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This book is a biography of the underappreciated eleventh-century Scandinavian warlord-turned-Anglo-Saxon monarch who united the English and Danish crowns to forge a North Sea empire: Cnut. The book offers a fascinating reappraisal of Cnut, one of the most misunderstood of the Anglo-Saxon kings: the powerful Danish warlord who conquered England and created a North Sea empire in the eleventh century. The book draws from a wealth of written and archaeological sources to provide the most detailed accounting to date of the life and accomplishments of a remarkable figure in European history, a forward-thinking warrior-turned-statesman who created a new Anglo-Danish regime through designed internationalism.

This book offers a reinterpretation of the life of a pivotal figure in British and European history. This book combines biography and a multidisciplinary approach to examine the life of a major figure in British and European history. Using a framework derived from studies of early medieval kingship, it assesses each phase of William's life to establish why so many trusted William to invade England in 1066 and the consequences of this on the history of the so-called Norman Conquest after the Battle of Hastings and for generations to come. Taking an innovative approach, the book argues for a move away from old perceptions and controversies associated with William's life and the Norman Conquest.

This first modern study of Henry the Young King, eldest son of Henry II but the least known Plantagenet monarch, explores the brief but eventful life of the only English ruler after the Norman Conquest to be created co-ruler in his father's lifetime. Crowned at fifteen to secure an undisputed succession, Henry played a central role in the politics of Henry II's great empire and was hailed as the embodiment of chivalry. Yet, consistently denied direct rule, the Young King was provoked first into heading a major rebellion against his father, then to waging a bitter war against his brother Richard for control of Aquitaine, and dying before reaching the age of thirty having never assumed actual power. This history provides a portrait of an all-but-forgotten royal figure tutored by Thomas Becket, trained in arms by the great knight William Marshal, and incited to rebellion by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, while using his career to explore the nature of kingship, succession, dynastic politics, and rebellion in twelfth-century England and France.

In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found him on the other side of the Channel: astonishingly, the most attractive candidate for the crown of England was Louis, eldest son and heir of the king of France. This fascinating biography of England's least-known ‘king’ — and the first to be written in English — explores the life and times of ‘Louis VIII the Lion’ before, during, and beyond his quest for the English throne. It illuminates the national and international context of his 1216 invasion, and explains why and how after sixteen fruitless months he failed to make himself King Louis I of England. The book also explores Louis's subsequent reign over France until his untimely death on the Albigensian crusade. Published eight centuries after the creation of Magna Carta and on the 800th anniversary of Louis's proclamation as king, this fascinating story is a colorful tale of national culture, power, and politics that brings a long-forgotten life out of the shadows of history.

This book shows that food in late-medieval England was far more complex, varied, and more culturally significant than we imagine today. Drawing on a vast range of sources, the book charts how emerging technologies as well as an influx of new flavours and trends from abroad had an impact on eating habits across the social spectrum. The book begins with a background of the concept of food in medieval England, and moves through discussions on food in the countryside, the importance of drinks and drinking to late medieval society, the importance of bread, the role of sauces and spices, gardens, food and drink at civic occasions, food of monks and nuns, cooks and kitchens, and hunger and famine. From the pauper's bowl to elite tables, from early fad diets to the perceived moral superiority of certain foods, and from regional folk remedies to luxuries such as lampreys, the book illuminates desire, necessity, daily rituals, and pleasure across four centuries.

This book tells the story of England's great medieval Angevin dynasty in an entirely new way. Departing from the usual king-centric narrative, each chapter centers on the experiences of a particular man or woman who contributed to the broad sweep of events. Whether noble and brave or flawed and fallible, each participant was struggling to survive in the face of uncontrollable forces. Princes, princesses, priests, heroes, relatives, friends, and others—some well-known and others obscure—all were embroiled in the drama of historic events. Under Henry II and his sons Richard I (the Lionheart) and John, the empire rose to encompass much of the British Isles and the greater part of modern France, yet it survived a mere fifty years. The book weaves together the stories of individual lives to illuminate the key themes of this exciting and formative era.

Robert the Bruce (1274–1329) famously defeated the English at Bannockburn and became the hero king responsible for Scottish independence. This book focuses on Robert's kingship in the fifteen years that followed his triumphant victory and establishes Robert as not only a great military leader but a great monarch. Robert faced a slow and often troubled process of legitimating his authority, restoring government, rewarding his supporters, accommodating former enemies, and controlling the various regions of his kingdom, none of which was achieved overnight. The book investigates Robert's resettlement of lands and offices, the development of Scotland's parliaments, his handling of plots to overthrow him, his relations with his family and allies, his piety and court ethos, and his conscious development of an image of kingship through the use of ceremony and symbol. In doing so, the book repositions Robert within the context of wider European political change, religion, culture, and national identity as well as recurrent crises of famine and disease.

In medieval Europe, falconry was perhaps the most popular form of hunting among the aristocracy. Owning a falcon, and the necessary falconer to go with it, was a status symbol throughout the middle ages. This book is a broad history of English royal falconry in medieval times, drawing on forty years of research to provide a full description of the actual practice and conditions of the sport, and of the role of falconers in the English royal household. It begins with a description of birds of prey, their training, and the sport of falconry. The book provides a short history of early falconry in Western Europe and England, then explores in detail royal falconry from the reign of William I to the death of Edward I in 1307. It concludes with an overview of the place and importance of falconry in medieval life.