European history: medieval period, middle ages

In the 13th century, a group of heretics in southwest France, the Cathars, became a serious threat to the Catholic church.

With wit, intelligence and his trademark eye for riveting detail, John Julius Norwich has brought together the most important and fascinating events from his trilogy of the rise and fall of the Byzantine empire.

At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence.

A wave of internal conquest, settlement and economic growth took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages, which transformed it from a world of small separate communities into a network of powerful kingdoms with distinctive cultures.

Gerald of Wales was among the most dynamic and fascinating churchmen of the twelfth century.

Throughout Britain's history, one factor above all others has determined the fate of the nation: its navy.

For a thousand years an extraordinary empire made possible Europe s transition to the modern world: Byzantium.

Asser's Life of King Alfred, written in 893, is a revealing account of one of the greatest of medieval kings.

There is no more haunting, compelling period in Britain's history than the later middle ages.

The Chronicles of Froissart (1337-1410) are one of the greatest contemporary records of fourteenth-century England and France.

This chronicle of the Byzantine Empire, beginning in 1025, shows a profound understanding of the power politics that characterized the empire and led to its decline.

A revised edition of Anna Komnene's Alexiad, to replace our existing 1969 edition.

'Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'Elegant, readable .

Written following the collapse of Rome's secular control over western Europe, the History of Gregory (c.

A comprehensive analysis of European craft guilds through eight centuries of economic historyGuilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy.

Einhard's Life of Charlemagne is an absorbing chronicle of one of the most powerful and dynamic of all medieval rulers, written by a close friend and adviser.

A new departure in Penguin Classics: a book containing one of the greatest of all Renaissance woodcut sequences - Holbein's bravura danse macabreOne of Holbein's first great triumphs, The Dance of Death is an incomparable sequence of tiny woodcuts showing the folly of human greed and pride, with each image packed with drama, wit and horror as a skeleton mocks and terrifies everyone from the emperor to a ploughman.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, some sexual and gendered behaviors were labeled "e;sodomitical"e; or evoked the use of ambiguous phrases such as the "e;unmentionable vice"e; or the "e;sin against nature.

A new history of Christian-Muslim relations in the Carolingian period that provides a fresh account of events by drawing on Arabic as well as western sourcesIn the year 802, an elephant arrived at the court of the Emperor Charlemagne in Aachen, sent as a gift by the ?

A groundbreaking history of how the Black Death unleashed revolutionary change across the medieval world and ushered in the modern ageIn 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours.

Medieval Italian communes are known for their violence, feuds, and vendettas, yet beneath this tumult was a society preoccupied with peace.

A groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global contextPick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa?

At the height of the Middle Ages, a peculiar system of perpetual exile-or abjuration-flourished in western Europe.

In the wake of modern genocide, we tend to think of violence against minorities as a sign of intolerance, or, even worse, a prelude to extermination.

Unrivalled Influence explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium.

Amid so much twenty-first-century talk of a "e;Christian-Muslim divide"e;--and the attendant controversy in some Western countries over policies toward minority Muslim communities--a historical fact has gone unnoticed: for more than four hundred years beginning in the mid-seventh century, some 50 percent of the world's Christians lived and worshipped under Muslim rule.

The horrors of the Great Famine (1315-1322), one of the severest catastrophes ever to strike northern Europe, lived on for centuries in the minds of Europeans who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, frighteningly high mortality, and unspeakable crimes.

An in-depth exploration of documentary forgery at the turn of the first millennium Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium takes a fresh look at documentary forgery and historical memory in the Middle Ages.

An examination of coined money and its significance to rulers, aristocrats and peasants in early medieval EuropeBetween the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the economic transformations of the twelfth, coined money in western Europe was scarce and high in value, difficult for the majority of the population to make use of.

Edward I and his offspring, especially Edward II, are not shrouded by the mists of time.

Essays into numerous aspects of the Domesday Book, shedding fresh light on its mysteries.

A study of the personal religion of King John, presenting a more complex picture of his actions and attitude.

Groundbreaking essays show the variety and complexity of the roles played by inquisition in medieval England.

A pioneering approach to contemporary historical writing on the First Crusade, looking at the texts as cultural artefacts rather than simply for the evidence they contain.

The origins of England's regional cultures are here shown to be strongly influenced by the natural environment and geographical features.

"e;An illuminating and entertaining read .

"e;A fascinating study of the also-rans and almost-made-its of medieval history .

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"e;An illuminating and entertaining read .

New interpretations of the effect of Magna Carta and other aspects of the reign of King John.

The cult of St Edmund was one of the most important in medieval England, and further afield, as the pieces here show.

A new analysis of a vital source for the history of Ireland and Scotland in the middle ages.

Medieval East Anglia - one of the most significant and prosperous parts of England in the middle ages - examined through essays on its landscape, history, religion, literature, and culture.

Essays exploring medieval castration, as reflected in archaeology, law, historical record, and literary motifs.

In a field where primary sources are thin and difficult, Abandoning America is an excellent tool for reference and research.

The true importance of cathedrals during the Anglo-Norman period is here brought out, through an examination of the most important aspects of their history.

Geoffrey le Baker's chronicle covers the reigns of Edward II and Edward III up to the English victory at Poitiers.

A new investigation of the saints' cults which flourished in medieval Scotland, fruitfully combining archaeological, historical, and literary perspectives.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines and with a special focus on reconstruction and re-enactment.

The author of The Unseen Terror "e;looks at the fortunes of Richard II and Charles VI of France in a fascinating account of that war"e; (Books Monthly).