"The Middle Ages were full of powerful popes, harsh laws, and incredible castles. But at times they were also seriously strange. Medieval people made pies full of live frogs and put animals on trial for committing crimes. Not only did barbers cut hair, but also they performed surgeries! Uncover the terrible tales, surprising stories, and hard-to-believe history in the Middle Ages"--

Orphan Violet and knight Sir Merek team up to fight against the villainous Baron Dunham and corruption in the kingdom, while also navigating their growing feelings for each other.

Throughout history, rivers have been a hub for human settlement and have long been a key part of local livelihoods, history, and culture, as well as still playing a present-day role in providing services and leisure to people who live around them. It is no coincidence that all four of the earliest human civilizations were formed on great rivers: the Nile, Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow rivers all saw great human aggregation along them. The most ancient,...

In this the second part of his four-volume military and political history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Paul Hill follows the careers of 'thelflæd, Alfred the Great's eldest daughter, and Edward the Elder, Alfred's eldest son, as they campaigned to expand their rule after Alfred's death. They faced, as Alfred had done, the full force of Danish hostility during the early years of the tenth century, a period of unrelenting turbulence and open warfare....

Originally warriors mounted on horseback, knights became associated with the concept of chivalry as it was popularized in medieval European literature. Knights were expected to fight bravely and honorably and be loyal to their lord until death if necessary. Later chivalry came to encompass activities such as tournaments and hunting, and virtues including justice, charity and faith. The Crusades were instrumental in the development of the code of chivalry,...

From the medieval bazaars of Tabriz, to the mysterious island of Caldihe, where sheep were said to grow on trees, Anthony Bale brings history alive in A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, inviting the reader to travel across a medieval world punctuated with miraculous wonders and long-lost landmarks. Journeying alongside scholars, spies and saints, from western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes, and the ends of the world, this is no ordinary travel...

The unlikely king who saved England. Down swept the Vikings from the frigid North. Across the English coastlands and countryside they raided, torched, murdered, and destroyed all in their path. Farmers, monks, and soldiers all fell bloody under the Viking sword, hammer, and axe. Then, when the hour was most desperate, came an unlikely hero. King Alfred rallied the battered and bedraggled kingdoms of Britain and after decades of plotting, praying,...

Early historic Scotland-from the fifth to the tenth century AD-was home to a variety of diverse peoples and cultures, all competing for land and supremacy. Yet by the eleventh century it had become a single, unified kingdom, known as Alba, under a stable and successful monarchy. How did this happen, and when? At the heart of this mystery lies the extraordinary influence of the Picts and of their neighbours, the Gaels-originally immigrants from Ireland....

Since the mysterious disappearance of her beloved Grandma June and separating from her husband, Alex, Ellora has felt adrift. Then comes an invitation from Alex to teach history at a summer program at Alnwick Castle in England. He's even found information about the location of a medieval manuscript that was her grandmother's obsession before she vanished.

This book has been difficult to classify, for what unifies its various materials is our yearly journey through the seasons, and that is not a convention yet established in the traditions of authorship, yet it would be a mistake to classify this as fiction (though parts of it are as juicy as the best in that genre) for every word of it is true. A closer look reveals that this isn't really a book at all: it's a luni-solar calendar. Yes, it includes...