Some conflicts are not only turning points in war but in history itself. The knights of the crusades swore allegiance to the pope in a ceremony known as taking the cross. In 1187, one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe took the cross and set out to the Holy Land to defeat the brilliant Muslim leader Saladin. Richard I, King of England soon became known as Richard the Lionheart. This book traces world history through the great age of conflict investigating the crusades and many of the other significant wars and battles that changed the ancient and medieval world forever.
Contents include Persian invasion of Greece, the Peloponnesian wars, wars of Alexander the Great, the slave rebellion of Spartacus, Julius Caesar's Gallic wars, the struggle for power after Caesar's death, the battle of the Teutoburg forest, Boudicca's rebellion, the fall of Masada, the Jewish revolt, the birth of Islam, Islamic expansion, Viking raids, the Crusades, the peasant's revolt, the Hundred Years' War, fall of Constantinople, the wars of the Roses.
