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MustacheEmperor t1_isvqfwl wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL about the Battle of Jaffa, whereby the Crusaders leader King Richard I and the Muslim defender Saladin would meet in battle for the decisive time. Richard I ultimately won but both sides left with complete respect for each other. by NotAGoodDayAhead

Fantastic book! His book The Hollow Crown, about the war of the roses, is also excellent and similarly filled with unbelievable exploits from history retold very well.

Netflix has a show about castles hosted by him right now that’s great too.

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[deleted] t1_iswid5t wrote

I'll add it to my reading list 👍👍

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MustacheEmperor t1_isz7nhp wrote

It's the one I read first, and I picked up the plantagenets after. That sent me on quite a kick, so here's a few others I'd recommend that remind me of Dan Jones' style of telling history:

  • Ian Mortimer's biographies on Edward III and Henry V are great. Edward III's life story sounds like an unbelievable movie and Mortimer really brings the knights of his household to life.
  • The Three Edwards by Thomas Costain is so good I really enjoyed it even after having read an individual biography of each Edward
  • The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris is fantastic and I'd put it on the level with Hollow Crown. I really appreciate how he points out where the Bayeaux Tapestry records the events and does a good job of describing the contemporary sources and their potential biases and how we can interpret from them. His books Castle and A Great and Terrible King, about Edward I, are both also excellent.
  • The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge is the biography of William Marshall and one of my favorites. His life story is unbelievable and as a book it's a good overview of the life and social hierarchy of a medieval knighthood as well as the courts of the many kings he served under. It'll add more to what you already know about that time in history.

Anyway, Dan Jones turned me into a medieval history nerd so there's my bibliography for ya. If you have any recommendations I'd love to hear em! I would really like to find some good books about the French side of the Hundred Years' War.

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[deleted] t1_iszdyt7 wrote

I'll add them to the ever growing book wish list 🤣. Slightly off on a tangent but have you read Bernard Cornwell's series the last kingdom? It's a blend of fact and fiction told from a fictional characters point of view during the Viking invasions. A really good read 👍

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MustacheEmperor t1_iszia5d wrote

I actually just picked up my first Cornwell book, the first book in the Harlequin series! I'm pretty sure I'll be reading them all now, thanks for the rec.

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EmergencyBurger t1_it2tts2 wrote

I have the book War of the Roses, the one with the fancy red cover, and someone at Waterstones said it was great. Do you recommend the hollow crown over that one?

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