Medieval

Alan Rogers describes how the Welsh fortresses founded by the English King were ‘outlying strongholds thrust into the heart of enemy country.’

The Tower of London, writes E.A. Humphrey Fenn, contains on its walls an extensive collection of prisoners’ graffiti.

W.N. Bryant introduces Bede, the ‘Father of English History’, a Northumbrian Monk who devoted his life to study, teaching and church services.

Anthony Bryer describes how, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, between Turks and Byzantines, Armenian kingdoms led a perilous life. 

Having climbed from partisan leader to king of armies, Brian Boru eventually established himself as the first monarch of a consolidated Ireland.

Gwyn Jones remembers a great Northern historian, who met a violent death half way through the thirteenth century, and who has left us a memorable account of a famous Norwegian chieftain, murdered in 995.

James Edward Holroyd describes how, under the famous Duc de Berry, during a period of strife and trouble, the art of the French medieval miniaturist achieved a splendid flowering.

At the end of the tenth century, writes E.R. Chamberlin, a gifted French Pope aided the bold designs of an ambitious German Emperor.

C.G. Cruickshank describes bows and fire-arms in the early sixteenth century.

Philip Ziegler describes how the devastating Plague reached South-west England in the summer of 1348.