Early Medieval

Embark on an enthralling journey through the heart of Medieval England in this captivating exploration of one of history's most dynamic periods. Delve into the lives of kings and queens, knights and peasants, as the story of England unfolds against the backdrop of feudalism, chivalry, and religious upheaval. Experience the turbulence of the Magna Carta, the devastation of the Black Death, and the intrigue of the Wars of the Roses, all of which shaped the destiny of England.

From the schism between Rome and Constantinople to the rise of the T'ang Dynasty, from the birth of Muhammad to the crowning of Charlemagne, this erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled.

Maximus the Confessor for Beginners: Insights into Christology and the Human Will takes you into the life and teachings of one of Christianity’s most courageous and influential thinkers. This is not just another history lesson—it’s a journey into the mind of a man whose ideas on Christ’s nature and human freedom reshaped Christian doctrine for centuries. Why does Maximus matter today? Maximus wasn’t just a theologian. He was a spiritual warrior who stood firm in the face of torture and exile, all to defend the truth. His defense of Christ’s human and divine will is more than an ...

An evocative journey into early medieval Britain, where myth and wilderness intertwine – brought to life by Amy Jeffs’ original linocut art. Step into the wilderness of early medieval Britain with Wild, a captivating collection of myths, legends, and reimagined tales from the sixth to tenth...

The Birth of a Realm: Kings, Kingdoms, and the Making of England is a sweeping, immersive journey through more than fifteen centuries of British history—beginning in the fading light of Roman Britain, moving through the storm‑tossed world of the Heptarchy, and culminating in the ceremonial splendour and constitutional role of today’s modern monarchy under King Charles III. This richly detailed narrative traces how England emerged not through inevitability, but through conflict, adaptation, cultural fusion, and the enduring human search for order. From the collapse of Roman ...

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history. 

At the end of the ninth century, a large part of what is now England was controlled by the Vikings. In the early 900s, Edward led a great fight against the Viking armies, assisted by the English rulers of Mercia: Lord Æthelred and his wife Æthelflæd, who was also Edward's sister. Known to history as the Lady of the Mercians, she earned a reputation as a capable general who was feared by her enemies. In this authoritative biography, Tim Clarkson tells her remarkable life story from childhood to her vital role in saving England from the Vikings.

The History of Mental Health Treatment: From Ancient Practices to Modern Science BOOK 1: Ancient and Medieval Mental Health Treatment: How Early Civilizations, Religion, and Philosophy Shaped the First Approaches to Mental Illness explores the long and complex history of how human societies first attempted to understand psychological suffering. Long before psychiatry, therapy, or neuroscience existed, people across ancient and medieval cultures struggled to explain behaviors such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations, and emotional instability. This book traces how those early explanations...

Before modern science, survival was a long shot. What if the most gripping stories in European history weren’t wars or kings—but the quiet, relentless struggle of ordinary people trying to stay alive? History That Rattles tells the story of how Europeans lived, suffered, adapted, and survived from the Middle Ages to the dawn of modern medicine. It follows humanity at its most vulnerable, when climate turned hostile, disease spread without explanation, and the human body became a fragile experiment with no safety net. When winters grew longer and harvests failed, fear shaped belief. When...

The spell-bound crown of Cumbria comes to Dunmail after his father Owain is slain at Brunanburh, but he soon learns the Saxon, King Edmund, covets it for himself and has paid a wicked sorcerer who dwells in a cavern in Gilsland Forest, guarded by three white demon-wolves, to manipulate the spells so that Edmund can claim the powerful talisman of kingship. Dunmail must find the sorcerer and destroy him, battling his fearsome wolves...but is the King too late? Battle looms amidst the fells. Briton fights Saxon invader on the blood-stained slopes while the tarn below waits--the only vault that...

This book evolves the history of early medieval England through the lives of the nobility, their marriages, wars, rebellions, and betrayals. The earliest consolidations of power are challenged by an influx of immigrants from the coastal areas of Europe. As the different cultures come together they are then challenged by the shifting power bases arising on the continent.

Dyflin/Dubh Linn, Ireland, 877 A.D. Nope, marrying the awful old ogre her evil uncle has gleefully picked out for her is not something Róisín is on board with. So what’s a girl to do? The only way Róisín can think of, to save her beloved family estate from her greedy uncle’s clutches and herself from a marriage she can’t stomach, is to somehow find her brother, her family’s last male heir, who disappeared years ago. The last time she saw him he was headed to an island in the far North with the Papar. If she wants to find him she’ll have to disguise herself as a boy and somehow...

Rome, 609 AD. Empire is a fading memory. Repeatedly fought over and plundered, the City is falling into ruins. Filth and rubble block the streets. Killers prowl by night. Far off, in Constantinople, the Emperor has other concerns. The Church is the one institution left intact, and is now flexing its own imperial muscle. Enter Aelric of England: young and beautiful, sexually uninhibited, heroic, if ruthlessly violent He’s only here by accident. Without getting that girl pregnant, and the resulting near-miss from King Ethelbert’s gelding knife, he might never have left Kent. But here ...

Bloomsbury presents Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins. The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge...

What is sex exactly? Does everyone agree on a definition? And does that definition hold when considering literary production in other times and places? We cannot simply transfer our contemporary notions of what constitutes a sex act into the past and expect them to be true for the people who were then reading literature and watching plays.

Brunhild was a Visigothic princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law, Fredegund, started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms for decades, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies, developed taxation policies, established infrastructure and negotiated with emperors and popes.

*Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Novel* From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Kate Heartfield comes a glorious, lyrical retelling of one of Norse mythology’s greatest epics 'With a brilliant heroine at the helm, this richly detailed, character-driven story renders epic mythological battles...

He watched the Northmen burn Lindisfarne when he was seven years old. His parents never came back from the fire. Rescued by an Irish monk and carried across the sea, the boy called Miach grows up inside the walls of a monastery in Meath—learning to grind oak-gall ink, copy scripture in the Irish hand, and survive the bruising social world of boys who belong to the land he has only borrowed. When he takes his vows and receives the name Brother Michael, he carries with him a survivor’s understanding of what the Northmen actually are: not demons, not instruments of God’s wrath, but men ...

The saga continues and the stakes have never been higher. Following the death of King Richard, medieval England is torn by war, power struggles, and the rise of men who refuse to remain in the mud they were born into. William and his English archers once mere serfs have become a force feared on land and sea. Fresh from escorting the emperor and his courtiers to safety, and tricking them out of their gold, William’s fleet returns to Constantinople now under siege. But this time, the battle is not for land, loyalty, or crowns… it is for treasure so valuable it could buy kingdoms. A three-...

The book provides a detailed chronological history of early Western Europe through the lives of the nobility, their marriages, wars, rebellions, and betrayals. The book has original source documentation embedded. This book was compiled from 20-plus years of research combined with an interest in the history of western civilization. By putting all the events in chronological order, I was able to show the impact of relationships between the various factions, and how these relations helped shape Western Europe.