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Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most engaging of Henry VIII’s Queens. For her he would divorce his wife of some 20 years standing, he would take on the might of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire; he would even alienate his own people in order to win her favour and, eventually, her hand.

The Perigord of 16th-century France is a wild region on the edge of the reaches of royal authority - its steep, forested valleys roamed by bands of brigands and gypsies, its communities divided by conflict between Catholics and converts to the new Protestant faith, the Huguenots. To this beautiful but dangerous country come two veterans of the French king's wars, Jean de Siorac and Jean de Sauveterre, The Brethren - as fiercely loyal to the crown as they are to their Huguenot religion.

Al-Hasan al-Wazzan - born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco - became famous as the great Renaissance writer Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the Pope; when he was released and baptized, he lived a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone....

This is a performance of the very first English translation of Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. This translation, published by Edward Dacres, first appeared in 1640. Machiavelli's original Italian edition was printed in 1532, five years after his death. Due to the evil associated with Machiavelli's book, it took 108 years for The Prince to be published in the English language.

This audiobook provides an easy-to-understand overview of British history in 50 events.You will learn about the foundation of London, the Great Viking Invasion, the Battle of Hastings, the Black Death, the Battle of Waterloo, the last public hanging, and much more!

Who are the Medici brothers? And who is trying to assassinate them? Why was the Pitti Palace never completed? And what part did Leonardo play in all of this? Leonardo da Vinci is remembered as an artist and inventor. But who was he before anyone knew his name? This family-friendly novel explores the history and the legends of his early years in Florence. It also weaves a mystery of politics and power.

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known across the world simply by the name Raphael, stands as one of the main pillars of the High Renaissance, an iconic example of the balance between spirituality and humanistic inquiry that characterized the time period. Although he lived just 37 years, his career produced an amazingly rich output, and he completed more works than many artists do over careers spanning twice the length.

The stories and legends attributed to the Borgias have made them one of the most notorious families in history. Five hundred years after their deaths, they have come to be associated more with incest, political intrigue, murder, and state-sponsored violence.While 21st-century TV series have cast the Borgias as the first organized crime family, the rumors spread by the family's political opponents in the late 15th century have taken hold among a fascinated public.

Of course part of what made Galileo such a monumental figure was the fact that he was ahead of his time and that he mostly refused to conform to the accepted dogmas of contemporary society. As he once put it, "Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes - I mean the universe - but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written."

Ever since Machiavelli penned The Prince, his 1513 treatise on princely rule and the politics of reality, a work that infamously advises rulers to abandon virtue and morality when necessary, his name has been synonymous with deceit, duplicity, and amoral pragmatism. Since then a sinister reputation has posthumously plagued the controversial Florentine. But is this depiction of Machiavelli as wicked and immoral accurate?

It's safe to say there have been countless prophets and seers throughout history, but only one Nostradamus (1503-1566). Nostradamus has become a pop-culture fixture even among those who find nothing of note in his work. He is a cult figure among those who pore through his prophecies to look for proof that he foresaw major world events centuries ahead of time.

Most historians credit the city-state of Florence as the place that started and developed the Italian Renaissance, a process carried out through the patronage and commission of artists during the late 12th century. If Florence is receiving its due credit, much of it belongs to the Medicis, the family dynasty of Florence that ruled at the height of the Renaissance. The dynasty held such influence that some of its family members even became pope.

In all of human history there has never been an era as richly endowed with human creativity as the Italian Renaissance. When the economic boom of the Late Middle Ages had allowed a flourishing and wealthy merchant class to emerge, a plethora of artists, sculptors, architects, and thinkers followed in their wake. In an astonishingly short period of time, Italy was transformed mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Machiavelli cut his political teeth during the Renaissance, a time of intense hatred between Italian city states. Machiavelli was a man of action, a devout patriot. He wrote The Prince to describe how a leader could unite Italy and put a stop to the senseless conflict. This edition includes an addenda and Machiavelli's biography of Castruccio Castracani: his archetypal prince.

The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century. Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The award-winning author of The Memphis Murders presents “a rich and vibrant tapestry” (The Star-Ledger) of the fabled Tudor dynasty—and some of the most enigmatic figures to ever rule a country. “A thoroughly readable and often compelling narrative...

With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and...

The French Invasion of Italy in 1494: The History and Legacy of the Conflict That Started the Italian Wars chronicles the decisive campaign that forever changed the Italian peninsula at the end of the 15th century. You will learn about the First Italian War like never before.  

For as long as language and communication have existed, humans have invented ways to mask their messages from prying eyes. One could be forgiven for assuming there are no ciphers left unsolved. On the contrary, a diverse array of both ancient and modern cryptographic challenges, which have stumped even the most seasoned code crackers of today, exist, and may exist for generations to come. Among the most famous of these memorandums is a 600-year-old document that continues to mystify: the Voynich Manuscript.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The history books have cast Katherine of Aragon, the first queen of King Henry VIII of England, as the ultimate symbol of the Betrayed Woman, cruelly tossed aside in favor of her husband’s seductive mistress, Anne Boleyn. Katherine’s sister, Juana of Castile, wife...