European history: medieval period, middle ages

Whilst Richard I is one of medieval England's most famous kings he is also the most controversial.

This ground-breaking book traces the story of castles at war in England and Wales from their introduction by the Normans in the eleventh century until the end of the reign of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century.

These are the stories of women, famous, infamous and unknown, who shaped the course of medieval history.

thelflaed, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, has gone down in history as an enigmatic and almost legendary figure.

Harold Godwinson, King of England, was unable to defend his realm from William the Conqueror's invading Norman army in 1066.

Evidence of the foulness and cruelty of the greatest catastrophe ever to hit London is still being unearthed under the streets of the capital today.

'This is the history of that most sacred vessel that is named by men the Holy Grail, wherein the precious blood of Our Saviour was received on the day that He was crucified that He might redeem His followers from the pains of Hell.

The Anglo-Saxon age was one of great change and unrest.

The identity of Robin Hood has been questioned many times since the Outlaw of Sherwood first sprang to fame in the twelfth century.

For a medieval English king, delegation was a necessary evil; and nowhere more necessary - nor more potentially disastrous - than on the Anglo-Welsh borders.

Henry III became King of England within days of his ninth birthday.

To our modern minds, the Middle Ages seem to mix the well-known and familiar with wildly alien concepts and circumstances.

Like his crusading father before him, Simon de Montfort's combination of charisma, determination and fearlessness, reinforced by a wife with similar qualities, made him one of the greatest men of his age.

The Wars of the Roses call to mind bloody battles, treachery and deceit, and a cast of characters known to us through fact and fiction: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Richard III, Warwick the Kingmaker, the Princes in the Tower, Henry Tudor.

In contrast to most of Scotland, the north-western coast and the islands beyond were a region of mixed political control as well as culture into the sixteenth century.

Richard III.

Immortalised by the chronicler Froissart as the most beautiful woman in England and the most loved, Joan was the wife of the Black Prince and the mother of Richard II, the first Princess of Wales and the only woman ever to be Princess of Aquitaine.

Calling to mind a time when butchers and executioners knew more about anatomy than university-trained physicians, the phrase 'Medieval Medicine' conjures up horrors for us with our modern ideas on hygiene, instant pain relief and effective treatments.

Have you ever wondered what life was like for the ordinary housewife in the Middle Ages?

The Anglo-Saxon era was a pivotal one in England's history, and formed much of the England that we recognise today.

1066 saw three kings of England, the last of whom was William, Duke of Normandy.

The Wars of the Roses saw family fight family over the greatest prize - the throne of England.

The Wars of the Roses were a series of brutal conflicts between rival branches of the Plantagenet family - the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.

Isabella of France married Edward II in January 1308, and afterwards became one of the most notorious women in English history.

The medieval period is often thought of as the Dark Ages, a period of cultural stagnation and little economic and political advancement.

Richard III is probably the House of York's best-known figure, but the other members of the family are just as intriguing as the king who fell on Bosworth Field.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, for over thirty years, civil war tore England apart.

Few English monarchs had to fight harder for the right to rule than King Edward IV - Shakespeare's glorious son of York.

In the competition for remarkable queens, Eleanor of Aquitaine tends to win.

Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, has been called the most unlikely King of England.

The Viking Conquest of England in 1016 - a far tougher and more brutal campaign than the Norman Conquest exactly half a century later - saw two great warriors, the Danish prince Cnut and his equally ruthless English opponent King Edmund Ironside, fight an epic campaign.

The medieval era is often associated with dynastic struggles, gruesome wars and the formidable influence of the Church.

From the moment it became public news, the validity of Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Widville, the beautiful widow of a Lancastrian knight, was repeatedly called into question.

'Deus Vult' - or 'God wills it' - were the words allegedly uttered by the crowd of people present when Pope Urban II's rousing speech caused the start of the First Crusade.

Henry V, King of England and claimant to the throne of France, looked out across the field of Agincourt, the site of a remarkable victory, but there were few scenes of glory that met his eyes.

Alfred, son of thelwulf, king of the West Saxons, ran.

In the latter years of the fourteenth century a child was born, so unimportant that even his exact date of birth is unknown.

When the tall, athletic Edward of York seized the English throne in 1461, he could have chosen any bride he wanted.

Richard III remains one of the most controversial rulers in history.

Eleanor of Castile, the remarkable woman behind England's greatest medieval king, Edward I, has been effectively airbrushed from history; yet she had one of the most fascinating lives of any of England's queens.

In recent times, globalisation has made the world more interdependent than ever before.

He is one of the most reviled English kings in history.

In the centuries after the end of Roman rule England and Wales emerged as literate and Christian peoples from the debris of the former Roman provinces.

The story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table has a fascination which is universal.

The Anglo-Saxon era is one of the most important in English history, covering the period from the end of Roman authority in the British Isles to the Norman Conquest of 1066 in which the very idea of England was born.

Following the dramatic announcement that Richard III's body had been discovered, past controversies have been matched by fresh disputes.

Most wargaming titles concentrate on the more popular periods of history such as the Napoleonic Wars and the Second World War.

The Wars of the Roses were quarrels within the Plantagenet family, of which Richard's dynasty, the House of York, was one branch.

Known to be proud, regal and beautiful, Cecily Neville was born in the year of the great English victory at Agincourt and survived long enough to witness the arrival of the future Henry VIII, her great-grandson.

The bloody Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York ended with the killing of Richard III.