Discover how ambassadors were chosen, tested, and trained in the medieval Islamic world through the writings of Ibn al-Farrāʾ, whose rare treatise reveals the art of diplomacy shaped by Iranian and Byzantine traditions.

On the shores of a lake in Guatemala, the Itzá people defied the Spanish for nearly 200 years

A 12,000-year-old figurine tells one of the earliest known narratives. What does it mean?

Saving an ancestral Haida village after a devastating storm

How the legend of King Arthur has changed from the Middle Ages to today, adapting to new audiences while remaining one of the most enduring figures in Western storytelling.

Thomas Becket’s murder inside Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 shocked medieval England and quickly turned him into a saint. But what actually happened in…

David Bachrach examines how medieval German cities formed military alliances with nobles, revealing how urban communities managed war, trade, and political power in the thirteenth century.

How did Viking raiders become imperial bodyguards? Zoe Tsiami tells the story of the Varangian Guard in medieval Constantinople.

First dates on sale today My new book, Castles, comes out this autumn. Preorders are already open in the UK and the US.

While Niccolò Machiavelli is often associated with ruthless or disreputable tactics, a closer reading of his works reveals a far more nuanced thinker with substantial insights into politics and government. This book explores his ideas on the relationship between rulers and the people they govern.

Danny Lake-Giguère explores how the management of Normandy’s forests changed after 1204, becoming an important part of the growth of royal government in medieval France.

A teenage prince wounded in battle, a king who defied the odds in France, and a ruler whose legacy still shapes how we see the Hundred Years’ War—Henry V was far more complex than the legend suggests. Michael Livingston explores the experiences that forged his character, revealing a leader who combined battlefield brilliance with calculated political ambition.