The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
‘The worst traitor there ever was.’ Writing in the 12th Century, this is how the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon describes Eadric Streona. John of Worcester described him as ‘crafty and treacherous’. William of Malmesbury called him ‘the dregs of mankind and a disgrace...
Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English is a new biography by the University of Cambridge historian Elisabeth van Houts. The subject of the book, Empress Matilda, is one of the most fascinating and, arguably, one of the most overlooked characters in...
Welcome to Aspects of History, Elizabeth, and congratulations on the release of Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English. Matilda was made regent of northern Italy by her husband, the Holy Roman Emperor, at the age of just sixteen. Do you think this...
Aethelred II of England, known to history as Aethelred the Unready, is considered to be one of our most hopeless monarchs. For a thousand years he has had a reputation for failure that is perhaps only outdone by Bad King John. Yet Aethelred was the longest reigning...
Welcome back to Aspects of History, Steve. How hard was it to dig through nearly a thousand years of myth building to get to the truth about what was really happening with the Assassins and the Templars? Thanks Adam. Great question. There's really two aspects to this....
Assassins and Templars by Dr Steve Tibble is a panoramic history of two legendary organisations who appeared, grew and then faded away in a remarkably parallel way. So often these two groups are presented as foils to one another, in some ways defined by their mutual...
By the summer of 1097 the armies of the First Crusade had captured the Seljuk Turk capital of Nicaea and were moving on towards Jerusalem. In their way stood the fortress city of Antioch. They could not simply march around the city as this would leave a secure,...
Found is the debut novel from Will Erikson. It is set in 2003 in the chaotic aftermath of the coalition invasion of Iraq. Told in the first person, the protagonist, Harry Smith, is a junior officer in the UK intelligence services who is deployed to Iraq as part of the...
In England, the phrase ‘Norman Conquest’ immediately conjures up images of arrows in the eye, the Bayeux tapestry and an abrupt transition from Anglo-Saxon rule to Norman feudalism. But the conquest of England was just one facet of the extraordinary expansion of...
Oath breaker is the second book in Staten’s Honour Bound trilogy, following on from Blood Debt, released earlier in 2024. Before I start, I should confess two things: first, that this era is an era that ranks among my favourites, meaning I am predisposed to enjoy...
