PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Robert Bartlett, CBE, FBA, is Professor Emeritus at the University of St Andrews. His books include The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350 (1993), which won the Wolfson Literary Prize for History in 1994, and Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? (2015). He is well-known as the writer and presenter of several BBC documentary series including 'Inside the Medieval Mind' (2008), 'The Normans' (2010), and 'The Plantagenets' (2014).
'Blood Royal is a tour de force. In dynastic politics, Bartlett has found a huge subject that has yet been little explored. He has researched it magisterially, ranging Europe-wide across vast numbers of sources in classical and vernacular European languages.' Janet L. Nelson, Author of King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne 'Blood Royal is a magisterial, comprehensive and imaginative exploration of dynastic principles and practices in medieval Europe, including the risks and perils of dynastic succession...Quite frankly, in terms of originality, there is no other book I know to rival it on any aspect of dynastic history.' William Chester Jordan, author of The Apple of His Eye: Converts from Islam in the Reign of Louis IX 'Dynasty - where kinship and politics meet - is the subject of Robert Bartlett's latest ambitious exploration of Europe's medieval centuries. He commands an impressive range of regional experiences, explores change over time and uses helpful concepts in this study of the idea that made European kingdoms and nations - and still does.' Miri Rubin, author of Cities of Strangers: Making Lives in Medieval Europe 'Integrating numerous translated quotes from key primary sources into a fluently written history, this wide-ranging, authoritative and colourful overview will prove to be of enduring relevance, as a great story for the general reader and a treasure trove for researchers.' Jeroen Duindam, Author of Dynasties: A Global History of Power 1300-1800 'Bartlett's eye for the graphic and revealing incident, as well as for the historical insights encoded in medieval personal names, is just as evident here as it is in his previous books and in his several television series.' Len Scales, Times Literary Supplement 'Absolutely brilliant.' Dan Snow, History Hit 'Political stability in medieval Europe depended in the last resort on the births, marriages and deaths of ruling families. Scholarly and a pleasure to read, Bartlett's new book draws on an impressive range of sources in explaining how unpredictable dynastic politics shaped the history of Latin Christendom Byzantium from 500 to 1500.' Tony Barber, Financial Times, Best Books of 2020 'Blood Royal bears all the hallmarks of a classic.' Levi Roach, Literary Review
