W B Bartlett – författare

The Third Crusade of Richard the Lionheart is well known but the build-up to it less so. The years that led up to the Battle of Hattin in 1187 is resonant with intrigue, plot and counter-plot, and the abuse of power. This book presents the story of those events, involving the greatest of the military orders, the Templars and their key ally.

In 1249, the greatest Crusading expedition ever to set out from the West for the Holy Land was launched. At its head was one of the great figures of medieval history, King Louis IX, a charismatic, energetic and pious man who had assembled a mighty army to recover Jerusalem from the Infidel. What followed was soon to become the most dramatic story of the Crusading epoch. For Louis's french army, supplemented with English troops, was to experience extremes of emotion rarely rivalled in the annals of medieval history. Spectacular triumph was to be followed by equally complete disaster.

The Crusades continue to exert a fascination in the West as a story of perceived gallantry and battles against impossible odds. Yet what is less often considered is their effect on the Holy Land, and in particular the response of the Muslim world to the invasions of European Crusaders. In this book, W. B. Bartlett, author of four books on the Crusades, looks at these great events from the Muslim point of view. One of the effects was to unite a previously divided Islamic world against a common enemy. In the process, they gave an unstoppable impetus towards the declaring of jihad against the West, a holy war against Christendom. They also helped to shape the careers of some important figures, most notably Saladin, but also other great men like Sultan Baibars and Nur al-Din. The rise of these great leaders is traced in this book, as are the many great battles that were fought by men just as devoted to their cause as the Crusaders were.

The so-called 'Assassins' are one of the most spectacular legends of medieval history. In the popular imagination they are drug-crazed fanatics who launched murderous attacks on their enemies, terrorising the medieval world. Since the tales of Marco Polo and others, the myths surrounding them have been fantastically embellished and the truth has become ever more obscure. Universally loathed and feared, they were especially frightening because they apparently had no fear of death.Bartlett's book deftly traces the origins of the sect out of the schisms within the early Islamic religion and examines the impact of Hasan-i-Sabbah, its founder, and Sinan - the legendary 'Old Man of the Mountain'. This popular history follows the vivid history of the group over the next two centuries, including its clash with the crusaders, its near destruction at the hands of the Mongols, and its subsequent history. Finally, and fascinatingly, we discover how the myths surrounding the Assassins have developed over time, and why indeed they continue to have such an impact on the popular imagination.

It was not long before midnight on 17 May 1943 when the inhabitants of Günne, the German village close to the Möhne Dam, heard the air-raid warnings. It was widely regarded as a precautionary measure, but ninety minutes later, an immense tidal wave was roaring down the valley towards them. Guy Gibson, who led ‘X’ Squadron of 19 specially adapted Lancasters equipped with Barnes Wallis’s ‘bouncing bomb’, knew that the odds were stacked against him and his men. But they would not let him down. Some, like Squadron Leader Young whose bomb breached the dam, would return home as heroes. Others, like Pilot Officer Byers and his crew, would not, shot down just after crossing the North Sea while they were still miles away from their targets. A small number of those involved would survive crashed aircraft and live out the war in POW camps.The Dam Busters raids have gone down as perhaps the most famous air strikes in history. Yet behind the story of courage and determination there lies another, darker side, both for the aircrews - 40% of whom died in the mission - and for those who lived below the dams in the path of the flood, many of whom were not even German. This compelling account tells the story of those dramatic events through the eyes of those who were there. Whether or not the reality matches the legend, one thing that emerges is the incredible bravery of those who flew the most dangerous mission they had ever undertaken and the trauma experienced by those unlucky enough to be its target.

The year 1066: a battlefield in England, a mighty king lies prone on the ground, his lifeblood ebbing out of him. As he draws his last breath, the world of which he is the greatest figurehead also moves towards its end, its existence about to pass from history into legend and later into myth. This is not Hastings; it is Stamford Bridge, and the dying king is Harald Hardrada, one of the greatest figures of the Viking age. It was a bolt from the blue when Viking raiders descended on the defenceless monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 and left it a heap of burning rubble. In succeeding years, other monasteries fell too: Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, Iona. Britain and Ireland suffered extensively as did France, Spain, Italy and even the mighty Byzantine Empire. But this was not just a period of conquest and violence – it was also an age of exploration. Viking ships crossed the Atlantic, through Shetland and Orkney to the Faroes and from there to Iceland, Greenland and North America. They sailed east and their traders moved across the steppes and rivers of Russia down to Constantinople, then the greatest city in Christendom.This is the story of the Vikings, those men and women who raided and traded their way into history whilst at the same time helping to build new nations in Scandinavia and beyond. Their history begins a long time before the Lindisfarne raid. It is also the tale of evocatively named great men: Sweyn Forkbeard, Harald Bluetooth, Ragnar Lodbrok, Erik the Red, Ivarr the Boneless, Cnut the Great.

While the Anglo-Zulu War is now best remembered for two battles, the stunning British defeat at Isandlwana and the victory against the odds at Rorke’s Drift, two others at Hlobane and Khambula eerily mirrored them. At Hlobane the British stared disaster in the face again and just about escaped, while at Khambula they inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zulu army and turned the war on its head.In addition to these two battles, a British force was massacred on the Ntombe River and the region was the last to surrender. It was a war of ambushes and night attacks, of raids and counter-raids, of visceral intensity and bitterness and two massive battles. It also saw the British hanging on after Isandlwana through the determination and grit of two men, Colonels Evelyn Wood and Redvers Buller, both Victoria Cross winners and arguably amongst the greatest heroes of the war. Humbler heroes too play their part in the story of the war in this part of Zululand, such as Sister Janet Wells, inspired by Florence Nightingale to journey out to South Africa as a pioneer nurse when still in her teens.This is the dramatic story of a true epic, one which played a critical part in shaping the ultimate British victory against a determined and wronged enemy.

In 878, Alfred, king of Wessex was on the verge of oblivion. Trapped on a small island in the Somerset Levels, it seemed as if he and his kingdom were about to be destroyed. Yet within months he had defeated the Viking invaders and started to reverse the tide of conquest.While Alfred was driven by the prospect of a land called England that did not yet exist, he was not the one who finally created it. Two of his children, Edward – king of Wessex after him – and his remarkable daughter Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, expanded his kingdom into Mercia in the Midlands. His grandson Æthelstan confirmed the conquest of the north at one of the great battles of the so-called Dark Ages at Brunanburh. The triumph of Alfred’s dynasty was cemented by the short but magnificent reign of Edgar ‘the Peaceable’, a man who could claim to be not just king of England but emperor of the whole of Britain.The ultimate collapse of Anglo-Saxon England, first of all in the face of Cnut of Denmark’s campaigns in 1015/16 and later in the Norman Conquest of 1066, has unjustly obscured their achievements. This book tells the story of the Anglo-Saxons and reasserts their right to be regarded as one of the greatest royal dynasties that Britain has ever seen.

Harald Hardrada had a career that spanned much of the known world of the eleventh century. Here was a man who was born in Norway, was exiled to Russia, spent time as a mercenary leader in Constantinople, journeyed to Jerusalem and won military campaigns in Sicily. In later life he became king of Norway, but this was not enough for him. For years he fought a series of campaigns to try and add Denmark to his dominions before launching an attempt to conquer England.Harald ultimately died a Viking death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, though in the process he might have sealed the fate of his opponent, King Harold Godwinson of England just a few weeks later at Hastings. This is a remarkable story, told in part through archaeology and in part through chronicles and Viking sagas. Harald might be considered the last Viking, but whether or not this is the case, what cannot be denied is that this is the story of a life that opens a window into a world that is long past, one characterised by epic deeds, chicanery and incredible adventure.

In 878, Alfred, king of Wessex was on the verge of oblivion. Trapped on a small island in the Somerset Levels, it seemed as if he and his kingdom were about to be destroyed. Yet within months he had defeated the Viking invaders and started to reverse the tide of conquest.While Alfred was driven by the prospect of a land called England that did not yet exist, he was not the one who finally created it. Two of his children, Edward – king of Wessex after him – and his remarkable daughter Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, expanded his kingdom into Mercia in the Midlands. His grandson Æthelstan confirmed the conquest of the north at one of the great battles of the so-called Dark Ages at Brunanburh. The triumph of Alfred’s dynasty was cemented by the short but magnificent reign of Edgar ‘the Peaceable’, a man who could claim to be not just king of England but emperor of the whole of Britain.The ultimate collapse of Anglo-Saxon England, first of all in the face of Cnut of Denmark’s campaigns in 1015/16 and later in the Norman Conquest of 1066, has unjustly obscured their achievements. This book tells the story of the Anglo-Saxons and reasserts their right to be regarded as one of the greatest royal dynasties that Britain has ever seen.

The Battle of Agincourt, fought on 25 October 1415, has gone down in history as one of the most iconic events in the story of England. Yet, dramatic though it was, it was only the beginning of a long and gruelling campaign that brought Henry V to the verge of greatness. The second invasion of France post-Agincourt often receives little more than a sideways glance, yet it is a fascinating example of a medieval military campaign. Characterised by sieges and diplomatic and political manoeuvring, not to mention bloodshed and murder, the campaign of 1417–22 also introduces a host of fascinating characters including the scheming John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, a mentally unstable French king and his politically astute wife, and their disinherited son and heir.Yet it is Henry V who dominates the scene. The campaign showed Henry to be not just an outstanding warrior – which he undoubtedly was – but a man driven by burning ambition who would not tolerate opposition. The ruthless king would have been difficult to love but easy to respect, and the events of his post-Agincourt campaign demonstrate this magnificently. Henry came within an ace of becoming king of both England and France. He was only deprived of the distinction by his premature death just two months before Charles VI of France died. What might have happened had Henry lived longer is one of the great what-ifs of history. Yet even this cannot diminish his greatness.

The story of the legendary bouncing-bomb attack on Nazi Germany's dams. It was not long before midnight on 16 May 1943 when the inhabitants of Gunne, the German town close to the Mohne Dam, heard the air-raid warnings. It was widely regarded as a precautionary measure but ninety minutes later, an immense tidal-wave was roaring down the valley towards them. Guy Gibson, who led 'X' Squadron of 19 specially adapted Lancasters equipped with Barnes Wallis's 'bouncing bomb', knew that the odds were stacked against him and his men. But they would not let him down. Some, like Squadron Leader Young whose bomb breached the dam, would return home as heroes. Others, like Pilot Officer Byers and his crew, would not, shot down just after crossing the North Sea whilst they were still miles away from their targets. A small number of those involved would survive crashed aircraft and live out the war in POW camps. The Dam Busters raids have gone down as perhaps the most famous air-strikes in history. Yet behind the story of courage and determination there lies another, darker side, both for the aircrews - 40% of whom died in the mission - and for those who lived below the dams in the path of the flood, many of whom were not even German. This new account tells the story of those dramatic events through the eyes of those who were there. Whether or not the reality matches the legend, one thing that emerges is the incredible bravery of those who flew the most dangerous mission they had ever undertaken and the trauma experienced by those unlucky enough to be its target.

A major new history of the disaster that weaves into the narrative the first-hand accounts of those who survived. It was twenty minutes to midnight on Sunday 14 April, when Jack Thayer felt the Titanic lurch to port, a motion followed by the slightest of shocks. Seven-year old Eva Hart barely noticed anything was wrong. For Stoker Fred Barrett, shovelling coal down below, it was somewhat different; the side of the ship where he was working caved in. For the next nine hours, Jack, Eva and Fred faced death and survived. They lived, along with just over 700 others picked up by 08.30 the next morning. Over 1500 people did not. This is the story told through the eyes of Jack, Eva, Fred and over a hundred others of those who survived and either wrote their experiences down or appeared before the major inquiries held subsequently. Drawing extensively on their collective evidence, this book weaves the narrative of the events that occurred in those nine fateful hours. This is their story, and those of a fateful night, when the largest ship ever built sank without completing one successful voyage.

Although the answer appears obvious, there is far more to the sinking of the Titanic than is popularly understood. On 10 April 1912 Titanic - the largest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world - left Southampton on her maiden voyage. The only headlines she expected to make were on her triumphant arrival in New York. But just five days later, she was a wreck at the bottom of the North Atlantic, taking over 1500 lives with her. Why? The answer to this question is a set of circumstances and a chain of events that came together to seal her fate and that of so many of her passengers and crew. Nature of course played her part in the form of that gigantic iceberg as well as in other less obvious ways. Most of all though there was human error, complacency and an inability to think the unthinkable when designing or sailing the ship. Just one different action at any stage in the chain could have saved the life of Titanic or at least most, if not all, of those aboard her. The world still has much to learn from the loss of the Titanic. This book explains why the largest ship in the world was lost and just how the voyage of a lifetime turned into a nightmare.

It was not long before midnight on 17 May 1943 when the inhabitants of Gunne, the German village close to the Mohne Dam, heard the airraid warnings. It was widely regarded as a precautionary measure, but ninety minutes later, an immense tidal-wave was roaring down the valley towards them. Guy Gibson, who led 'X' Squadron of 19 specially adapted Lancasters equipped with Barnes Wallis's 'bouncing bomb', knew that the odds were stacked against him and his men. But they would not let him down. Some, like Squadron Leader Young whose bomb breached the dam, would return home as heroes. Others, like Pilot Officer Byers and his crew, would not, shot down just after crossing the North Sea whilst they were still miles away from their targets. A small number of those involved would survive crashed aircraft and live out the war in POW camps. The Dam Busters raids have gone down as perhaps the most famous air strikes in history. Yet behind the story of courage and determination there lies another, darker side, both for the aircrews - 40% of whom died in the mission - and for those who lived below the dams in the path of the flood, many of whom were not even German. This new account tells the story of those dramatic events through the eyes of those who were there. Whether or not the reality matches the legend, one thing that emerges is the incredible bravery of those who flew the most dangerous mission they had ever undertaken and the trauma experienced by those unlucky enough to be its target.

Henry V, King of England and claimant to the throne of France, looked out across the field of Agincourt, the site of a remarkable victory, but there were few scenes of glory that met his eyes. Heaps of the dead and dying, the cream of French chivalry, were piled high. The stench of death permeated the air, rising above the muddy carnage and assaulting the senses. But this was not a victory for Henry’s knights but first and foremost for his humble archers, men like Thomas Pokkeswell from Dorset. It was to him and his fellow archers that the glory, if any, truly belonged. For others, though, the rewards were more immediate; those who held captive the greatest of the French nobles could make a fortune – in this respect, one squire from Somerset by the name of William Wolf had just hit the jackpot.Agincourt would define the reputation of Henry V for the next six centuries, yet controversy was never far away. In the heat of battle, a massacre of French prisoners took place that shocked contemporaries to the core. More recently, historians have questioned whether the numerical disparity was quite as great as the chroniclers of the day suggested. This is the story of one remarkable day that was unparalleled in English history through the eyes of the king, a remarkable archer and a squire.

British history is rich in enthralling stories: pivotal moments that changed the future of the country; moments of drama, suspense, intrigue. Dive right into the heart of the action of the bouncing bomb attack on German dams in the Second World War.And then the lights were switched on and Gibson looked for that perfect position, 60 feet above the surface. The spinning of the bomb had been started some 10 minutes beforehand. All was now ready.From the last-minute flight preparations to the final attack at the Sorpe, this account captures the moments at the very heart of the Dam Busters’ heroic attacks. Plunging the reader into the middle of the story, this is narrative history at its most evocative and readable. Charting the bouncing bomb attack through the accounts of several different members of the bomber crews, W. B. Bartlett is able to build up a picture of events in all three bouncing bomb attacks.

British history is rich in enthralling stories: pivotal moments that changed the future of the country; moments of drama, suspense, intrigue. Go right to the heart of the action of the Titanic disaster.Titanic steamed through the darkness of the night, her sharp prow cutting through the chill water like a knife through butter.From the moment of collision to hundreds of survivors waiting for rescue in the icy water, this account captures the moments at the very heart of the Titanic drama. Plunging the reader into the middle of the story, this is narrative history at its most evocative and readable. Charting the sinking through the accounts of several different survivors, W. B. Bartlett is able to build up a picture of events through the eyes of third-class passengers and those who experienced tragedy moment by moment, from the first lurch to the scramble for life boats.

In recent times, globalisation has made the world more interdependent than ever before. W. B. Bartlett’s masterly new history of the world narrates the great – and small – events that have shaped the planet on which we live. The great religions, civilisations, peoples and empires of the world and how they interacted are all folded into a narrative of what happened when, how and why. The book eschews the Eurocentric approach of most world histories and introduces many forgotten cultures, movements and events from around the globe and across all time. It also recognises that the history of man has had a huge impact on the natural world, and that nature sometimes strikes back.Yet alongside the great and the good, more everyday aspects of human existence are also placed into the story. Where was the first beer drunk? When did the first American football match take place? These, and a wealth of other quirky details, facts and figures help make this book the ideal introduction to the history of the world from its creation right up to the present day.

The year 1066: a battlefield in England, a mighty king lies prone on the ground, his lifeblood ebbing out of him. As he draws his last breath, the world of which he is the greatest figurehead also moves towards its end, its existence about to pass from history into legend and later into myth. This is not Hastings; it is Stamford Bridge, and the dying king is Harald Hardrada, one of the greatest figures of the Viking age. It was a bolt from the blue when Viking raiders descended on the defenceless monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 and left it a heap of burning rubble. In succeeding years, other monasteries fell too; Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, Iona. Britain and Ireland suffered extensively as did France, Spain, Italy and even the mighty Byzantine Empire. But this was not just a period of conquest and violence. It was also an age of exploration, Viking ships crossed the Atlantic, through Shetland and Orkney to the Faroes and from there to Iceland, Greenland and North America. They sailed east and their traders moved across the steppes and rivers of Russia down to Constantinople, then the greatest city in Christendom.This is the story of the Vikings, those men and women who raided and traded their way into history whilst at the same time helping to build new nations in Scandinavia and beyond. Their history begins a long time before the Lindisfarne raid. It is also the tale of evocatively named great men: Sweyn Forkbeard, Harald Bluetooth, Ragnar Lodbrok, Erik the Red, Ivarr the Boneless, Cnut the Great.

In recent times, globalisation has made the world more interdependent than ever before. W. B. Bartlett’s masterly new history of the world narrates the great – and small – events that have shaped the planet on which we live. The great religions, civilisations, peoples and empires of the world and how they interacted are all folded into a narrative of what happened when, how and why. The book eschews the Eurocentric approach of most world histories and introduces many forgotten cultures, movements and events from around the globe and across all time. It also recognises that the history of man has had a huge impact on the natural world, and that nature sometimes strikes back.Yet alongside the great and the good, more everyday aspects of human existence are also placed into the story. Where was the first beer drunk? When did the first American football match take place? These, and a wealth of other quirky details, facts and figures help make this book the ideal introduction to the history of the world from its creation right up to the present day.

The Viking Conquest of England in 1016 – a far tougher and more brutal campaign than the Norman Conquest exactly half a century later – saw two great warriors, the Danish prince Cnut and his equally ruthless English opponent King Edmund Ironside, fight an epic campaign. Cnut sailed in two hundred longboats, landing first in September 1015 on the Wessex coast with 10,000 soldiers. The two forces fought each other to the point of exhaustion for the next fourteen months. It was a war of terrifying violence that scarred much of England, from the Humber to Cornwall. It saw an epic siege of the great walls of London and bruising set-piece battles at Penselwood, Otford, and the conclusive Danish victory at Assandun on 18 October 1016.Edmund’s death soon afterwards finally resolved a brutal, bloody conflict and ended with Cnut becoming the undisputed king of England. This book tells the extraordinary story of Cnut the Great’s life. Cnut was far removed from the archetypal pagan Viking, being a staunch protector of the Christian Church and a man who would also become Emperor of the North as king of Denmark and Norway. His wife, Emma of Normandy, was a remarkable woman who would outlive the two kings of England that she married. Their son Harthacnut would be the second and last Danish king of England, but the greatness of his dynasty did not long survive his death. This saga also features the incompetent Æthelred the Unready, the ferocious Sweyn Forkbeard and the treacherous Eadric Streona, recreating one of the great stories of Dark Age England.

The Viking Conquest of England in 1016 – a far tougher and more brutal campaign than the Norman Conquest exactly half a century later – saw two great warriors, the Danish prince Cnut and his equally ruthless English opponent King Edmund Ironside, fight an epic campaign. Cnut sailed in two hundred longboats, landing first in September 1015 on the Wessex coast with 10,000 soldiers. The two forces fought each other to the point of exhaustion for the next fourteen months. It was a war of terrifying violence that scarred much of England, from the Humber to Cornwall. It saw an epic siege of the great walls of London and bruising set-piece battles at Penselwood, Otford, and the conclusive Danish victory at Assandun on 18 October 1016.Edmund’s death soon afterwards finally resolved a brutal, bloody conf lict and ended with Cnut becoming the undisputed king of England. This book tells the extraordinary story of Cnut the Great’s life. Cnut was far removed from the archetypal pagan Viking, being a staunch protector of the Christian Church and a man who would also become Emperor of the North as king of Denmark and Norway. His wife, Emma of Normandy, was a remarkable woman who would outlive the two kings of England that she married. Their son Harthacnut would be the second and last Danish king of England, but the greatness of his dynasty did not long survive his death. This saga also features the incompetent Æthelred the Unready, the ferocious Sweyn Forkbeard and the treacherous Eadric Streona, recreating one of the great stories of Dark Age England.

In the early middle ages the Christian presence in the Middle East took a series of blows from often superior Muslim forces, only for a fresh wave of Crusaders to regain territory. But the Fall of Acre in 1291 was the dramatic event that finally brought dreams of a Christian Holy Land crashing down.The city had first been captured by Crusaders under Richard the Lionheart in 1189–91. The aftermath was a horrific massacre of 3,000 Muslim prisoners on Richard’s orders – which contrasted vividly with the peaceable capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187.Three quarters of a century later the Mamluk sultan, Baybars, had assumed Saladin’s mantle. He was a powerful statesman who had turned back the Mongol tide that threatened to deluge Asia and Egypt, the mainstay of Muslim power. He was also utterly ruthless, conquering Crusader towns and castles with terrifying persistence. Eventually just a few towns were left, most crucially Acre, the Christians’ capital since Jerusalem had been lost.Then Baybars suddenly died in what seemed like divine intervention. But in this chance for peace, visitors from Europe assaulted Muslim traders and the sultanate in Cairo reacted with force. In the harsh siege that followed, Templars and Hospitallers fought alongside secular knights in a frantic last stand. But the Muslim forces broke in and unleashed a reign of terror. As Venetian sea captains negotiated with the highest bidder to ship Christian refugees to safety, thousands were killed or taken into slavery in reprisal for the historic massacres of Muslims in Jerusalem in 1099 and Acre in 1191. The Crusaders’ centuries-old campaign to unite Christendom around Jerusalem would never recover.

Whilst Richard I is one of medieval England’s most famous kings he is also the most controversial. He has variously been considered a great warrior but a poor king, a man driven by the quest for fame and glory but also lacking in self-discipline and prone to throwing away the short-term advantages that his military successes brought him.In this reassessment W. B. Bartlett looks at his deeds and achievements in a new light. The result is a compelling new portrait of ‘the Lionheart’ which shows that the king is every bit as remarkable as his medieval contemporaries found him to be. This includes his Muslim enemies, who spoke of him as their most dangerous and gallant opponent. It shows him to be a man badly let down by some of those around him, especially his brother John and the duplicitous French king Philip. The foibles of his character are also exposed to the full, including his complicated relationships with the key women in his life, especially the imposing contemporary figure of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his wife, Berengaria, with whom he failed to produce an heir, leading to later suggestions of homosexuality.This is a new Richard, one for the twenty-first century, and a re-evaluation of the life story of one of the greatest personalities of medieval Europe.

In the space of 200 hundred years, the Mongols built the greatest empire that the world had ever known and then lost it again. At its greatest extent, the lands they held dwarfed those under the control of Rome at its prime whilst the conquests of its founder, Genghis Khan, outshone those of even Alexander the Great. There were few parts of the known world that were not touched by the Mongols in one way or another: China, India, the Middle East, Europe, Egypt. This was truly a world empire. This is a tale of fiercely fought battles and political intrigue, of unrivalled ferocity and burning ambition. It is a tale not just of military campaigns, though these are of course a vital part of the building of the empire, but also of the many other ways that it grew. The Mongols truly believed that it was their destiny to conquer the world and they came mightily close to doing it. W.B. Bartlett has a longstanding relationship with Mongolia and has used his knowledge of the country and its history to tell this fascinating tale of how a tribe of little known nomads became the most feared warriors that the world has ever seen.

A narrative history of the Mongol Empire from the birth of Genghis Khan c.1167 to the demise of the Golden Horde in 1510, the effective end of the Mongol Empire. In the space of 200 hundred years, the Mongols built the greatest empire that the world had ever known and then lost it again. At its greatest extent, the lands they held dwarfed those under the control of Rome at its prime whilst the conquests of its founder, Genghis Khan, outshone those of even Alexander the Great. There were few parts of the known world that were not touched by the Mongols in one way or another: China, India, the Middle East, Europe, Egypt. This was truly a world empire. This is a tale of fiercely fought battles and political intrigue, of unrivalled ferocity and burning ambition. It is a tale not just of military campaigns, though these are of course a vital part of the building of the empire, but also of the many other ways that it grew. The Mongols truly believed that it was their destiny to conquer the world and they came mightily close to doing it. W.B. Bartlett has a longstanding relationship with Mongolia and has used his knowledge of the country and its history to tell this fascinating tale of how a tribe of little known nomads became the most feared warriors that the world has ever seen. The first new history of the Mongol Empire for over twenty years.