Jonathan Sumption is een Britse historicus en auteur wiens werken zich verdiepen in complexe historische onderwerpen. Zijn schrijfstijl wordt gekenmerkt door diepgang en precisie bij de analyse van gebeurtenissen uit het verleden en hun impact. Sumption streeft naar boeiende verhalen die de lezer onderdompelen in de tijd en context van de beschreven gebeurtenissen. Zijn werken worden gewaardeerd om hun intellectuele bijdrage en hun vermogen om ingewikkelde historische processen te belichten.
In the early fifteenth century, France had gone from being the strongest and most populous nation state of medieval Europe to suffering a complete internal collapse and a partial conquest by a foreign power. This book tells the story of the destruction of France by the madness of its king and the greed and violence of his family.
The eagerly anticipated final volume in Jonathan Sumption's prize-winning history of the Hundred Years War, 'one of the great historical undertakings of our age' (Dan Jones, Sunday Times). Triumph and Illusion is the final volume of Jonathan Sumption's epic history of the Hundred Years War.
Contemporaries in both countries believed that they were living through memorable times: times of great wickedness and great achievement, of collective mediocrity but intense personal heroism, of extremes of wealth and poverty, fortune and failure.
Covers the period from the Truce of Calais, in 1347, to the 1367 victory at Najera, and its aftermath.
'Compulsively readable' (History), this is the first volume in a series that details the long and violent endeavour of the English to dismember Europe's strongest state, a succession of wars that is one of the seminal chapters in European history.
Vividly describing such major destinations as Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury, he examines both major figures - popes, kings, queens, scholars, villains - and the common people of their day.
Edward III lived through bloody and turbulent times. His father was deposed by his mother and her lover when he was still a teenager; a third of England's population was killed by the Black Death midway through his reign; and the intractable Hundred Years War with France began under his leadership. Yet Edward managed to rule England for fifty years, and was viewed as a paragon of kingship in the eyes of both his contemporaries and later generations. Venerated as the victor of Sluys and Crécy and the founder of the Order of the Garter, he was regarded with awe even by his enemies. But he lived too long, and was ultimately condemned to see thirty years of conquests reversed in less than five. In this gripping new account of Edward III's rise and fall, Jonathan Sumption introduces us to a fêted king who ended his life a heroic failure.
An essential examination of the hinterland between the law and politics, judges and politicians.
In twelfth century Languedoc a subversive heresy of Eastern origin flourished to an extraordinary degree. The Albingenses believed that the world was created by an evil spirit, and that all worldly things - including the Church - were by nature sinful. This title examines the roots of the heresy. číst celé
We are apt to forget how much people traveled in the Middle Ages. Not only merchants, friars, soldiers and official messengers, but crowds of pilgrims were a familiar sight on the roads of Western Europe. In this engaging work of history, Jonathan Sumption brings alive the traditions of pilgrimage prevalent in Europe from the beginning of Christianity to the end of the fifteenth century. Vividly describing such major destinations as Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury, he examines both major figures -- popes, kings, queens, scholars, villains -- and the common people of their day.