WINNER YOUNG QUILLS AWARD BEST HISTORICAL FICTION 2021 12-year-old Ada is a laundress of little consequence but the new castle commander Brian de Berclay has his evil eye on her. Perhaps she shouldn't have secretly fed the young prisoner in the tower. But when the King of England crosses the border with an army of over 3000 strong, Ada, her friend Godfrey and all at Caerlaverock suddenly find themselves under attack, with only 60 men for protection. Soon, rocks and flaming arrows rain from the sky over Castle Caerlaverock - and Ada has a dangerous choice to make.

Charlene M. Eska presents in this book a critical edition and translation of a newly discovered early Irish legal text on lost and stolen property, Aidbred. Although the Old Irish text itself is fragmentary, the copious accompanying commentaries provide a wealth of legal, historical, and linguistic information, thus presenting us with a complete picture of the legal procedures involved in reclaiming missing property. This book also includes editions of two other texts concerning property found on land, Heptad 64, and at sea, Muirbretha. The three texts edited together provide a complete picture of this aspect of the early Irish legal system.

Around 1485, the age-old compilation of Old Frisian customary law, partly dating back to the 11th century, was put into print. Latin glosses were included in the text with references to Canon and Roman law. This gloss tradition had come into being during the 13th and 14th centuries. This incunable came to be known as Freeska Landriucht or Frisian Land Law. This book presents its first edition with an English translation.

Why devote a Companion to the "mirrors for princes", whose very existence is debated? These texts offer key insights into political thoughts of the past. Their ambiguous, problematic status further enhances their interest. And although recent research has fundamentally challenged established views of these texts, until now there has been no critical introduction to the genre. This volume therefore fills this important gap, while promoting a global historical perspective of different "mirrors for princes" traditions from antiquity to humanism, via Byzantium, Persia, Islam, and the medieval West. This Companion also proposes new avenues of reflection on the anchoring of these texts in their historical realities. Contributors are Makram Abbes, Denise Aigle, Olivier Biaggini, Hugo Bizzarri, Charles F. Briggs, Sylvene Edouard, Jean-Philippe Genet, John R. Lenz, Louise Marlow, Cary J. Nederman, Corinne Peneau, Stephane Pequignot, Noelle-Laetitia Perret, Gunter Prinzing, Volker Reinhardt, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Tom Stevenson, Karl Ubl, and Steven J. Williams.

A monastic artist with an unusual enthusiasm of male buttocks and genitalia; a nun bringing her spinning equipment from her home in the south to her new convent in the north; the riddle of a carved archer bearing a book instead of arrows; a bishop's ring hiding in its design symbols of the essential aspects of the Christian faith: these are some of the secrets of early medieval personal and public worship uncovered in this book. In tribute to a scholar who is herself a polymath of early medieval studies, these chapters explore approaches which have particularly engaged her: stone sculpture; text; textiles; manuscript art; metalwork; and archaeology. With a brief foreword by Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp. Contributors are Richard N. Bailey, Michelle P. Brown, Peter Furniss, Jane Hawkes, David A. Hinton, Maren Clegg Hyer, Catherine E. Karkov, Alexandra Lester-Makin, Christina Lee, Donncha MacGabhann, Eamonn O Carragain, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Frances Pritchard, and Penelope Walton Rogers.

Providing new insights into the Bianchi devotions, a medieval popular religious revival which responded to an outbreak of plague at the turn of the fifteenth century, this book takes a comparative, local and regional approach to the Bianchi, challenging traditional presentations of the movement as homogeneous whole. Combining a rich collection of textual, visual, and material sources, the study focuses on the two Tuscan towns of Lucca and Pistoia. Alexandra R.A. Lee demonstrates how the Bianchi processions in central Italy were moulded by secular and ecclesiastical authorities and shaped by local traditions as they attempted to prevent an epidemic.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller A Times, New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year 'Simply the best popular history of the Middle Ages there is' Sunday Times 'A great achievement, pulling together many strands with aplomb' Peter Frankopan, Spectator, Books of the Year 'It's so delightful to encounter a skilled historian of such enormous energy who's never afraid of being entertaining' The Times, Books of the Year 'An amazing masterly gripping panorama' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'A badass history writer... to put it mildly' Duff McKagan 'A triumph' Charles Spencer Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. It is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, sacked by barbarians in AD 410, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity. Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones's trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations - Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople - and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women. This is a book written about - and for - an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here? Also available in audio, read by the author.

The hidden story of a little-known but transformative period in the formation of England as a nation. The Viking Great Army that swept through England between AD 865 and 878 altered the course of British history. Since the late 8th century, Viking raids on the British Isles had been a regular feature of life, but the winter of 865 saw a fundamental shift that would change the political, economic and social landscape forever. Instead of making quick smash-and-grab summer raids for silver and slaves, Vikings now remained in England for the winter and became immersed in its communities. Some settled permanently, acquiring land and forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. The Viking army was here to stay. Its presence was a catalyst for new towns and new industries, while transformations in power politics would ultimately see the rise of King Alfred the Great and make Wessex the pre-eminent kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England. Drawing on the most up-to-date discoveries and the latest scientific techniques, the authors' recent research at the Viking Great Army's winter camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire has revolutionized what we know about its size, activities and social makeup, as has the wealth of newly recovered evidence from metal-detectorists. Unfolding like a great detective story, this account traces the movements of the Great Army across the country, piecing together a new picture of Viking Age England in unprecedented detail, from swords, coins, jewelry and the burials of great warriors to the everyday objects that ordinary farmers and craftsmen discarded. It is the definitive story of a vital period in British history.

"Space Matters!" claimed Doreen Massey and John Allen at the heart of the Spatial Turn developments (1984). Compensating a four-decades shortfall, this collective volume is the first reader in Byzantine spatial studies. It contextualizes the spatial turn in historical studies by means of interdisciplinary dialogue. An introduction offers an up-to-date state of the art. Twenty-nine case studies provide a wide range of different conceptualizations of space in Byzantine culture articulated in a single collection through a variety of topics and approaches. An afterword frames the future challenges of Byzantine spatial studies in a changing world where space is a claim and a precarious social value. Contributors are Ilias Anagnostakis, Alexander Beihammer, Helena Bodin, Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom, Beatrice Caseau Chevallier, Paolo Cesaretti, Michael J. Decker, Veronica della Dora, Rico Franses, Sauro Gelichi, Adam J. Goldwyn, Basema Hamarneh, Richard Hodges, Brad Hostetler, Adam Izdebski, Liz James, P. Nick Kardulias, Isabel Kimmelfield, Tonia Kiousopoulou, Johannes Koder, Derek Krueger, Tomasz Labuk, Maria Leontsini, Yulia Mantova, Charis Messis, Konstantinos Moustakas, Margaret Mullett, Ingela Nilsson, Robert G. Ousterhout, Georgios Pallis, Myrto Veikou, Joanita Vroom, David Westberg, and Enrico Zanini.

Al-Maqrizi's (d. 845/1442) last work, al-H abar 'an al-basar, was completed a year before his death. This volume, edited by Jaakko Hameen-Anttila, covers the history of pre-Islamic Iran during the Sasanian period and the conquest. Al-Maqrizi's work shows how Arab historians integrated Iran into world history and how they harmonised various currents of historiography (Middle Persian historiography, Islamic sacred history, Greek and Latin historiography). This part harmonises the versions of Miskawayh's Tagarib, al-T abari's Ta'rih , and several other sources, producing a fluent narrative of Iran from the early 3rd century until 651. It also includes the complete text of 'Ahd Ardasir, here translated for the first time into English.

Little is known about the Christianization of east-central and eastern Europe, due to the fragmentary nature of the historical record. Yet occasionally, unexpected archaeological discoveries can offer fresh angles and new insights. This volume presents such an example: the discovery of a Byzantine-like church in Alba Iulia, Transylvania, dating from the 10th century - a unique find in terms of both age and function. Next to its ruins, another church was built at the end of the 11th century, following a Roman Catholic architectural model, soon to become the seat of the Latin bishopric of Transylvania. Who built the older, Byzantine-style church, and what was the political, religious and cultural context of the church? How does this new discovery affect our perception of the ecclesiastical history of Transylvania? A new reading of the archaeological and historical record prompted by these questions is presented here, thereby opening up new challenges for further research. Contributors are: Daniela Marcu Istrate, Florin Curta, Horia I. Ciugudean, Aurel Dragota, Monica-Elena Popescu, Calin Cosma, Tudor Salagean, Jan Nicolae, Dan Ioan Muresan, Alexandru Madgearu, Gabor Thoroczkay, Eva Toth-Revesz, Boris Stojkovski, Serban Turcus, Adinel C. Dinca, Mihai Kovacs, Nicolae Calin Chifar, Marius Mihail Pasculescu, and Ana Dumitran.

This is the first book in English providing a wide range of Byzantine legal sources. In six chapters, this book explains and illustrates Byzantine law through a selection of fundamental Byzantine legal sources, beginning with the sources before the time of Justinian, and extending up to AD 1453. For all sources English translations are provided next to the original Greek (and Latin) text. In some cases, tables or other features are included that help further elucidate the source and illustrate its nature. The volume offers a clear yet detailed primer to Byzantine law, its sources, and its significance.

In Force of Words, Haraldur Hreinsson examines the social and political significance of the Christian religion as the Roman Church was taking hold in medieval Iceland in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. By way of diverse sources, primarily hagiography and sermons but also material sources, the author shows how Christian religious ideas came into play in the often tumultuous political landscape of the time. The study illuminates how the Church, which was gathering strength across entire Europe, established itself through the dissemination of religious vernacular discourse at the northernmost borders of its dominion.

This open access book brings together an international team of experts, The Middle Ages in Modern Culture considers the use of medieval models across a variety of contemporary media - ranging from television and film to architecture - and the significance of deploying an authentic medieval world to these representations. Rooted in this question of authenticity, this interdisciplinary study addresses three connected themes. Firstly, how does historical accuracy relate to authenticity, and whose version of authenticity is accepted? Secondly, how are the middle ages presented in modern media and why do inaccuracies emerge and persist in these works? Thirdly, how do creators of modern content attempt to produce authentic medieval environments, and what are the benefits and pitfalls of accurate portrayals? The result is nuanced study of medieval culture which sheds new light on the use (and misuse) of medieval history in modern media. This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved there, and how they-not merely the clergy-affected how worship was staged. The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches remained as before.

Controversial scholarly debates around the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in the last century are not only rooted in the scarcity or heterogeneity of sources, but also in the mentalities and ideologies that canonised thought paradigms. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach at the interface between Ottoman, Byzantine, Mediterranean and Southeast European studies. Unusual sources such as Western Anatolian numismatics and predominantly European documents met innovative methods from the study of violence and power networks. Making a case study around the military akinci institution, the author re-evaluates the emergence of the Ottoman polity in dealing with various warlords and across multiple identities and political affiliations.