessible and engaging manner by an international team of leading scholars, this book is indispensable both as an introduction for students and as a resource for specialists.

Crusader Warfare 15% off

Nicolle, David Normal price £30.00 — Discount price £25.50 — You save £4.50  <convert> 

This book presents as many aspects as possible of warfare during the period of the crusades within all the cultures most directly involved. To a large extent the current interest in the Crusades reflects the perceived threat of a so-called 'clash of civilisations'. While warnings of such a supposed clash in our own times are based upon a misunderstanding of the natures of both 'Western' and 'Islamic' civilisations, some commentators have looked to the medieval Crusades as an earlier example of such a clash. In reality they were no such thing. Instead the Crusades resulted from a remarkable variety of political, economic, cultural and religious factors. The Crusades, even excluding the Northern or Baltic Crusades, also involved an extraordinary array of states, ruling dynasties, ethnic or linguistic groups and the fighting forces associated with these disparate participants. This volume focuses on Western Europe and the Byzantium Crusades. Latin or Catholic Europe certainly had an 'eastern front'.

Dragon and the Foreign Devils 15% off

Gelber, Harry G. Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £21.25 — You save £3.75  <convert> 

Britain in the Middle Ages 20% off

Pryor, Francis Normal price £8.99 — Discount price £7.19 — You save £1.80  <convert> 

As in 'Britain B.C.' and 'Britain A.D.' (also accompanied by Channel 4 series), eminent archaeologist Francis Pryor challenges familiar historical views of the Middle Ages by examining fresh evidence from the ground. The term 'Middle Ages' suggests a time between two other ages: a period when nothing much happened. In his radical reassessment, Francis Pryor shows that this is very far from the truth, and that the Middle Ages (approximately 800-1550) were actually the time when the modern world was born. This was when Britain moved from Late Antiquity into a world we can recognize as more or less familiar: roads and parishes became fixed; familiar institutions, such as the church and local government, came into being; industry became truly industrial; and international trade was now a routine process. Archaeology shows that the Middle Ages were far from static. Based on everyday, often humdrum evidence, it demonstrates that the later agricultural and industrial revolutions were not that unexpected, given what we now know of the later medieval period. Similarly, the explosion of British maritime power in the late 1700s had roots in the 15th century.

Road to Armageddon 15% off

Bartlett, W.B. Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

The Third Crusade of Richard the Lionheart is well known but the build-up to it less so. Yet the years that led up to the Battle of Hattin in 1187 is resonant with intrigue, plot and counter-plot, and the abuse of power. This is the story of those events, involving the greatest of the military orders, the Templars and their key ally, the ruthless Reynald of Chatillon, and how they seized a throne, sought to rule a kingdom and eventually, as a result, lost it. In the 1180s the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem was ruled by a weak king, Guy of Lusignan. A puppet, placed on the throne by power-hungry 'hawks' Reynald of Chatillon and Templar Grand Master, Gerard de Ridfort, he was the worst possible ruler at this crucial time. Arrayed against the hawks was a group of 'doves', those who wished to have some form of accommodation with the Muslims. This infighting among the Christian forces, coupled with the rise of a Muslim leader of genius, Salah ed-Din Yusuf, Saladin, led almost inevitably to the fateful field of Hattin. Wayne Bartlett reveals the causes and the aftermath of one of the few battles that can truly be called decisive.

Capetians 20% off

Bradbury, Jim Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £20.00 — You save £5.00  <convert> 

Following the demise of the Carolingian dynasty in 987 the French lords chose Hugh Capet as their king. He was the founder of a dynasty that lasted until 1328. Although for much of this time, the French kings were weak, and the kingdom of France was much smaller than it later became, the Capetians nevertheless had considerable achievements and also produced outstanding rulers, including Philip Augustus and St Louis. This wide-ranging book throws fascinating light on the history of Medieval France and the development of European monarchy.

Great Arab Conquests 10% off

Kennedy, Hugh Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £22.50 — You save £2.50  <convert> 

Today's Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. Whereas the Roman Empire took over 200 years to reach its fullest extent, the Arab armies overran the whole Middle East, North Africa and Spain within a generation. They annhilated the thousand-year-old Persian Empire and reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople. Within a hundred years of the Prophet's death, Muslim armies destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain, and crossed the Pyrenees to occupy southern France. This is the first popular English language account of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy's sweeping narrative reveals how the arab armies conquered almost everything in their path. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for story telling, he offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, battles, treachery and the clash of civilizations.

Richard II and the Revolution of 1399 15% off

Bennett, Michael Normal price £14.99 — Discount price £12.74 — You save £2.25  <convert> 

This is the first full-length study of the last years of Richard II's reign and the circumstances of his overthrow by Henry of Bolingbroke in 1399. It reviews Richard's early experiences, from his accession, aged only ten, through the troubled politics of the 1380s, placing new emphasis on his own insecurities and the vexed issue of the succession. It offers a detailed examination of Richard's attempts to reassert his royal authority in the 1390s, including his so-called 'tyranny' from 1397 to 1399, and sets them in the context of his personal anxieties and broader ambitions. It shows Richard, all too conscious of his mortality and lack of issue, and all too aware of the vicissitudes of European politics - lashing out at all who had opposed him ten years earlier and crashing through the constraints imposed on his regality in order to prepare himself for some higher destiny in Christendom. This important new book - the fruit of over ten years research - deserves a place on the bookshelves of every historian and student of English history.

Senses in Late Medieval England 10% off

Woolgar, C.M. Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £22.50 — You save £2.50  <convert> 

Crucial to an understanding of life in the past is an appreciation of how individuals perceived their world. This book seeks to recreate and explain the physical environment of the later medieval period - the sights, noises, smells, tastes and feelings - and use this to imagine the kinds of lives lived by medieval men and women. Based on a wide range of documentary and fugitive sources, from saints' lives, collections of miracles, sermons and literary works, through to domestic financial records and the remains of buildings, the book reveals a physical experience very different from our own. Popular beliefs about the senses were closely intertwined with intellectual ideas about their operation. 'Stinking sin' and the 'odour of sanctity' are vestiges of a world that thought differently, and one in which the lustre of a colour might be more important than its hue, or moral qualities might attach to sound, be it the song of angels or the cachinnation of devils.

Medieval Sea 15% off

Rose, Susan Normal price £30.00 — Discount price £25.50 — You save £4.50  <convert> 

This book surveys how the peoples bordering the Mediterranean, North Sea, English Channel and eastern Atlantic related to the sea in all its aspects between approximately 1000-1500 A.D. How was the sea represented in poems and other writings? What kinds of boats were used and how were they built? How easy was it to navigate on short or long passages? Was seaborne trade crucial to the economy of this area? Did naval warfare loom large in the minds of medieval rulers? What can be said more generally about the lives of those who went to sea or who lived by its shores? These are the major questions which are addressed in this book, which is based on extensive research in both maritime archives and also in secondary literature. It concludes by pointing out how the relatively enclosed maritime world of Western Europe was radically changed by the voyages of the late fifteenth century across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and round Africa to India.

A Few Well Positioned Castles, the Norman Art of War,
Stuart Prior
(15% off)

Longbow,
Robert Hardy
(15% off)


Blondel's Song, David Boyle
(25% off)


The Lost Villages of England,
Leigh Driver

The Spice Route, John Keay
(15% off)

Border Bloodshed
Scotland and England at War, 1369-1403, Alastair J. Macdonald
(10% off)

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