The Conquering Family


Book Description

Thomas B. Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenets begins with THE CONQUERING FAMILY and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, closing with the reign of John in 1216. The troubled period after the Norman Conquest, when the foundations of government were hammered out between monarch and people, comes to life through Costain's storytelling skill and historical imagination.




Summary of Thomas B. Costain's The Conquering Family


Book Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Angevin country began between Normandy and Brittany and extended down through Maine and Anjou. It was during the reign of the Angevins that the English family gained its reputation for violence and wickedness. But the English were so proud of them that they often forgave their wickednesses and peccadilloes. #2 The Counts of Anjou removed themselves to England to reign there as the Plantagenets, and the sturdy peasants found their land torn by family strife and the march of conquering armies. #3 Henry I, the youngest son of William the Conqueror, became a sad man when his only son was drowned in the wreck of La Blanche Nef off the Norman coast. He had no appetite, he sat alone and stared at nothing, and his temper was so fitful that the people of the court tried to keep out of his way. #4 Henry, the old Lion of Justice, lived for fifteen years after he married the Fair Maid of Brabant. He became less active and developed a liking for the mild pleasure of processionals about his domain. His radiantly lovely wife was always by his side, but the royal countenance remained as unsmiling as in the days following the death of his son and the end of all his hopes.




The Magnificent Century


Book Description

The Magnificent Century, the second volume of Costain's A History of the Plantagenets, covers Henry III's long and turbulent reign, from 1216 to 1272. During his lifetime Henry was frequently unpopular, unreliable and inconsistent. Yet his reign saw spectacular advancement in the arts, sciences and theology, as well as in government. Despite all, it was truly a magnificent century. "Combines a love of the subject with factual history. . .a great story." —San Francisco Chronicle A History of the Plantagenets includes The Conquering Family, The Magnificent Century, The Three Edwards and The Last Plantagenets.




The White and the Gold


Book Description

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The White and the Gold" (The French Regime in Canada [Canadian History Series #1]) by Thomas B. Costain. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.




The Conquerors: The Pageant of England


Book Description

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Conquerors: The Pageant of England" by Thomas B. Costain. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.




The Last Plantagenets


Book Description

THE LAST PLANTAGENTS—A GREAT STORYTELLER’S MOST DAZZLING BESTSELLER Here is Thomas B. Costain’s most magnificent performance, rivaling even THE BLACK ROSE for color and drama. Here are history’s most spectacular Kings and Queens—and a brilliant new probing of the greatest mystery of all time, the death of the Princes in the Tower. “EXCITEMENT...ROMANCE...STRANGER THAN FICTION”—Saturday Review “COLORFUL AND LUSTY”—Christian Science Monitor “WILD, EXTRAVAGANT, BRILLIANT, COURAGEOUS, STIRRING”—San Francisco Examiner “Novelist as well as historian, Mr. Costain is especially interested in personalities and motives and character. He deals throughout with world figures who have kingdoms at stake...Here is an actual record of the heroism of the kings and queens of England and France, their villainies, their weaknesses, their loves and hates...”—Book-of-the-Month-Club News “No man alive writes popular history with greater understanding...what he cares about is the color, drama and pageantry...the personalities, triumphs and disasters...”—New York Times “The familiar Costain ‘touch’ with all its powers...is present here in abundance”—New Haven Register “Happily wedded in author Costain are a scholar’s integrity and the ability to endow history with brilliant colors”—San Francisco Examiner




The Chord of Steel


Book Description

THE FABULOUS STORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE TELEPHONE! With the narrative force and skill that have made him one of the world’s favorite storytellers, Thomas B. Costain has written a detailed and personalized account of how Alexander Graham Bell made his great invention. Mr. Costain describes how the idea came to Bell—the difficulties he had in obtaining a patent, the first dramatic and conclusive test with wires set up between Brantford and nearby towns in Ontario, and the immediate results of that momentous experiment. Costain was raised in the city where this occurred and knew the great inventor. He has brought much new information to this fascinating account of the invention that has changed all our lives.




Penmarric


Book Description

From the acclaimed author of Cashelmara: the “grippingly readable” New York Times–bestselling saga of a noble English family torn apart (The Sunday Times). Overlooking the bleak cliffs of Cornwall is Penmarric, the ancestral home of Mark Castallack. The stunning gothic manor is the picture of English nobility, wealth, and comfort. But as the twentieth century unfolds, those behind Penmarric’s towering walls face nothing short of disaster. As Mark and his children struggle to save their home and their aristocratic way of life, they must engage in a bitter fight against greed, ambition, betrayal, and even murder. Over her forty-year career, Susan Howatch has taken on the Anglican Communion and the British elite, and established herself as the queen of the historical family saga with such bestsellers as The Wheel of Fortune. Now, discover the magnificent, sweeping novel that started her reign and made her an international-bestselling author. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Howatch including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.




The Plantagenets


Book Description

The New York Times bestseller, from the author of Powers and Thrones, that tells the story of Britain’s greatest and worst dynasty—“a real-life Game of Thrones” (The Wall Street Journal) The first Plantagenet kings inherited a blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic narrative history of courage, treachery, ambition, and deception, Dan Jones resurrects the unruly royal dynasty that preceded the Tudors. They produced England’s best and worst kings: Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice a queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; their son Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and his conniving brother King John, who was forced to grant his people new rights under the Magna Carta, the basis for our own bill of rights. Combining the latest academic research with a gift for storytelling, Jones vividly recreates the great battles of Bannockburn, Crécy, and Sluys and reveals how the maligned kings Edward II and Richard II met their downfalls. This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years’ War, when England’s national identity was forged by the sword.




Son of a Hundred Kings


Book Description

"Son of a Hundred Kings" by Thomas B. Costain is a captivating tale set in the 1890s, revolving around young Ludar Prentice's arrival in Balfour, Ontario. Abandoned and alone, he seeks his mysterious father and finds solace in the kindness of strangers who become his family. As Ludar matures, he embarks on a quest to discover his true identity, intricately woven into the evolving tapestry of Balfour's growth and transformation in the dawning century.