Medieval

A riveting and authoritative history of the single most important event in English history: The Norman Conquest....

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Learning of his father’s death, the adolescent, dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the North, vows to avenge him....

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior....

When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation....

We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward, and unchanging time characterized by violence, ignorance, and superstition. We couldn't be more wrong.

The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague....

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Templars....

This is the story of a thousand years, a must-listen narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury, and madness....

As Peter Heather shows in this compelling new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise to Europe-wide dominance....

Historians have only recently awakened to the importance of the family, the basic social unit throughout human history. This book traces the development of marriage and the family from the Middle Ages to the early modern era....

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley's listenable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II....

Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise....

The Great Plague is one of the most compelling events in human history—even more so now, when the notion of plague has never loomed larger as a contemporary public concern....

Tom Holland describes how the Arabs emerged to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion in a matter of decades, overcoming seemingly insuperable odds....

The Moors in Spain is an overview of the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Stanley Edward Lane-Poole (1854 - 1931), the author, was a noted British archaeologist....

A handy guide for time-travelers with tips and suggestions to make your visit to the Middle Ages much more fun, How to Survive in Medieval England will help the listener deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur....

Using previously untranslated contemporaneous documents from a colorful range of travelers, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages is a witty and unforgettable exploration of how Europeans understood—and often misunderstood—the larger world.

The Magna Carta is revered around the world as the founding document of Western liberty. Its principles - even its language - can be found in our Bill of Rights and in the Constitution. But what was this strange document and how did it gain such legendary status? Listen to find out more....

Distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe entirely reorients our understanding of Europe from 10,000 BC to the time of the Vikings....

Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where empires clashed and world wars began. In The Middle Kingdoms, Martyn Rady offers the definitive history of the region....

The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule....

A vibrant and illuminating exploration of medieval thinking on women's beauty, sexuality, and behavior....

When T. D. Allman purchased an 800-year-old house in the mountain village of Lauzerte in southwestern France, he aimed to find refuge from the world's tumults. Instead, he found that humanity’s most telling melodramas, from the paleolithic to the post-modern, were graven in its stones.

The Dark Ages is the story of the birth of Western civilization. It was a harrowing crucible of war, destruction, and faith....

In prose as crystalline as his view to the Pyrenees on a clear day, Allman animates Lauzerte and its surrounding communities—Cahors, Moissac, Montauban—all ever in thrall to the magnetic impulse of Paris. Witness to so many dramas over the centuries, his house comes alive as a historical protagonist in its own right, from its wine-cellar cave to the roof where he wages futile battle with pigeons, to the life lessons it conveys. “The onward march of history, my House keeps demonstrating, never takes a rest,” he observes, pulling us vividly into his world.

The remarkable story of Margaret Paston, whose letters form the most extensive collection of personal writings by a medieval English woman.

Step into the epic world of Vikings and Norse mythology! Whether you love history or thrilling stories, this book is for you.

Step back into the forgotten world of medieval Ireland, to uncover intriguing stories from the world of our distant ancestors. Beyond well-known figures such as Strongbow, the Norman invader, lies a tapestry of untold stories of ordinary men and women—those who held no titles, owned no lands, and whose voices have faded into obscurity. In Life in Medieval Ireland, Fin Dwyer—creator of the Irish History Podcast—breathes life into an era often overshadowed by conquest and chaos.

Unlock the hidden secrets of the Crusades in The Supernatural Crusades: Hidden Mystical Forces and Dark Magic in the Holy Wars, a captivating exploration of the shadowy undercurrents that influenced some of the most iconic battles in history. This comprehensive and meticulously researched account delves deep into the untold stories of ancient spells, forbidden rituals, and supernatural forces that were wielded by both Christian and Muslim warriors in their relentless pursuit of victory and divine favor.