From the time the Romans first set foot on England's shore in 55 B.C., the British Isles have faced a constant threat of foreign invasion. As a result, the landscapes of England, Scotland, and Ireland are dotted with ancient defensive fortifications as varied as their makers. Iron Age Celtic "hill forts," Roman castra and Hadrian's Wall, Anglo-Saxon dykes and Alfredian burhs, Norman mottes... [click here for more]
Although life in the Middle Ages was not as comfortable and safe as it is for most people in industrialized countries today, the term "Dark Ages" is highly misleading. The era was not so primitive and crude as depictions in film and literature would suggest. Even during the worst years of the centuries immediately following the fall of Rome, the legacy of that civilization survived.
This... [click here for more]
The Sagas of Icelanders are enduring stories from Viking-Age Iceland filled with love and romance, battles and feuds, tragedy and comedy.
Yet these tales are little read today, even by lovers of literature. The culture and history of the people depicted in the Sagas are often unfamiliar to the modern reader, though the audience for whom the tales were intended would have had an intimate understanding... [click here for more]
In medieval and Renaissance Europe, mercenaries--professional soldiers who fought for money or other rewards--played violent, colorful, international roles in warfare, but they have received relatively little scholarly attention.
In this book a large number of vignettes portray their activities in Western Europe over a period of nearly 900 years, from the Merovingian mercenaries of 752 through the... [click here for more]
The Normans originally came to Italy and Sicily in the 11th and 12th centuries looking for adventure or a livelihood, but once there, found opportunity for fame and fortune. The story of the Norman conquest in Italy and Sicily is indeed one of knights and adventurers, great battles and lowly pillage, opportunism and statesmanship, and crusade and coexistence.
This rich and often dramatic study focuses... [click here for more]
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