Overview: 'God wills it!' With that cry of medieval knights a new era in European history began. Across Europe a wave of pious enthusiasm led many thousands to leave their homes, family, and friends to march to a distant land in a great struggle for Christ. Yet the crusades were more than simply a holy war. They represent a synthesis of attitudes and values that were uniquely medieval-so medieval, in fact, that the crusading movement is rarely understood...

Presents traditional stories about the Middle Ages along with tips for storytellers.

"An epic reappraisal of the medieval world--and the rich and complicated legacy left to us by the rise of the West--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Templars. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet...

Describes the activities of the Knights Templar, a group of knights who took vows like a monastic order and fought violently against the Saracens during the Crusades. Malcolm Barber, the world's leading Templar historian, explores the impressive rise and rapid fall of a group ahead of its time. Did the Knights cause the Crusades to ultimately fail? What happened to the surviving warriors of the Order? And-- even more important-- was there a secret...

An illustrated look at various aspects of life in medieval Europe, covering everyday life, religion, royalty, and more.

"For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human...

A captivating historical novel, Pope Joan is an international best-seller. Set in the brutal Dark Ages, a time when women were viewed as the root of sin, this novel tells the remarkable tale of one of history's greatest controversies. Denied the priesthood by society's rules, young Joan seizes her opportunity to join a monastery when she assumes her murdered brother's identity and takes the name John Anglicus. Putting her brilliant mind to good use,...