The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, The Power Behind Five English Thrones

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind The War Of The Roses

Sarah Gristwood · 408 pages

"In Pembroke Castle, on 28 January 1457, the 13-year-old Margaret Beaufort gave birth to a son she named Henry. Her husband was already dead; her sufferings in childbirth were grave... England was in the grip of civil war - the War of the Roses. Known to contemporaries as 'The Cousins War', beyond the fields of battle raged a family feud, a violent and emotional domestic drama. For the noble women

Two Lives of Charlemagne

Einhard, Notker the Stammerer · 227 pages

"These two LIVES provide a fascinating contrast. Einhard, who spent twenty-three years in Charlemagne's service, chose to approach his Vita Caroli as a public history and, in beautifully expressed language, recounts Charlemagne's personal life and his achievements in warfare, learning, art, building, and in the skilful administration of the state. Notker the monk's De Carolo Magno is a collection

A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain

Marc Morris · 471 pages

Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Elizabeth of York

Lisa Hilton · 536 pages

Queen Emma: A History of Power, Love, and Greed in 11th-Century England

Harriet O'Brien · 288 pages

The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England 1327-1330

Ian Mortimer · 246 pages

The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King's Mother

Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael K. Jones · 342 pages

A non-fiction companion to The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Lady of the Rivers. Philippa Gregory and two historians, leading experts in their field, tell the extraordinary 'true' stories of the lives of these women who until now have been largely forgotten by history, their background and times, highlighting questions which are raised in the fiction and illuminating the novels. With a forew

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily

Nancy Goldstone · 384 pages

From inside book jacket: Amid intrigue, betrayal, and conspiracy, Joanna I ... became the only female monarch of her day to rule in her own name, and one of the most courageous women in history. Married ... at the age of seven to her 6 year old Hungarian cousin, Joanna saw her ... world shattered 12 years later by the brutal assassination of her husband. Accused of the murder by her powerful in-la

Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources

Asser, Alfred the Great · 368 pages

Asser's Life of King Alfred, written in 893, is a revealing account of one of the greatest of medieval kings. Composed by a monk of St David's in Wales who became Bishop of Sherborne in Alfred's service and worked with him in his efforts to revive religion and learning in his kingdom, this life is among the earliest surviving royal biographies. It is an admiring account of King Alfred's life, writ

Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings

Amy Kelly · 442 pages

Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I

Tracy Borman · 295 pages

Tracy Borman lays out Matilda's remarkable story against one of the most fascinating and transformative periods in European history. Stirring, richly detailed, and wholly involving, Queen of the Conqueror reveals not just an extraordinary figure but an iconic woman who shaped generations, and an era that cast the essential framework for the world we know today.

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

Helen Castor · 477 pages

When Edward VI died in 1553, the extraordinary fact was that there was no one left to claim the title of king of England. For the first time, England would have a reigning queen, but the question was which one: Katherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary; Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth; or one of their cousins, Lady Jane Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots. But female rule in England also had a past. Four h

The Last Days of Richard III

John Ashdown-Hill · 190 pages

This book contains details about what Richard III did in his last five months, what happened to his body, and how his DNA was found in Canada. This book explores these events from the standpoint of Richard himself and his contemporaries. By deliberately avoiding the hindsight knowledge that he will lose the Battle of Bosworth Field, this book presents a new Richard - not a passive victim, awaiting

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

Alison Weir · 444 pages

A biography of one of the most influential women of the Middle Ages discusses her marriages to Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, and her later efforts to secure the throne of England for her sons.

The Borgias: The Hidden History

G.J. Meyer · 478 pages

Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu. They burst out of obscurity in Spain to capture the great prize of the papacy, not once but twice. Throughout a tumultuous half-century--as popes, statesmen, warriors, lovers, and breathtakingly am

She Wolves: the Notorious Queens of England

Elizabeth Norton · 285 pages

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Jack Weatherford · 352 pages

The name Genghis Khan often conjures the image of a relentless, bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback leading a ruthless band of nomadic warriors in the looting of the civilized world. But the surprising truth is that Genghis Khan was a visionary leader whose conquests joined backward Europe with the flourishing cultures of Asia to trigger a global awakening, an unprecedented explosion of technologi

The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family

Susan Higginbotham · 224 pages

224 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : 25 cm

Isabella: The Warrior Queen

Kirstin Downey · 532 pages

Drawing on new scholarship, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Woman Behind the New Deal presents a biography of Isabella of Castile, the controversial Queen of Spain who sponsored Christopher Columbus' journey to the New World, established the Spanish Inquisition and became one of the most influential female rulers in history.

William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry

Georges Duby · 155 pages

Richard the Third

Paul Murray Kendall · 516 pages

Paul Murray Kendall's masterful account of the life of England's King Richard III has remained the standard biography of this controversial figure.

The Alexiad

Anna Comnena · 560 pages

"Anna Comnena (1083-1153) wrote The Alexiad as an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. It is also an important source of information on the Byzantine war with the Normans, and on the First Crusade, in which Alexius participated. While the Byzantines were allied to the Crusaders, they were none the less critical of their behaviour and Anna's book offers a startlingly

Royal Panoply: Brief Lives of the English Monarchs

Carolly Erickson · 368 pages

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century

Ross E. Dunn, Ibn Battuta · 357 pages

Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and