Biographies entice readers. Here are the stories of 70 persons, who made the Middle Ages

Medieval People: Vivid Lives in a Distant Landscape – From Charlemagne to Piero della Francesca
By Michael Prestwich
Thames and Hudson Ltd 2014
ISBN-10: 0500252033
ISBN-13: 979-0500252030

ABSTRACT:

This engrossing and often witty account tells the life stories of some 70 individuals who made the Middle Ages. There are kings and queens, popes and politicians, soldiers and merchants, scholars, authors and visionaries. They range from the important, such as El Cid or Frederick Barbarossa, to the little known, such as the dissolute Venetian nun Clara Sanuto. Some were astonishingly successful: the empire created by Chinggis Khan was one of the most extensive ever seen. Some, such as Charles the Bold, the over-ambitious 15th-century duke of Burgundy, were failures. Contrary to modern myth, medieval people did not believe the earth was flat; torture was far less common than in later centuries; and technological advances included guns, printing, blast furnaces, spectacles, stirrups and the compass. Full of insights such as these, this book shows how medieval people lived in an era that was more one of invention and innovation than of superstition and backwardness. It will appeal to all those who want a truer picture of a world often erroneously portrayed by bestselling novelists of today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Prestwich was born in Oxford, in 1943. The son of Oxford historians, it was perhaps inevitable that he studied at Oxford University for his first degree and his doctorate. His first job was at the University of St Andrews, where there was a highly successful department of medieval history. He moved to the University of Durham in 1979, and taught there until he retired, by which time it had rebranded itself as Durham University. In the 1990s he served as pro-vice-chancellor, with a range of responsibilities from research to health and safety. He began his own research with work on Edward I, and his publications have concentrated on thirteenth and fourteenth century England in most of its aspects, with a particular emphasis on war and its impact on government and society. He is married, with three children and five grandchildren, and still enjoys skiing. He was awarded an OBE in 2010.

FEATURED PHOTO:

Frederick Barbarossa, middle, flanked by two of his children, King Henry VI (left) and Duke Frederick VI (right). From the Historia Welforum. Source: Wikipedia