Medieval

J.L. Kirby describes the reign of a sovereign with a ‘genius for popular kingship’; Henry V was probably the first English ruler to address his subjects in their native language.

Since before Roman times, writes Marjorie Sykes, pearl-fishing has been practised in North Wales, Cumberland and Perth.

Neil Ritchie traces the career of a Norman Crusader in Italy, in Syria and in wars with the Byzantine Emperor.

Richard Harrison describes how the foundations of the ‘Second’ Assyrian Empire were firmly laid by a great warrior-king.

Michael E. Martin recounts how Normans from Italy invaded the Byzantine Empire and Robert Guiscard sought to inherit the Imperial Crown.

M. Foster Farley describes how, during his five years in the Vatican, Nicholas Breakspear had important dealings with the Holy Roman Empire, England and Ireland, and the Norman kingdom of Sicily.

During the seventh century AD a Celestial Emperor’s concubine herself became Empress; in effect, she ruled China for 50 years.

J.P. Harthan describes The Salisbury Book of Hours; compiled in Rouen about 1425, the prayer-book owes its name to one of the best English commanders in France.

Stephen Clissold describes a world of Christian slaves and Moslem masters in North Africa, from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.

Philip E. Burnham Jr. describes how the court of Clement VI at Avignon became a model of humanism and scholarship for princely courts elsewhere in Europe.