Offa of Mercia was a powerful English king. And, as James Turner argues, he was also a monarch with enough importance in Western Europe to be of interest to his contemporary, Charlemagne. Around 789, the Frankish king Charlemagne wrote to King Offa of Mercia to propose a marriage between his eldest son, Charles the Younger, […]
Bede: the man who invented England by Edoardo Albert
What is England, and who are the English? The man who first posed and answered these questions lived 1,200 years ago in Northumberland. The Venerable Bede spent almost his whole life in two monasteries looking over the North Sea, far from the centres of civilisation. Yet he became the foremost scholar of the first millennium, […]
Dominion of Dust by Matthew Harffy
It’s AD797, and warrior-monk Hunlaf and his crew are on a voyage to Cyprus to acquire an important Christian relic before it falls into the hands of Byzantium’s scheming Empress Eirene. Hunlaf’s crew receive unexpected help as they seek their treasure, but soon find themselves betrayed. About to leave for home empty-handed, the adventurers instead […]
Dominion of Dust by Matthew Harffy
AD 797, and we’re in Cyprus. Warrior-monk Hunlaf and his crew are on a voyage to acquire an important Christian relic before it falls into the hands of Byzantium’s scheming Empress Eirene. Hunlaf’s crew receive unexpected help as they seek their treasure, but soon find themselves betrayed. About to leave for home empty-handed, the adventurers […]
Historical books to look out for in 2025
Welcome to Historia’s most popular regular feature, our round-up of historical books published by members of the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) to look out for during the coming year. In 2025, there are over 130 books covering history, biography, and historical fiction and spanning eras from Ancient Greece to the 1980s. And there will be […]
Blood of the Bear by Angus Donald
In AD781, pagan Saxony groans under the Christian yoke. The invincible armies of Karolus, King of the Franks, occupy all this freedom-loving land and every Saxon must submit to baptism and pay tithes to the Church, or face death by beheading. Duke Widukind, leader of the Saxon rebels, is sheltering in the North, beyond Karolus’s […]
Christian versus pagan: was Charlemagne’s conquest of Saxony the first crusade?
Angus Donald, author of Blood of the Bear, examines Charlemagne’s conquest of Saxony in the late 8th century. It was a campaign not just about territory but about religion: Christian versus pagan. Could it be considered the first ‘crusade’? The First Crusade, historians claim, was launched by Pope Urban II in 1096, after the Pontiff […]
A Savage Moon by Theodore Brun
Byzantium, 718, and the great siege is over. Crippled warrior Erlan Aurvandil is weary of war. But he must rally his strength to lead a band of misfit adventurers back to the North, to reclaim the stolen kingdom of his lover, Lilla Sviggarsdottir. For this, they need an army. To raise an army, they need […]