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.

On Christmas Day in the year 800, a Frankish warlord knelt in a Roman church and stood up an emperor. The empire he claimed had been dead for three centuries. The idea he revived would outlive him by a thousand years. Charlemagne could barely write his own name. He spent most of his life on horseback, fighting a brutal thirty-year war against the Saxons that included the mass killing at Verden. He buried sons, watched a rearguard die at Roncesvalles, and ruled a sprawling realm with almost no bureaucracy, no standing capital, and no money economy worth the name. And yet, by the time he died...

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. 

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 ...

The definitive history of the Ottoman Empire “Lucid, judicious and enjoyable.” (Times Literary Supplement) The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and most influential empires in world history. Its reach extended to three continents and it survived for more than six centuries, but its...

Clovis was not born to rule a nation. He forged one. At the collapse of Roman authority in Gaul, power lay scattered among warlords, fading imperial officials, and rival kings. From this fractured world emerged Clovis, a Frankish ruler whose ruthless ambition, calculated conversion to Christianity, and mastery of violence reshaped Western Europe. This biography traces Clovis’s rise from tribal king to founder of the Frankish Kingdom. It examines his destruction of rival rulers, his defeat of Roman and Visigothic powers, and his decisive adoption of Catholic Christianity as a weapon of ...

FAIRACRES PUBLICATIONS 135 St Dunstan lived in the tenth century, between 909 and 988. He developed the ancient church foundation at Glastonbury into the first Benedictine monastery in England, and later served as Archbishop of Canterbury for twenty-eight years. He was a scholar, artist and musician, as well as a contemplative spiritual father. Why is his life and work of interest today after one thousand years? His influence touched many areas of English life in a way that helped determine the foundations of medieval and early modern society. He was a very gifted and many-sided person, ...

The year is 448, forty years after the Roman legions left the people of Britannia to defend themselves. The old ways of Rome still linger but they are weakening with the passing years. Many long for Rome to return, others have given up all hope of it. Some wish to rule in any way they see fit. Proconsul Virgilius still maintains power in the realm but he is aging and his grip is failing. He does not trust his two sons and relies on the advice of Ambrosius Aurelianus. A descendent of emperors, Ambrosius wishes to renew the severed links with the empire. But now the first of a series of ...

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...

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.

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-...

Step into the world of a scholar whose influence spans over a millennium, shaping not just the church, but the very fabric of Western civilization. Meet the Man Behind the Knowledge Isidore of Seville was more than just a bishop; he was a visionary who saw the power of knowledge to transform society. His life and work offer a window into a time when the preservation of wisdom was nothing short of heroic. This book invites you to explore the mind of a man who became the intellectual backbone of the early Middle Ages. Unlock the Secrets of the Etymologiae Discover how Isidore’s greatest ...

For two thousand years, the West has lived on an inheritance it has half forgotten. The infinite worth of every human life. The duty of the strong to protect the weak. The belief that conscience answers to a law above the state, that mercy outranks power, that even the poorest beggar carries an eternal dignity. We treat these as the natural common sense of mankind. They are nothing of the kind. They were the strange and revolutionary claims of a persecuted faith, and they remade the world. The Soul of Our Civilization tells that story not in the words of a single modern author, but in the ...

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.

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.

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...

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...

Bloomsbury presents Conquered by Eleanor Parker, read by Kristin Atherton. "Outstanding." – The Sunday Times "Beautifully written." The Times "Superbly adroit." The Spectator "Excellent." BBC History Magazine The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of...

The history you have been taught is a sterile lie. The modern "Viking" aesthetic is a historical fiction of the highest order, paraded across prestige television dramas and thousands of tattoo parlors worldwide. We have been sold a sanitized, commodified delusion of perfectly muscled warriors sporting immaculate, machine-rendered Celtic knots. SOOT AND SCAR - The Unsanitized Reality of the Flesh-Bound Norseman by Tomas Somerled shatters this glass cage, treating the Viking body as an archaeological dig site to uncover the harsh mechanics of human biology and environmental survival. ...