England Wars

In 1204, the great Angevin Empire was fragmenting under King John's rule. Unable to withstand France's invasion of Normandy, John also faced difficult relations with the papacy, and rising dissent among his barons. By the time John died in 1216, the failed Magna Carta gave way to civil conflict, and more than half of the country had fallen to the dauphin of France. These troubles were then passed, along with the crown, to John's nine-year-old son, Henry III.

Following the execution of the king in 1649, the new Commonwealth and then Oliver Cromwell set out to drive forward a puritan reformation of manners. They wanted to reform the church and its services, enforce the Sabbath, suppress Christmas, and spread the gospel. They sought to impose a stern moral discipline to regulate and reform sexual behaviour, drinking practices, language, dress, and leisure activities ranging from music and plays to football.

In this imagined war, coalition forces led by Russia and France invade Britain and make several early advances, but the Germans land in Britain as allies and help to repulse the invasion. The brave English patriots, together with German soldiers, try to turn the tide. Written 20 years before the start of World War I in 1914, Le Queux’s novel is considered to have influenced many subsequent works, including H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds.

Rachel Booker has a difficult start in life. When her father dies, deep in gambling debt, her mother must harden herself to make ends meet, but becomes so hard she has little room left for affection or warmth. Mother and daughter work at the open market in Birmingham, selling second-hand clothes...

Bloomsbury presents Master of War by David Gilman, read by Colin Mace. 'Page-turning and gritty' DAILY MAIL. Amid the carnage of the 100 Years War – the bloodiest conflict in medieval history – a young English archer confronts his destiny... England, 1346: For Thomas Blackstone the choice is...

The White Feather is a poignant, romantic, and sometimes tragic novel set in both the battlefields of World War I France, and in a small, Cotswold village named Claybourne-on-Coln. This engaging novel presents the reader with unforgettable characters, courageous and cowardly, generous and self-serving.

About empty thrones, a lot can be said. Throughout history, both ancient and near modern, a lack of an heir and the sudden death of a beloved monarch always meant trouble. When the position of a king is up for grabs, a lot of eager hands come forward. Pretenders and would-be heirs, cousins and nephews, bastard sons and daughters - they all came forward staking their claim to the throne. In the history of Medieval England, such episodes were many. 

Bloomsbury presents The Blood in Winter by Jonathan Healey, read by Mark Meadows. ‘You could hardly find a more engrossing or exciting story’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times ‘Rollicking’ Telegraph ‘Gripping’ Financial Times ‘History as it should be told’ Alice Loxton A thrilling...

During the 15th century England was split in a bloody conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster over who should claim the crown. The civil wars consumed the whole nation in a series of battles that eventually saw the Tudor dynasty take power. In A Brief History of the Wars of the Roses, Desmond Seward tells the story of this complex and dangerous period of history through the lives of five men and women who experienced the conflict firsthand.

Bloomsbury presents The Two Hundred Years War by Michael Livingston, read by Rupert Farley. A new and radically original account of the longest military conflict in European history, which challenges the conventional periodisation of the ‘Hundred Years War’ to consider a much longer period...

Sloan Thornton is the heir to Highcroft Hall, the family seat of the Earl of Wessex, in the quaint village of Thornton-on-Sea, on the southeast coast of England. He has always dreamed of finding his soul-mate. However, in a moment of weakness, just before he leaves to fight in World War II as an RAF pilot, he proposes to his childhood sweetheart, Anne Whitfield. There is no question how deep his devotion is to her, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other.

England in the Age of Chivalry … and Awful Diseases covers the events, personages, and ideas most commonly known as “medieval.” This includes Geoffrey Chaucer, the peasants revolt, the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Great Famine of 1315, the Black Death, and the 100 Years War. Central to this time is King Edward III, who started the 100 Years War and defined the concept of chivalry, including England’s order of the garter. His legacy continues to shape our view of England’s history and is crucial in understanding the development of Europe. 

A triumph of narrative, empathy and research, as gripping in its handling of individual witnesses to the war - those doomed to struggle with bombing, rationing, exhausting work and above all the absence of millions of family members - as of the gigantic military, social, technological and economic forces that swept the conflict along. It is the definitive account of a drama which reshaped our country.

From William Shakespeare’s series of history dramas, to Sir Walter Scott, and George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire—not to mention the smash-hit TV show Game of Thrones—the British civil war of 1455 to 1485 has inspired writers for centuries. Ed West’s My Kingdom for a Horse illuminates the bloody war fought for thirty long years between the descendants of King Edward III in a battle for the throne. 

If you want to discover the captivating history of England, then pay attention...There are few places that entice the imagination quite like England. Just a little island off the western coast of continental Europe, it boasts a rich history that stretches all the way back to the first modern humans. From the fearsome Celtic warriors of prehistory to the clever inventors and statesmen of the modern era, England’s story is one bursting with magnificent castles, complex kings and queens, rebellious peasants, and horrifying plagues.

Apart from The Last of the Mohicans, most Americans know little of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, and yet it remains one of the most fascinating periods in our history. In January 2006, PBS will air The War That Made America, a four-part documentary about this epic conflict. Fred Anderson, the award-winning and critically acclaimed historian, has written the official tie-in to this exciting television event.

A hilarious tour of Medieval England from Dan Snow and History Hit: perfect for all history lovers and fans of The Rest is History Have you ever wondered about Edgar Ætheling, the fourteen-year-old who took on William the Conqueror? Or about the woeful collapse of the Angevin Empire under King...

Eamonn McCann’s account of what it is like to grow up a Catholic in a Northern Irish ghetto - first published in 1974 - quickly became a classic account of the feelings generated by British rule. The author was at the center of events in Derry which first brought Northern Ireland to world attention. He witnessed the gradual transformation of the civil rights movement from a mild campaign for “British Democracy” to an all-out military assault on the British state. This book describes the people involved in the war and gives an account of the springs of the "Catholic" opposition.

We speak English today because the Anglo-Saxons took over most of post-Roman Britain. How did that happen? There is little evidence: not much archaeology, and even less written history. There is, however, a huge amount of speculation. King Arthur's Wars brings an entirely new approach to the subject - the answers are out there, in the British countryside, waiting to be found. Months of field work and map study allow us to understand, for the first time, how the Anglo-Saxons conquered England, county by county and decade by decade.

In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms—until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer's land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out . . . all because of a pig!