Mass Market Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Orbit (October 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316033677

Book Description:

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city’s most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Rating on Amazon: 4 out of 5 stars (274 reviews)

Towton is a nondescript village in northern England, between the cities of York and Leeds. Many Britons have never heard of it: school history tends to skip the 400-or-so years between 1066 and the start of the Tudor era. Visitors have to look hard to spot the small roadside cross that marks the site of perhaps the bloodiest battle ever fought in England. Yet the clash was a turning point in the Wars of the Roses. And, almost 550 years later, the site is changing our understanding of medieval battle.

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Additional reading:

• Towton 1461: England’s Bloodiest Battle by Christopher Gravett
• Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses by David Santiuste
• Towton Battlefield Society
• Battle of Towton from the NationalArchives.gov.uk

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Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Creme de la Crime (March 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1780290160

Book Description:

An intriguing new Brother Athelstan historical mystery - December, 1380. When the corpse of Sir Robert Kilverby is discovered in a locked room, Brother Athelstan accompanies the King’s coroner to investigate. For Sir Robert had in his possession a priceless relic, a sacred bloodstone, which has now disappeared. Did Sir Robert die of natural causes or was he murdered? Athelstan is sceptical of rumours of a curse hanging over Sir Robert, but when it is discovered that a second old soldier has been gruesomely slain on the same night, the rumours no longer seem so far-fetched . . .

I generally don’t read a lot of murder mystery type books, and if I do, they are most likely going to be set during the middle ages, obviously. One of the best I’ve read is Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose, and while Bloodstone does not compare to Name of the Rose in breadth and scope — Eco’s book is two to three times as long — in some respects it could be considered more enjoyable. Doherty’s book is much more concise, as he quickly gets to the murders at hand and the investigation that ensues. The story does not get lost in philosophical and scholarly debates.

The strongest element of the book is that it is unpredictable. Maybe I haven’t read enough murder mysteries, but I really had a difficult time predicting who had committed the crimes. Doherty also does a fairly nice job with his characters. For such a short novel, only 240 pages, the reader does get a good sense of the characters, though most are not overly complex. The major characters like Athelstan are well-liked the entire time. The secondary characters do slightly shift in perception as the story unfolds. Doherty’s dialog is also fairly good. Most of it comes across as being realistic. It’s not Hemingway-esque or on the level of Bernard Cornwell even, but it is still good.

The only quibbles you might could have with the story is the setting. Doherty does a nice job with putting the reader in the medieval period, but I’m certain you could nit-pick and find elements that are historically debatable.

Overall, the story is a good-read. The pacing is good and the suspense is well drawn out. Perfect length.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

King Harold Godwineson is remembered as one of the great `losers’ in history, the man who provided William the Bastard with the opportunity to earn a more flattering sobriquet. Harold’s defeat at Hastings has obscured not only the very real military talents that earned him victories over formidable Welsh and Viking opponents but, more importantly, the sophistication of the military organization he and other late Anglo-Saxon kings possessed. Scholars have not sufficiently appreciated Harold’s logistical accomplishments in the summer and autumn of 1066. Learning of William’s invasion plans. Harold summoned in May a massive naval and land force, characterized in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as “larger than any king had assembled before in this country.” He billeted his troops along the southern coast of England and harbored his fleet throughout the summer and early autumn on the Isle of Wight, awaiting William’s move. Finally, on 8 September, at least two months after the army and fleet had been assembled, provisions finally ran out and the troops returned home. Almost immediately thereafter Harold learned of the invasion of Harald Hardrada, hurriedly assembled a new army and forced marched it some 200 miles along the Great North Road to Stamford Bridge, then, after a hard fought and bloody victory, he forced marched the survivors south to confront William at Hastings.

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The English Middle Ages saw the construction of some of the world’s greatest buildings, structures that still shape our towns, cities and countryside and mould our national identity. This tradition continued into modern times and beyond. These lectures give a controversial new view of how England has been built starting with the departure of the Romans and ending in the present day. These lectures were delivered by Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, in his role as Visiting Gresham Professor. All information about these lectures and all future free public lectures can be found on the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Monarchy

Synopsis: The English Crown is one of the oldest surviving governing bodies in the world. Hosted by the erudite, energetic Dr. David Starkey (The Six Wives of Henry VIII), this series tells the epic and bloody stories of Britain’s kings and queens from the Saxon era (Alfred the Great) to the early 20th century (Victoria).

Season year: 2004

Season 1 episodes include:

• “A Nation State” - The unique idea of a monarch who is answerable to the people has its roots in early Anglo-Saxon kings such as Alfred the Great, the intellectual warrior who united England.
• “Aengla Land” -  After decades of pounding by Danish invaders intent on “shock and awe,” England survives and thrives–but faces a true crisis after Edward the Confessor’s death.
• “Conquest” - With a mere 7,000 soldiers, William of Normandy conquers and brutally subjugates a nation of two million, changing England’s culture, social structure, and politics forever.
• “Dynasty” - harismatic and hot-tempered, Henry II restores order to his realm by law and by the sword. Later in his line, the Magna Carta curbs and codifies royal power.
• “A United Kingdom” - During “the century of Edwards,” the Hammer of the Scots boldly extends his rule over neighboring kingdoms, Edward II loses the crown as a captive of his passions, and Edward III styles himself as a new King Arthur.
• “Death of a Dynasty” - In a kingly conflict dramatized and embellished by Shakespeare, Richard II and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, vie for the throne and begin a decades-long struggle that threatens the very basis of the English monarchy.

The four sciences, i.e. arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, which made up the higher division of study in the Middle Ages.

*Source: A Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases by Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams

Additional Reading:

Petrus Paulus Vergerius: The New Education (c. 1400)
P. P. Vergerius the Elder (1370-1444) was a teacher at Florence, Bologna, and Padua. He was present at the Council of Constance, and later worked for the Emperor Sigismund.

Soon after 1400, he wrote the first important Renaissance treatise on education for Ubertino, the son of Francesco Carrara, lord of Padua. Printed here, it represented a sort of humanist program. It does discuss the medieval trivium and quadrivium, along with the traditional disciplines of medicine, law and theology. But the stress is on the newer “liberal studies,” of history, moral philosophy, rhetoric, and literature.

A bronze, Viking-era “piggy-bank” containing thousands silver coins dating from the 11th century has been unearthed on the Baltic island of Gotland in what Swedish archaeologists have described as a “fantastic” treasure find.

The silver treasure was found last Thursday during an archaeological examination of a field in Rone, on southern Gotland.

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