Top Books of the Middle Ages (AKA Medieval Period for Beginners) #historathon2023

hi everyone I hope you're having a great weekend firstly I just want to apologize for not being on booktube for a while I haven't filmed in over a month so um recently a few weeks ago my twin sister and her partner were visiting so I was just taking time um with my sister and then shortly after that I got a sinus infection so I wasn't really um too motivated to be filming in front of the camera while I was sputtering and sneezing and congested so apologies but here I am so anyways the reason I am filming this video is because we are nearing the end of quarter one for historathon 2023 which is a year-long reading event created by Ben over at Revenant reads and I will leave the details of the event down below if by now you're not familiar with it so as we're nearing the second quarter um this uh this quarter focuses on the years between ad500 to ad 1500 so that is roughly the time period of the Middle Ages um so I am an avid amateur uh fan of the Middle Ages particularly the high Middle Ages and late Middle Ages in England and France and I just wanted to share with you a few of my favorite books if you're wondering what you might want to read for the next quarter I do have a lot here and I think this is a good opportunity for break uh you know film further videos on my favorite medieval biographies biographies on women um retelling sweeping narratives um but yeah I'm just going to do what I originally intended and just shove a lot of books down your throat so anyways um the first book that I want to share with you and this is a hideous cover I apologize um but the greatest Trader by Ian Mortimer this cover does nothing for anyone but this is a biography on Sir Roger Mortimer he was the first Earl of March um uh and usurped the throne from King Edward II with um Queen Isabella you might know her as the she-wolf of France um between 1327 and 13 30 and I really enjoyed this novel because Ian Mortimer as a historian has a really good way of getting into the medieval mind and I think he did a good job of really trying to portray things from Roger mortimer's um side of the story rather than just you know simply putting it down to him being it you know greedy um you know a greeting man who just wanted to uh take the throne from Edward II steal his wife and you know make sure that his son Edward III had no power all of those things happened but I think he at least made an attempt to try to understand what was going on in his head so I really enjoyed that book for this reason the next are all physical books um and in no particular order um if you're looking for a general sweeping narrative Dan Jones is always great this is his book called the plantagenets um this is actually what really got me you know into the plantagenets I'm fascinated um in this dynasty so they were the dynasty that ruled England um once Henry II who is a descendant of William conquer by the way um it's not completely separate once he took the throne of England until you know the War of the Roses um so just fascinated by them and he does a great job of you know uh summarizing all of the different rulers and their um and their immediate contemporaries in this book um and while we're on the topic of Dan Jones this is his recent book called powers and Thrones this is magnificent if you are new to the Middle Ages and you want the most concise up-to-date um narrative there is available um so we start with the fall of Rome and we end with you know um voyages to the new world here so um and what I like about this is while it does mainly focus on Europe there's a lot on the Arabs the Arab influence during the Middle Ages as well as the Mongols and I feel like you know while I'm not hugely read um as others on on the Middle Ages I think perhaps the Mongols don't necessarily get a lot of attention and I really enjoyed this for this region reason um so next we'll stick on General narratives here the First Crusade by Thomas ashbridge um if you're not familiar with the Crusades and you want a good starting point I thought this was excellent and then also Roger Crowley uh besiege of Constantinople this was also a great Narrative of the um Siege of Constantinople that ultimately led to it being conquered by Amendment II and ultimately being known as Istanbul um and then we've got the perfect heresy by Stephen O'Shea this is about the cathar heresy and the albigensian crusade in southern France during the 1200s so if you're not familiar with the albigensian Crusade there was a sect called catharism that was sprouting all over Europe but seemed to be focused in the south of France and there was a real attempt to stamp out this um all of my books fell over sorry to stamp out this um heresy as the church wanted to call it so it was really a war against uh between northern France and Southern France um you know which have different languages at this time um a different culture so it wasn't just you know a war on religions it was just it was really a war on um the people of Southern France here I thought this was a great narration there's a lot of gruesome details in here but that he doesn't shy away from Shea but I think you know he does a great job of also putting in some well-placed comic relief um so if you want to learn about the Alba Genesee and Crusade the perfect heresy is great um next these are all biographies um King of the North Wind by Claudia gold I thought was great this is about Henry II who I mentioned earlier um it's a very you know it's it's not a very in-depth uh you know critical analysis of Henry it's more of a narration of of events from his birth um to you know throughout his Reign the relationship that he had with this with his famous wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and his all of his famous Sons you might be familiar with Richard the lionheart um John Lockland um so this I thought this was a great little narration of of Henry II that I enjoyed um again another biography this is also by Thomas asbridge who wrote the first Crusades that I just showed you this is called the greatest Knight and this is a biography on William Marshall um who you know is in the sphere of influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine Henry II to all of his sons he serves a lot of Kings um he's got a very interesting life and I think this is a great detail about um one of history's most famous Knights and then this is earlier than the other books this is Early Middle Ages this is the dark Queens by Shelley pujack and I've made a lot of videos that feature this book in it I think this is fantastic very entertaining this is about two marovingian queens um who managed to stay in power uh for decades in an age when men don't even um manage to hang on to power and influence um for a short amount of time so um it it's a great look at their their struggle their their relationship with one another with which is you know to be quite Frank um downright murderous um and just but also an examination of how cunning they were and how clever and um just a real fascinating look at to to Medieval Queens during the mayor of Indian empire um and then one which you know I wouldn't necessarily give this a five star maybe a four star it's quite short but I'll throw it in anyways this is Catherine panganis's the queens of Jerusalem the reason I like this is because it is a look at all of the women who ruled in um the Crusader States uh in the Middle Ages um so women in the Crusader States had a lot more influence and power than they did um say in the Frankish kingdoms so the likes of France and England they they could actually be you know vessels uh not just mere vessels of of transmitting power from one male to another but also um potentially be heirs to the Thrones of these places themselves so it's a look at the women um he wielded power and influence uh in the Crusader States foreign anyways um that was a very brief well it wasn't brief at all but that was a quick run through of some of the books that I think maybe if you're not familiar with anything in the Middle Ages and you want some good starting places these are some these are some great books to sink uh to sink into so anyways uh I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you next time thanks booktube