The history of the [Byzantine] Empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude, of perpetual fratricides.So opens John Norwich’s meticulously detailed account of the first 500 years of Byzantine history, when he...
At 3:09am last night I finished my epic journey through Norwich's three books about Byzantium. I'm glad I did; history fans need to read these books as they are masterpieces. True, Norwich emphasizes the Empire's political history, but there is plenty of depth when taken as a whole. The plot twis...
Norwich second installment about the Byzantines is an absolute atom bomb of a book that cannot be missed. The book covers the years 800-1081, and it is on par with the greatest page-turning fiction story out there.I recently rated Norwich's first Byzantine book and wrote my top five memories from...
Always nice when a historian doesn't allow their personal feeling to color their perspective and obviously Norwich does NOT like Richard II. Frankly his description of Richard in the Wilton Diptych borders on libelous... or he found a different diptych than I did....It was pleasant to read a symp...
SUMMARY:In 1016, a rebel Lombard lord appealed to a group of pilgrims for help -- and unwittingly set in motion "the other Norman Conquest". The Normans in the South is the epic story of the House of Hauteville: of Robert Guiscard, perhaps the most extraordinary European adventurer between Caesar...
Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd; Like to a ship that, having scap'd a tempest, Is straightway calm'd, and boarded with a pirate. KING HENRY VI PART II The truce of 1444 - which, with prolongations, continued effectively for five years - proved to be exactly what France neede...
The army’s morale, after the long and abortive Syrian expedition, was lower than ever. Many of its soldiers were sick, food was scarce, drinkable water scarcer still. Kléber managed, however, to negotiate an armistice with Sir Sidney Smith, by the terms of which his army would be returned to Fran...
The most likely candidate is the daughter of his sister Maria and the Norman John Roger, but we cannot be sure. 2Though effectively Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad was never crowned by the Pope in Rome and consequently had no right to any title higher than that of King of the Romans. See p. 2on. propo...