Medieval Military

For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

Simon the Loyal has vowed never to love, for love makes a warrior weak. His arranged marriage to a beautiful Norman heiress would be duty and no more. But more than duty stirs his blood when he first sees Ariane. She has known only coldness from men - and a betrayal so deep it all but killed her soul. Wanting no man, trusting no man, speaking only through the sad songs she draws from her harp, Ariane comes to Simon an unwilling bride.

In 1886, the U.S. had no navy to speak of. But it did have Alfred T. Mahan, a captain of the U.S. Navy who had spent much of his career observing the exemplary fleets of the British Empire. At age 46, Mahan was just 10 years short of retirement age when the newly formed Naval and War College at Newport, Rhode Island, asked him to lecture on naval history and tactics. Out of these lectures grew a book that would change the world. It's no exaggeration that The Influence of Seapower Upon History affected the outcome of both great world wars. When it was first published in 1890, prime ministers, kings, admirals, and chancellors eagerly studied its strategies, which England first employed to rule the seas. Likewise, all the major powers have used it to shape imperial policies.

King Henry V’s victory over the French armies at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 is unquestionably one of the most famous battles in history. From Shakespeare’s ‘band of brothers’ speech to its appearances in numerous films, Agincourt rightfully has a place among a handful of conflicts whose names are immediately recognized around the world. Agincourt provides a new look at this battle. Mike Livingston goes back to the original sources, including the French battle plan that still survives today, to give a new interpretation, one that challenges the traditional site of the battlefield itself.

Edward Courtenay, the last Plantagenet, has a claim to the throne of England that he must never be allowed to make. Courtenay has already tried to bolster his right to rule by backing Wyatt's failed uprising, and then by trying to wed the Princess Elizabeth, embroiling her in his treasonous plots. Richard, his conscience torn by what he must do, returns to Italy to find Courtenay. Once he completes his task he intends to hand himself to the Order and secure the release of Lizbet and the rest of his men.

The bitter conflict between England and France we call The Hundred Years War, and lasting 116 years between 1337 and 1453, was fought over claims by the English kings to the French throne. By the end of this titanic struggle, it can fairly be said that the Middle Ages had come to an end.

In The Warwolf, Hermann Löns's acclaimed historical novel, the tragedy and horrors of war in general, and these times in particular are revealed. The Warwolf, based on the author's careful research, traces the life of Harm Wulf, a land-owning peasant farmer of the northern German heath who realizes after witnessing the murder of neighbors and family at the hands of marauding troops that he has a choice between compromising his morals or succumbing to inevitable torture and death.

Bordeaux, 1367. Having angered the bloodthirsty Don Pedro, King of Castile, Sir Thomas Blackstone is thoroughly sick of his mission for the Prince of Wales, but must remain true to his oath. But this is the Hundred Years' War, and tensions are rising once more. With the Prince of Wales deeply unpopular in his Aquitainian lands, Blackstone, King Edward's Master of War, must return to French soil to help stem the tide of support for the King of France. Meanwhile, Henry, Blackstone's son, faces an incognito ride across France with his own motley band of outlaws and mercenaries.

AD 1041. After successfully avenging the death of his father, Halfdan and the crew of the Sea Wolf seek adventure in strange new lands, far from their Scandinavian home. They join the fleet of Harald Hardrada, the legendary Viking commander, sailing back to Constantinople from the battlefields of Georgia. There they join the Varangians, the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors populated almost exclusively by Viking warriors. But Constantinople has changed during Hardrada's long absence.

The religious wars of the crusades are renowned for their military engagements. But the period was witness to brutality beyond the battlefield. More so than any other medieval war zone, the Holy Land was rife with unprecedented levels of criminality and violence. In the first history of its kind, Steve Tibble explores the criminal underbelly of the crusades. From gangsters and bandits to muggers and pirates, Tibble presents extraordinary evidence of an illicit underworld. He shows how the real problem in the region stemmed not from religion but from young men.

In the time period between the fall of Rome and the spread of the Renaissance across the European continent, many of today's European nations were formed, the Catholic Church rose to great prominence, some of history's most famous wars occurred, and a social class system was instituted that lasted over 1,000 years.

Saxon England burns under attack from the Great Heathen Army. Vicious Viking adventurers land on the coast of Frankia hungry for spoils, conquest and glory. Hundr and the crew of the warship Seaworm are hunted by Ivar the Boneless, a pitiless warrior of incomparable fury and weapon skill. Amidst the invasion of Brittany and war with the Franks, Hundr allies with the armies of Haesten and Bjorn Ironside, two of the greatest warriors of the Viking Age. Ivar the Boneless hunts Hundr, desperate to avenge the death of his son at Hundr's hand.

1265. England has a new master. Simon de Montfort's victory at the Battle of Lewes has made him king in all but name. He has vowed to restore the rights and liberties of the kingdom, but now even his friends grow wary of his power. As old alliances break down, new rebellions gather strength. The captive king's supporters muster, vowing to overthrow the new regime. Meanwhile Adam de Norton, who won the honour of knighthood on the field at Lewes, has reclaimed his ancestral lands. A peaceful and prosperous future lies before him - until he receives a summons he cannot refuse.

AD 1043. Having escaped Constantinople with their lives—barely—but not their ship, Halfdan and the wolves of Odin are now mercenaries in the Byzantine army, sailing to Apulia in Italy to help retake territory from the Normans. But cracks are beginning to show among the tight-knit wolves. Gunnhild, having forsaken the fate woven for her by the Norns in order to continue her journey with Halfdan, has lost her ability to communicate with the goddess Freyja, and so glimpse the future.

In The Race for Paradise, Paul M. Cobb offers a new history of the confrontations between Muslims and Franks we now call the "Crusades", one that emphasizes the diversity of Muslim experiences of the European holy war. There is more to the story than Jerusalem, the Templars, Saladin, and the Assassins. Cobb considers the Arab perspective on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria.

After a long period of uneventful sieges and skirmishing, lasting from the death of Edward III in 1377 until the accession of Henry V in 1413, The Hundred Years War is suddenly and dramatically fanned into full fledged war in a third and final phase. Henry V is determined to end the conflict once and for all on the field of battle. After assembling an army, he crosses to Calais in 1415 and marches toward Paris.

Poitiers was in the past, but it changed the life of Sir John Hawkwood, for he gained his spurs and that was another step on his journey. Once he realised that he had more ambition than just to serve the king of England, he joined forces with Albert Sterz and formed a company of mercenaries who hired out their swords. Fighting for the king of England against Burgundy, they gained a reputation which made others both fear and hate them in equal measure.

The Black Death! England has won the war with France, but the disease which rampages through the land takes both rich and poor, warrior and worker. John Hawkwood and his two companions spend the winter in the north. It is in the spring that he begins to mould his company into a fighting force, and he serves the Baron Mortimer on the Welsh Border. There his men learn to fight as one, and John Hawkwood begins the change from archer to man at arms.

The Annals, Part 2 picks up in the year A.D. 32 with the increasingly menacing and tyrannical behavior of Tiberius. With hundreds murdered or driven to suicide and many more in exile, Tiberius descends steadily into growing lust and debauchery on his private estate on the isle of Capri. Overseas, Rome is victorious in her struggle with Parthia, and as Tiberius is being smothered to death in A.D. 37 by Macro, peace at last comes to the eastern frontier.

The Italian Wars refers to a period of prolonged conflict between 1494 and 1559 when the major European powers of the time fought for control over Italy. While it began with a French attempt to gain control over the territory of Naples, it soon expanded to a general struggle between the royal houses of Valois and Habsburg - specifically, Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The Italian Wars represented a change in warfare tactics from the contract armies common in the Medieval period to full-time standing armies common in the modern era.