This book provides a vivid and accessible history of first-generation immigrants to England in the later Middle Ages. Accounting for upwards of two percent of the population and coming from all parts of Europe and beyond, immigrants spread out over the kingdom, settling in the countryside as well as in towns, taking work as agricultural labourers, skilled craftspeople and professionals. Often encouraged and welcomed, sometimes vilified and victimised, immigrants were always on the social a...

Throughout human history luxury textiles have been used as a marker of importance, power and distinction. Yet, as the essays in this collection make clear, the term 'luxury' is one that can be fraught with difficulties for historians. Focusing upon the consumption, commercialisation and production of luxury textiles in Italy and the Low Countries during the late medieval and early modern period, this volume offers a fascinating exploration of the varied and subtle ways that luxury could be...

A brisk, concise, and readable overview of Irish history from the Protestant Reformation to the dawn of the twenty-first centuryFive centuries of Irish history are explored in this informative and accessible volume. John Gibney proceeds from the beginning of Ireland’s modern period and continues through to virtually the present day, offering an integrated overview of the island nation’s cultural, political, and socioeconomic history. This succinct, scholarly study ...

In this groundbreaking history of Ireland, Neil Hegarty presents a fresh perspective on Ireland's past. Comprehensive and engaging, The Story of Ireland is an eye-opening account of a nation that has long been shaped by forces beyond its coasts.The Story of Ireland re-examines Irish history, challenging the accepted stories and long-held myths associated with Ireland. Transporting readers to the Ireland of the past, beginning with the first settlement in A.D. 433,...

A new assessment of the battle for the English throne: "All readers interested in late medieval history will appreciate this" ( Library Journal).The Wars of the Roses (1455–85) were a major turning point in English history. But the underlying causes for the successive upheavals have been hotly contested by historians ever since. In this original and stimulating new synthesis, distinguished historian Michael Hicks examines the difficult economic, military, ...

A Waterstones Best History Book of the YearThe bestselling history of the North of England as told through the lives of its inhabitants.‘Entertaining’ The Times‘Definitive’ The Mirror‘Highly readable’ Financial TimesA work of unrivalled scale and ambition, Northerners is the defining biography of northern England.This authoritative new hist...

Stretching from the Ice Ages to the present day, this masterful account traces the political, social and cultural history of the land that has come to be called Wales.Spanning prehistoric hill forts and Roman ruins to the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and the series of strikes by Welsh miners in the late twentieth century, this is the definitive history of an enduring people: a unique and compelling exploration of the origins of the Welsh nation, its development and its ro...

The history of Ireland has traditionally focused on the localized struggles of religious conflict, territoriality and the fight for Home Rule. But from the early Catholic missions into Europe to the embrace of the euro, the real story of Ireland has played out on the larger international stage.Story of Ireland presents this new take on Irish history, challenging the narrative that has been told for generations and drawing fresh conclusions about the way the Irish have live...

Columba, Bannockburn, Robert Bruce, the nobles, Home Rule, Kenneth mac Alpin, the Wars of Independence, the union of the crowns, Mary, Queen of Scots, the Convenanters, the Reformation, Flodden, the industrial revolution, James VI, Thomas Chalmers, the union of parliaments, John Knox, the Canmore dynasty, Glencoe, the Enlightenment, the Highland Clearances, devolution, the Jacobites...Scotland is the first full-length, one-volume history of the country for more than twenty...

There is no more haunting, compelling period in Britain's history than the later middle ages. The extraordinary kings - Edward III and Henry V the great warriors, Richard II and Henry VI, tragic inadequates killed by their failure to use their power, and Richard III, the demon king. The extraordinary events - the Black Death that destroyed a third of the population, the Peasants' Revolt, the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Agincourt. The extraordinary artistic achievements - the great chu...

Scotland has long had a romantic appeal which has tended to be focused on a few over-dramatized personalities or events, notably Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Highland Clearances-the failures and the sad - though more positively, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce have also got in on the act, because of their heroism in resisting English aggression. This has had its own satisfaction, and has certainly been very good for the tourist industry. But, fuelled by theexplosion...

The background history of Ireland is vital to an understanding of its people and culture. <I>A Travellers History of Ireland</I> offers a chronological outline of the country up to the present day as well as an invaluable introduction to a land of poets, saints, illustrious soldiers and inspiring and persistent rebels. The book includes a comprehensive description of modern Ireland, both North and South, and of its two separate Catholic Nationalist and Protestant U...