Henry V is regarded as the great English hero. Lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and his rigorous application of justice, he was elevated by Shakespeare into a champion of English nationalism for all future generations. But what was he really like?
New in paperback - The five hundredth anniversary of a momentous and spectacular meeting between two rival Renaissance monarchs; a failed bid for peace in Europe.
Agincourt was an astonishing clash of arms, a pivotal moment in the Hundred Years War and the history of warfare in general. King Henry V's exhausted troops were preparing for certain defeat as they faced a far larger French army. This book takes the reader into the heart of this extraordinary feat of arms.
The first overview of early modern English social history since the 1980s, with thematic chapters by leading scholars arranged to provide a comprehensive overview of social and cultural change in a period vital to the development of English social identities. Essential reading for students, teachers and general readers.
In A Venetian Bestiary the travel writer Jan Morris explores the animals, real, imaginary and artistic which haunt the city of floating dreams, her favourite city. This beautiful new edition is illustrated with photographs and art which perfectly complement Morris' words.
The unlikely beginnings of the East India Company-from Tudor origins and rivalry with the superior Dutch-to laying the groundwork for future British expansion
After Alfred deals with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, tracing the development of this group of texts, linking them to a southern court elite who were deeply engaged in kingdom-building.
In medieval and early modern Europe, marriage treaties were a perennial feature of the diplomatic landscape. In After Lavinia, John Watkins traces the history of the practice, focusing on the unusually close relationship between diplomacy and literary production in Western Europe from antiquity through the seventeenth...
The Black Death was the worst pandemic in recorded history. This book presents a major reevaluation of its immediate impact and longer-term consequences in England.
Examines the transition in the economy and society of England between 1250 and 1550. This book shows that development of individual property, response to new consumption patterns, and use of credit and investment, came from the peasantry rather than the aristocracy, and reveals how England was set on course to become the 'first industrial nation'.