Who was the real King Arthur? What do the historical documents tell us about the Knight of the Round Temple? It is just a chivalric fantasy? The story of Arthur has been handed down to us by Medieval poets & legends
- but what if he actually existed & was in fact a great king in the early years of Britains story. Mike Ashley visits the source material & uncovers unexpected new insights into the legend: there is clear evidence that the Arthurian legends arose from the exploits of not just one man but at least three originating in Wales Scotland & Brittany. The true historical Arthur really existed & is distantly related to the present royal family.
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Starting AD 400 (around the time of their invasion of England) & running through to the 1100s (the Aftermath) historian Geoffrey Hindley shows the Anglo-Saxons as formative in the history not only of England but also of Europe. The society inspired by the warrior world of the Old English poem Beowulf" saw England become the worlds first nation state & Europes first country to conduct affairs in its own language & Bede & Boniface of Wessex establish the dating convention we still use today. Including all the latest research this is a fascinating assessment of a vital historical period." ...

The English Civil War is one of the most hotly contested areas of English History & John Miller is one of the experts on the period. Amid dramatic accounts of the key battles & confrontations Miller explores what triggered the initial conflict between crown & parliament & how this was played out in England Scotland & Ireland in the lead-up to war. As the war developed personalities & innovations on the battlefield became increasingly important culminating in the rise of Oliver Cromwell & the radical New Model Army. The wars changed the political social religious & intellectual landscape of the country for ever. Using a lifetimes knowledge & study on the period John Miller brings this extraordinary turning point in British history to life. ...

Religion politics & fear: how England was transformed by the Tudors. The English Reformation was a unique turning point in English history. Derek Wilson retells the story of how the Tudor monarchs transformed English religion & why it still matters today. Recent scholarly research has undermined the traditional view of the Reformation as an event that occurred solely amongst the elite. Wilson now shows that although the transformation was political & had a huge impact on English identity on Englands relationships with its European neighbours & on the foundations of its empire it was essentially a revolution from the ground up. By 1600 in just eighty years England had become a radically different nation in which family work & politics as well as religion were dramatically altered. Praise for Derek Wilson: Stimulating & authoritative." (John Guy). " Masterly. [ Wilson] has a deep understanding of.. .characters reaching out across the centuries." (" Sunday Times")." ...

For over a hundred years England repeatedly invaded France on the pretext that her kings had a right to the French throne. France was a large unwieldy kingdom England was small & poor but for the most part she dominated the war sacking towns & castles & winning battles
- including such glorious victories as Crecy Poitiers & Agincourt but then the English run of success began to fail & in four short years she lost Normandy & finally her last stronghold in Guyenne. The protagonists of the Hundred Year War are among the most colourful in European history: for the English Edward III the Black Prince & Henry V later immortalized by Shakespeare; for the French the splendid but inept John II who died a prisoner in London Charles V who very nearly overcame England & the enigmatic Charles VII who did at last drive the English out. Desmond Sewards account traces the changes that led to Frances final victory & brings to life all the intrigue & colour of the last chivalric combats as they gave way to a more brutal modern warfare.
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In 1215 the Barons of England forced King John to sign a revolutionary document which would change the political landscape of Britain & beyond for the next 800 years. Magna Carta was the forerunner of the Constitution that limited the powers of the crown & its echoes can be found in the seventeenth century Civil Wars the struggles for American Independence the work of Thomas Paine & in the bedrock of all contemporary liberal nations. As civil liberties & the rule of law are increasingly under question as part of the War on Terror it has never been more essential to return to the original document signed at Runnymede in June 1215. Leading medieval historian Geoffrey Hindley retells the story of events leading up to the conference & looks at the document itself showing how it has resonated over centuries & throughout the world. ...

From a leading expert in Japanese history this is one of the first full histories of the art & culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan & would have a powerful influence on the history & culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th & 18th centuries & how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world. ...

From the arrival of Henry Tudor & his army at Milford in 1485 to the death of the great Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 this was an astonishingly eventful & contradictory age. All the strands of Tudor life are gathered in a rich tapestry
- London & the country costumes furniture & food travel medicine sports & pastimes grand tournaments & the great flowering of English drama juxtaposed with the stultifying narrowness of peasant life terrible roads a vast underclass the harsh treatment of heretics & traitors & the misery of the Plague.
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From the Fury of the Northmen deliver us O Lord. Between the eighth & eleventh centuries the Vikings surged from their Scandinavian homeland to trade raid & invade along the coasts of Europe. Their influence & expeditions extended from Newfoundland to Baghdad their battles were as far-flung as Africa & the Arctic. But were they great seafarers or desperate outcasts noble heathens or oafish pirates the last pagans or the first of the modern Europeans? This concise study puts medieval chronicles Norse sagas & Muslim accounts alongside more recent research into ritual magic genetic profiling & climatology. It

Includes:: biographical sketches of some of the most famous Vikings from Erik Bloodaxe to Saint Olaf & King Canute to Leif the Lucky. It explains why the Danish king Harald Bluetooth lent his name to a twenty-first century wireless technology; which future saint laughed as she buried foreign ambassadors alive; why so many Icelandic settlers had Irish names; & how the last Viking colony was destroyed by English raiders. Extending beyond the traditional Viking age of most books A Brief History of the Vikings" places sudden Scandinavian population movement in a wider historical context. It presents a balanced appraisal of these infamous sea kings explaining both their swift expansion & its supposed halt. Supposed because ultimately the Vikings didnt disappear: they turned into us."

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This is a classic account of the bloody rivalry between the dynasties of York & Lancaster for the throne of Engl&. During the fifteenth century England was split in a bloody conflict between the Houses of York & Lancaster over who should claim the crown. The civil wars consumed the whole nation in a series of battles that eventually saw the Tudor dynasty take power. In A Brief History of the Wars of the Roses" Desmond Seward tells the story of this complex & dangerous period of history through the lives of five men & women who experienced the conflict first h&. In a gripping narrative the personal trials of the principal characters interweave with the major events & personalities of one of the most significant turning points in British history." ...