Medieval

In 1373, writes Jan Read, King Edward III signed an alliance with Portugal which has lasted ever since.

The use of the sword as an effective military weapon has been abandoned since the First World War, but its decline had begun at a very much earlier period. T.H. McGuffie describes how, during the Franco-German struggle of 1870-1871, among some forty thousand cavalry engaged, only six men are believed to have received a mortal sabre-wound.

Though he had begun life as an energetic mercenary soldier, writes Alan Haynes, the Duke of Urbino became a celebrated humanist and a generous patron of contemporary art and learning.

‘The pleasure of books possessed me from childhood’ wrote this twelfth-century historian. Among other work, William of Malmesbury, writes J.J.N. McGurk, produced an Historia Novella, extending until 1142.

John Godfrey describes how the capture of Constantinople in 1204 was an unexpected result of the Crusading movement.

In the thirteenth century, writes Diana E. Greenway, one of the Bishops in the important see of Winchester was a rich and noble monk; the second a warrior accountant turned prelate.

A.L. Rowse describes how the centre of administrative life in Cornwall has enjoyed a varied history, from Plantagenet to modern times.

K.R. Dockray introduces a West Riding family of Percy retainers, whose land-holdings suffered from the Wars of the Roses and from legal disputes.

Between 1285 and 1355, writes Judith Hook, the turbulent Sienese enjoyed a period of unaccustomed peace.

After the Romans left and the Anglo-Saxons arrived, the south-west of England became the predominant kingdom. William Seymour traces the growth of the Kingdom of Wessex from the early sixth century.