Betrayal, love, and lycanthropy in the time of the Crusades When Marie Penthièvre of Chalendrey is abducted from her Norman priory and taken to Brittany's court, she vows never to dishonor her family's ties by marrying a Breton brute. There is only one man who might change her mind: Tiarnán of Talensac, a handsome, skilled, and noble knight indeed. But Tiarnán does not love her, and when he marries a slip of a girl instead, Marie vows to become...

In 12th Century France, Catherine LaVendeur, the novice nun, is sent on an undercover mission by Mother Heloise, the abbess of the convent. She has to find the killer of a wealthy noblewoman. In this, Catherine is ably aided by her fiance, Edgar, a student of the monk, Peter Abelard. By the author of Death Comes As Epiphany.

Catherine LeVendeur is a creature of 12th century France whose life is a mirror of her times-but she is armed with a keen mind and lively curiosity. When Catherine's grandfather sends for his family to tell them their well is going dry, Catherine is alarmed. The family's wealth depends on its status, and if the well goes dry, their castle will fall. Her grandfather seems wracked with a fear deeper than that, though, and there's a mysterious woman...

In this succinct history of a conflict that raged for over a century, Gordon Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power that have shaped a millennium of Anglo-French relationships.

"The foundations of modern knowledge--philosophy, math, astronomy, geography -- were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed....

"Castles may conjure up a romantic fairy tale world; however, in real life, during the Middle Ages, castles were fortresses, providing shelter and protection for the lord as well as for the peasants who lived on his land. For an army, a lord depended on young soldiers in armor called knights who spent years at the castle learning the skills of warfare"--

The history of knights, from their everyday lives to their clothing, training, heraldry and orders, as well as their role in literature and film, and the decline of traditional knighthood.