Richard A. Fletcher's Books

The Quest for El Cid

By: Richard A. Fletcher

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Rodrigo Díaz, the legendary warrior-knight of eleventh-century Castile known as El Cid, is still honored in Spain as a national hero for liberating the fatherland from the occupying Moors. Yet, as this book reveals, there are many contradictions between eleventh-century reality and the mythology that developed later. By placing El Cid in a fresh, historical context, Fletcher shows us an adventurous soldier of fortune who was of a type, one of a number of "cids," or "bosses," who flourished in eleventh-century Spain. But the El Cid of legend--the national hero -- was unique in stature even in his lifetime. Before his death El Cid was already celebrated in a poem; posthumously he was immortalized in the great epic Poema de Mío Cid. When he died in Valencia in 1099, he was ruler of an independent principality he had carved for himself in Eastern Spain. Rather than the zealous Christian leader many believe him to have been, Rodrigo emerges in Fletcher's study as a mercenary equally at home in the feudal kingdoms of northern Spain and the exotic Moorish lands of the south, selling his martial skills to Christian and Muslim alike. Indeed, his very title derives from the Arabic word sayyid, meaning 'lord' or 'master.' And as there was little if any sense of Spanish nationhood in the eleventh century, he can hardly be credited for uniting a medieval Spanish nation. This ground-breaking inquiry into the life and times of El Cid disentangles fact from myth to create a striking portrait of an extraordinary man, clearly showing how and why legend transformed him into something he was not during his lifetime.--From publisher description.

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Page Count

246

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195069552

ISBN 13

9780195069556

The Barbarian Conversion

From Paganism to Christianity

By: Richard A. Fletcher

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The Barbarian Conversion

From Paganism to Christianity

By: Richard A. Fletcher

An investigation of the process by which large parts of Europe accepted the Christian faith between the fourth and the fourteenth centuries and of some of the cultural consequences that flowed therefrom." In a work of splendid scholarship that reflects both a firm mastery of difficult sources and a keen intuition, one of Britain's foremost medievalists tells the story of the Christianization of Europe. It is a very large story, for conversion encompassed much more than religious belief. With it came enormous cultural change: Latin literacy and books, Roman notions of law and property, and the concept of town life, as well as new tastes in food, drink, and dress. Whether from faith or by force, from self-interest or by revelation, conversion had an immense impact that is with us even today.

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Page Count

598

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520218590

ISBN 13

9780520218598

Moorish Spain

By: Richard A. Fletcher,Richard Fletcher

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Moorish Spain

By: Richard A. Fletcher,Richard Fletcher

A good introductory picture of the Islamic presence in Spain, from the year 711 until the modern era.

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520248406

ISBN 13

9780520248403

The Tithonian Factor

By: Richard Cowper

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The Tithonian Factor

By: Richard Cowper

The Tithonian Factor takes us into the 22nd century and introduces the sempiterns, people who a hundred years or more earlier have taken a drug which confers a kind of immortality, but at an unexpected price.

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Page Count

108

Publisher

Gateway

Published Date

ISBN 10

0575108223

ISBN 13

9780575108226

Bloodfeud

Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England

By: Richard Fletcher,Richard A. Fletcher

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Bloodfeud

Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England

By: Richard Fletcher,Richard A. Fletcher

On a gusty March day in 1016, Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, the most powerful lord in northern England, arrived at a place called Wiheal, probably near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. Uhtred had come with forty men to submit formally to King Canute, an act that completed the Danish subjugation of England and the defeat of Ethelred the Unready, to whom Uhtred had been a loyal ally and subject. But, as Richard Fletcher recounts in the electrifying opening to Bloodfeud, "Treachery was afoot.

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Page Count

257

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195179447

ISBN 13

9780195179446

Ancient Mesoamerica

A Comparison of Change in Three Regions

By: Richard E. Blanton

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Ancient Mesoamerica

A Comparison of Change in Three Regions

By: Richard E. Blanton

In this revised and updated 1993 edition the authors synthesize recent research to provide a comprehensive survey of Mesoamerica.

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Page Count

310

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521446066

ISBN 13

9780521446068

Apollo's Swan and Lyre

Five Hundred Years of the Musicians' Company

By: Richard Crewdson

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Apollo's Swan and Lyre

Five Hundred Years of the Musicians' Company

By: Richard Crewdson

The colourful history of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, from its medieval beginnings to the present day.

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Page Count

342

Publisher

Boydell & Brewer

Published Date

ISBN 10

0851157661

ISBN 13

9780851157665

Book's by Richard A. Fletcher

The Quest for El Cid

The Quest for El Cid

The Barbarian Conversion

The Barbarian Conversion

Moorish Spain

Moorish Spain

The Tithonian Factor

The Tithonian Factor

Bloodfeud

Bloodfeud

Ancient Mesoamerica

Ancient Mesoamerica

Apollo's Swan and Lyre

Apollo's Swan and Lyre

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