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  The Companies of Death: Mercenaries of the Late Middle Ages: The Right Form of War Series , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 91min

  During the rise of feudalism, the best weapon systems of the day had only been available to the select few, usually the lords and knights of the realm who had the income that could support them. As technology advanced, the crossbow, arbalest, and firearms were developed and a relatively untrained foot soldier could kill a knight with a single shot, canceling out a lifetime of mounted discipline. The more egalitarian methods of military organization in the Late Middle Ages and the Rennaisance challenged the nobility’s supremacy on the battlefield and ushered in the age of a more modern form of warfare with its more cynical and predatory aspect — the professional mercenary.The true interest in the centuries of the High Middle Ages lies with the gradual evolution of new forms of military efficiency, which ended in the establishment of a military caste as the chief power in war and the human mechanism of government. The 15th century in particular was an era of change in military science. Many of the same forces that inspired the Renaissance in science, art, literature, governance, and society brought about changes in the right form of war. It was in this environment that the condottieri flourished. These mercenary bands of professional warriors largely replaced the knights of a more chivalric era. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Robert L. Stone , Jr.. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/225063/bk_acx0_225063_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire: The Clashes of Kings and Emperors Claiming the Crown , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 261min

  On the horizons of many warring tribes, Roman warriors, knights from chivalric orders, and the devoted penniless appeared on a divine mission ready to conquer with an appetite for destruction, salvation, and a higher purpose. Pax Romana. Had the world ever seen the magnitude of empires as it did in the Roman Empires that would unhinge themselves from their very foundation in their attempt to dominate over kings, lords, and tribes? What caused the Romans to proclaim themselves worthy of answering a seemingly providential call to spread the Roman way? This is the story of their shifting identity over the course of a mind-boggling history in their steep ascents and defiant schisms transfixed with glory and virtue that lasted for thousands of years. It is the story of Rome's lingering origin and Rome's spirit of conquest as their enemies encircled them. The perilous protection they would offer to a papacy, besieged by perpetual land grabs of powerful nobles and distant tribes, was often compromised by their own faults, negligence and the nature of where their empire stopped and their Romanness began. They fought their own with just as much fervor as those who appeared at their fronts. Did their very spirit and ascent imperil that which united them, dividing them, as the world around them embraced or rejected their very foundation? ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Kenneth Maxon. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/068279/bk_acx0_068279_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Disillusioned: Land of Dis, Book 3 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 440min

  Disillusioned takes place a little over 100 years after the climactic Battle of Brandsvied at the end of Disenchanted. The Battle of Brandsveid brought together every king and nobleman in the land in an epic struggle for the future of the Land of Dis, as the armies of the Six Kingdoms united against the monstrous army of Lord Brand. It was the event Vergil, a knight in the service of the Order of Avaress, had waited for his entire life. Unfortunately, he slept through it. In fact, thanks to an accident involving some magic powder, Vergil slept through the next 100 years as well, finally awakening in a world irrevocably changed by the outcome of that epic battle. Finding himself suddenly an old man, Vergil must try to navigate this strange new world with only the help of his slightly dim but well-meaning servant, Handri. Despite the peaceful, civilized veneer of modern-day Dis, Vergil is convinced that a great evil still threatens the land, and he and Handri set about to uncover and vanquish it. But Vergil's prejudices and chivalric principles prove worse than useless in this strange new world, and he succeeds only in getting himself deeper and deeper in trouble while stirring up simmering animosities between goblins and humans. Can Vergil separate illusion from reality and uncover the true threat to Dis before it's too late? ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Phil Gigante. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/025155/bk_adbl_025155_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre During the Second Sino-Japanese War , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 83min

  Three days of plundering traditionally befell cities taken by storm, a fate usually avoided by those surrendering before the first attacking soldier penetrated beyond the outer walls. In Europe and areas influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, this practice faded rapidly after the Napoleonic Wars. In 1937, however, as the Imperial Army of Japan invaded China, this custom returned in a horrifying new form - the Rape of Nanking or the Nanking Massacre, a bloodbath lasting more than six weeks and possibly claiming more than a quarter of a million lives. Even the Japanese participating in the Nanking Massacre provided no rationale for their actions. They made no effort to explain it as a measure to terrorize other Chinese cities into surrender, or even to extract the location of hidden valuables. Instead, the rape appears in history as a psychopathic orgy of sadism for sadism's sake. Insatiably driven by hatred and, apparently, an unabashed relish for cruelty, the Japanese soldiery abandoned any semblance of restraint. Even Third Reich personnel in the city interceded in a sometimes futile effort to rescue victims from their tormentors. At the end of the city's long harrowing, the world knew clearly, if it did not before, that the Japanese of Tojo and Hirohito showed a very different spirit than the exquisitely genteel and chivalric men of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. The fight against Imperial Japan represented not merely an effort to avoid being conquered, but for survival itself. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Colin Fluxman. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/070266/bk_acx0_070266_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Knight of the Burning Pestle (eBook, ePUB)

  'Let him kill a lion with a pestle, husband; let him kill a lion with a pestle.'So exclaims the Grocer's wife who, with her husband and servants, is attending one of the London's elite playhouses where a theatre comany has just begun to perform. Peeved at the fact that all the plays they see are satires on the lives and values of London's citizenry, the Grocer and his wife interrupt and demand a play that instead contains chivalric quests and courtly love. What's more, they nominate their apprentice Rafe to take on the hero's role of the knight in this entirely new play.The author, Francis Beaumont, ends up not just satirising the grocers' naive taste for romance but parodying his own example of citizen comedy. This play-within-a-play becomes a pastiche of contemporary plays that scorned those who were not courtiers or at least gentlemen or ladies. Like Cervantes in Don Quixote, Beaumont exposes the folly of those that take representations for realities, but also celebrates their idealism and love of adventure.The editor, Michael Hattaway, is editor of plays by Shakespeare and Jonson as well as of several volumes of critical essays, and author of Elizabethan Popular Theatre, Hamlet: The Critics Debate, and Renaissance and Reformations: An Introduction to Early Modern English Literature. He is Professor Emeritus of English Literature in the University of Sheffield.

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  The Hundred Years War: The History of Europe's Most Famous War of the Middle Ages , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 87min

  King of England, if you do not do these things, I am the commander of the military, and in whatever place I shall find your men in France, I will make them flee the country, whether they wish to or not. (Joan of Arc) Although it ended over 550 years ago, the Hundred Years' War still looms large in the historical consciousness of England and France, even if the name of the famous war is a misnomer. Actually a series of separate conflicts between the English and French monarchies, interspersed with periods of peace, its historical image is an odd one, in part because its origins were based on royal claims that dated back centuries, and the English and French remained adversaries for nearly 400 years after it ended. However, the war was actually transformative in many respects, and the impact it had on the geopolitical situation of Europe cannot be overstated. While some might think of the war as being a continuation of the feudal tradition of knights and peasants, the Hundred Years' War revolutionized Western European warfare, and it truly helped to usher in the concept of nationalism on the continent. In England it is remembered as a period of grandeur and success, even though the English lost the war and huge swathes of territory with it, while the French remember it as a strategic victory that ensured the continued independence of France and the denial of English hegemony. To understand the Hundred Years' War is to understand how England became politically severed from the continent, how the knightly chivalric tradition slid into irrelevance, and how battlefield dominance can still leave a nation a loser in war. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Saethon Williams. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/032380/bk_acx0_032380_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Four Arthurian Romances , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 1008min

  The Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes form the wellspring of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Stories of knightly valour in the Welsh Marches had existed before the 12th century, but it was the magnificent poetry and imagination of Chrétien, the 12th century French poet and trouvère, which brought alive the great characters of Arthur, his wife Guinevere, Lancelot and others. In fact, it was here, in these romances, that the tale of Lancelot of the Lake and his fated love for Guinevere first made its appearance in European literature. And far from being trapped in formal medieval stanzas, their passion has come down to us in words that still resonate: 'From the moment he caught sight of her, he did not turn or take his eyes and face from her.' From these four romances emerge a chivalric Arthurian vision as vivid and human as the more familiar telling by Sir Thomas Malory three centuries later. The three other stories are equally rich and compelling, painting images of knightly ethics, courageous deeds and above all love, honour and service. Chrétien's telling is the outstanding Arthurian literary source, bringing together as it does the British plot, the characters and the adventures with a French courtly sensitivity. Though less known than Lancelot and Guinevere, the story of the trials leading to the love between Eric and Enide is just as memorable; in Cligès, the young hero travels between Greece and Arthur's court in order to win his spurs and his love; and in Yvain, the knight is helped by a faithful lion to achieve his aim. These Four Arthurian Romances are read with full commitment by Nicholas Boulton using the translation by W. W. Comfort. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Nicholas Boulton. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/dhrm/000071/bk_dhrm_000071_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Sword Arm of Chivalry: The History of a Militant Culture: The Right Form of War, Book 3 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 793min

  This is the history of an era dominated by militancy: Both warlike and religious, if the two can be separated.The true interest in the centuries of the early Middle Ages lies with the gradual evolution of new forms of military efficiency, which ended in the establishment of a military caste (knights) as the chief power in war and the human mechanism of government.The existence of feudalism and its association with the Christian Church is one of the most important factors concerning the Middle Ages. In the medieval period, the individual mounted warrior seemingly held sway for an extended time - generally from the 6th to 15th centuries. The feudal knight established his superiority over all descriptions of troops pitted against him. The defining institutions of classic knighthood were well established in the first half of this period. The passing of the first millennium oversaw the rise of a newly landed class of largely mounted warriors that became both a governing power and a defense against invasion from outside the abandoned frontiers of the old Roman Empire.The celebrated fight at Hastings in 1066 was the last notable attempt of unaided infantry to withstand cavalry in Western Europe for 200 years. However, the supposedly complete dominance of the mounted knight in the 12th and 13th centuries may be grossly exaggerated, as integrated cavalry and infantry tactics were nearly always the key to success. As technology advanced, the crossbow, arbalest, and firearms were developed and a relatively untrained foot soldier could kill a knight with a single shot canceling out a lifetime of mounted discipline. From the 15th to 17th centuries the art of being a knight developed from just fighting ability to living by a code of chivalric conduct. A knight became an example of courtly behavior, and it was his duty to be versed in writing, music, dance, land management, law, justice, and romance. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Robert L Stone Jr. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/217839/bk_acx0_217839_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Lays of Marie de France , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 306min

  The 12 Lays of Marie de France offer one of the most striking collections of short narrative poems of the 12th century - two centuries before Chaucer.  Written in Anglo-French, they contain beguiling and entertaining stories of love and romance, of chivalry and adventure with sometimes even a magical twist. They are especially unique in early literature by being ascribed to a female poet, Marie de France: in the very first Lay - 'Guigemar' - is the introductory line: ‘Hear my Lords, what Marie says, who does not wish to be forgotten in her time.’ In this modern prose translation by Edward J. Gallagher, professor of French studies, Wheaton College, Norton Massachusets, the vigour and spirit of the Lays is foremost, balanced by gentle poetry and story-telling. Professor Gallagher, in his introduction, explains: ‘If Chrétien de Troyes’ five romances and the two Old French versions of the Tristan story constitute the medieval precursors of the modern novel, The Lays can be considered the medieval antecedents of the modern short story. What is undeniable is Marie de France’s place in literary history as the most accomplished writer of lays.’ Each of the Lays focuses on some extraordinary adventure involving in all cases a problematic love relationship in a chivalric society. The geographic setting is frequently, but not exclusively, Britain or continental Brittany. These are tales of honourable love, adulterous love, old men attempting to guard young wives, betrayal, hope and despair. Often, strict moral codes expected by the Church of the time are flouted as love conquers all. The Lays are read engagingly by Georgina Sutton. A short introduction leading to the Lays, and scholarly notes to conclude by Professor Gallagher are read by David Rintoul. In addition, the recording is accompanied by a PDF containing the prologue and the first Lay, 'Guigemar', in Anglo-Norman for further interest and insight. PLEASE NOTE: Whe ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Georgina Sutton, David Rintoul. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/dhrm/000300/bk_dhrm_000300_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Mabinogion , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 612min

  The Mabinogion, the earliest literary jewel of Wales, is a collection of ancient tales and legends compiled around the 12th and 13th century deriving from storytelling and the songs of bards handed down over the ages. It is a remarkable document in many ways. From an historical perspective, it is the earliest prose literature of Britain. But it is in its drama that many surprises await, not least the central role of King Arthur, his wife, Gwenhwyvar, and his court at Caerlleon upon Usk. There are tales of jousting, of quests, of damsels in distress, of abandoned wives, of monsters and dragons, of loyalty, deception and honour. Heroes and villains abound; there is courage and suffering in abundance. This is why The Mabinogion has a rightfully important position within the early literature of Europe. There are 12 stories of varying lengths in the collection. Some, such as 'The Lady of the Fountain' and 'Geraint, the Son of Erbin', are centred on the Arthurian legend, and they display all the chivalric elements we expect from greater familiarity with later texts such as Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. However, here, in The Mabinogion, we inhabit an earthier world, before the Round Table and the Grail Legend, though hints of these exist. Emotions, intentions and actions are real and direct! Nevertheless, The Mabinogion was drawn from a variety of sources, and there are tales of very different character, such as 'The Dream of Maxen Wledig', which harks back to the period of the Roman Empire, and 'The Story of Llud and Llevelys', which involves the Island of Britain and the Kingdom of France. This recording presents the classic, groundbreaking translation by Charlotte Guest. It brought The Mabinogion to a wider audience for the first time, and we can enjoy the grandeur of her literary style - one that particularly suits the audiobook medium. This is especially so in this skillful performance by Richard Mitc ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Richard Mitchley. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/dhrm/000053/bk_dhrm_000053_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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