1. Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc follows the young woman from Domrémy whose claims of divine guidance brought her into the final phases of the Hundred Years’ War. It recounts her meeting with Charles VII, the relief of Orléans, the coronation campaign and her capture by Burgundian forces. The…
2. The Black Death
The Black Death examines the plague pandemic that swept through Europe, the Mediterranean and other parts of Eurasia in the mid-fourteenth century. It traces the disease’s spread along trade routes, the enormous mortality it caused and the medical and religious explanations offered by contemporaries. The book…
3. The Dark Ages
The Dark Ages surveys the centuries that followed the collapse of Roman rule in western Europe and led toward the more recognisable kingdoms of the Middle Ages. It examines migration, warfare, Christianisation, monastic culture and the growth of new political powers, including the Franks and Anglo-Saxons.…
4. The Hundred Years’ War
The Hundred Years’ War traces the long series of conflicts between the English Plantagenet and French Valois monarchies from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century. It covers Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the changing role of longbowmen and gunpowder, the intervention of Joan of Arc and the…
5. The Inquisition
The Inquisition surveys the different inquisitorial institutions created by the medieval Church and by later Spanish, Portuguese and Roman authorities to investigate and punish religious heresy. It explains their legal procedures, relationship with secular power and changing targets, from medieval dissidents to converts, Protestants and other…
6. The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages surveys European history from the transformation of the western Roman world through the growth of medieval kingdoms, the Church and feudal society to the crises of the later medieval period. It covers crusades, towns, trade, warfare, learning and political change, alongside the Black…