Filled with drama and battle, tragedy and romance, Sharon Penman’s The Land Beyond the Sea tells the epic tale of a clash of cultures that will resonate with readers today.

1172. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer – the land beyond the sea. A young realm, Outremer was baptized in blood when the men of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. The crusaders who stayed have adapted to an utterly new world: a landscape of blazing heat, exotic customs and enemies who are also neighbours.

Seeking retribution for the massacre in 1099, Saladin, leader of the vast Saracen army, launches a campaign to reclaim the sacred land from its current ruler, Baldwin IV. But while the young king proves to be intelligent, courageous and dedicated to the welfare and protection of his people, he lives his life under the terrible affliction of leprosy which has plagued him from an early age. While the scheming of rival factions and fierce political deception plague the halls of the royal court, the ever-present threat from Saladin weighs heavily on the young king’s shoulders.

Furthermore, there are few that Baldwin can trust, including the archbishop William of Tyre and Lord Balian d’Ibelin, a charismatic leader who has been one of the few to maintain the peace. But war is coming…

Richard I was crowned King in 1189 and set off almost immediately for the Third Crusade. This was a bloody campaign to regain the Holy Land, marked by warfare among the Christians and extraordinary campaigns against the Saracens. Men and women found themselves facing new sorts of challenges and facing an uncertain future. John, the youngest son, was left behind - and with Richard gone, he was free to conspire with the French king to steal his brother's throne. Overshadowing the battlefields that stretched to Jerusalem and beyond were the personalities of two great adversaries: Richard and Saladin. They quickly took the measure of each other in both war and diplomacy. The result was mutual admiration: a profound acknowledgement of a worthy opponent. In Lionheart, a gripping narrative of passion, intrigue, battle and deceit, Sharon Penman reveals a true and complex Richard - a man remarkable for his power and intelligence, his keen grasp of warfare and his concern for the safety of his men, who followed him against all odds.

This special thirtieth anniversary edition of the bestselling The Sunne in Splendour, features an author's note from Sharon Penman. Richard, last-born son of the Duke of York, was seven months short of his nineteenth birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his legendary reputation as a battle commander in the Wars of the Roses, and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. He was also a devoted brother, an ardent suitor, a patron of the arts, an indulgent father, a generous friend. Above all, he was a man of fierce loyalties, great courage and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward's court. The very codes Richard lived by ultimately betrayed him. But he was betrayed by history too. Leaving no heir, his reputation was at the mercy of his successor, and Henry Tudor had too much at stake to risk mercy. Thus was born the myth of King Richard III, the man who would stop at nothing to gain the throne. Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and love of daily life, the rigours and dangers of Court politics and the touching concerns of very real men and women, The Sunne in Splendour is a richly coloured tapestry of medieval England.

A glorious novel of the controversial Richard III---a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history

In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III---vilified as the bitter, twisted, scheming hunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower---from his maligned place in history with a dazzling combination of research and storytelling.

Born into the treacherous courts of fifteenth-century England, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.

This magnificent retelling of his life is ?lled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the ?fteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.

From the New York Times bestselling author Sharon Penman comes A King's Ransom, the stunning sequel to Lionheart Travelling home from the bloody battlefields of the Holy Land, the Crusader King Richard the Lionheart is shipwrecked in the Mediterranean after an encounter with pirates. He should be protected by a papal decree, but he is betrayed and captured by the Duke of Austria - a man who has good reason to loathe him - and is immediately claimed by the Holy Roman Emperor, who also bears him a bitter grudge. Richard is to spend fifteen months imprisoned, much of it in the notorious fortress at Trefils, which few men ever left. Meanwhile, his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is moving heaven and earth to raise a staggering ransom, travelling across Europe herself to buy the release of her favourite son. But her determination may not be enough. At the eleventh hour, the Duke announces that he has had a better offer from the French king, Philippe, and Richard's own treacherous brother, John. They will pay an even larger sum to continue Richard's captivity - or to turn him over to their tender mercies. Told with masterful insight and rich historical detail, A King's Ransom is a striking portrayal of the darker, troubled years of Richard - a man whose courage, compassion and intelligence became the stuff of legend.

The violent clashes between thirteenth-century England and Wales continue and now there are new, dangerous players in the game.

King Edward has brutally crushed the people's hero Simon de Montfort under his harsh heel, and now sets his greedy sights on Wales. Unscrupulous, all-powerful, fearless, the lethal warrior king burns for mastery over all of Britain, dreaming of a crown unfettered by opposition.

Great Llewelyn II, Prince of Wales, carries on his grandfather's proud dreams of an independent, united Wales, but the light of liberty is fading. And his beloved bride Ellen, daughter of Simon de Montfort, first disowned and exiled, is then cruelly imprisoned at Edward's pleasure. Llewelyn's love for Ellen is a bond that will not be broken - but Edward's vengeance and lust for power know no bounds. And his own untrustworthy, jealous brother Davydd would force Llewelyn into a battle he cannot win ... but cannot afford to lose. As the game of love and war prepares to play to its end, England and Wales cross swords in the final reckoning ...

Concluding her magnificent sequence of novels on the death throes of independent Wales, Sharon Penman weaves a superbly dramatic story of abiding faiths, broken dreams - and enduring hearts.

Bastard-born but cherished daughter of King John, Joanna becomes a political pawn when her adored father arranges her marriage to Llewelyn Prince of Gwynedd, Wales, his bitter foe. The young bride is a stranger in a hostile land, married to a man she does not know. Until she comes to love her brilliant husband, leader of men, and passionate opponent to the English laws that chain his homeland. And as bloody wars break out once more between England and Wales, Joanna is caught in the crossfire of fatal enmity, her loyalties cruelly divided between her father and the man she loves.

The battle-torn land could not be more ravaged than her troubled, turbulent heart, and in a moment of confused, guilty passion that she will never forget, Joanna risks her peace of mind, her freedom ... even her life.

This sweeping saga of true events in the thirteenth century, beginning Sharon Penman's magnificent trilogy of England and Wales, is a tangled, tempestuous story of power and passion, loyalty and lies ...

In this gripping tale of passion, politics and conflict, King Henry II finds himself brutally betrayed by his wife Eleanor and three eldest sons when they enter into a rebellion against him. Aligning themselves with Henry's most bitter enemy, King Louis of France, their treacherous actions will have devastating consequences as they bring about the downfall of a brilliant man and a powerful empire. In Devil's Brood, the compelling story of Henry and Eleanor's once great love affair is explored in an uniquely vivid way. What twists of fate turn love to hatred? What points of principle and ambition cause these two icons to struggle for power, leaving their family tragically divided and their turbulent marriage finished in all but name? Sharon Penman's glorious trilogy reaches its spellbinding conclusion.

Twelfth-century England, a land of treachery, high passions and shifting allegiances, is plunged into chaos as the Empress Maude and her cousin Stephen become locked in a bitter struggle for the throne lasting twenty years.

King Henry is dead, and there are two people who want his crown. But only one can have it. He has bequeathed it to his daughter Maude, much to the horror of his nobles, for she is arrogant and stubborn, and, most dangerous of all, a woman. When her cousin Stephen, a brave and popular warrior but a weak ruler, attempts to seize the throne, it is the beginning of a tragic conflict that brings suffering and bloodshed to all and victory to no-one.

And waiting in the wings of this tumultuous drama are other players: Maude's charming and devious son Henry, born of an enforced, bitter marriage, and the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine, both with ambitions of their own ...