Books like Richard the Lionheart by Miller, David - undifferentiated

James Goldman's stage classic dramatizes 12th‑century royal intrigue, as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine scheme and clash over succession, revealing the timeless tensions of family conflict, ambition and power.

Richard II inherits England’s crown after his brother’s death, then leads the Third Crusade while navigating his brother John’s political intrigues.

The Landmark Arrian is an important new edition of The Campaigns of Alexander, the most authoritative ancient account of one of the world’s most brilliant military leaders. During twelve years of continuous campaigns, Alexander conquered an empire that stretched from the shores of the Adriatic to the edge of modern India. Arrian’s history of those conquests, the most reliable and detailed account to emerge from the ancient world, is a work that will fascinate readers interested in classical studies, the history of warfare, and the origins of East-West tensions that still simmer today in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Drawing on Ptolemy’s memoirs and other sources that have not survived antiquity, Arrian’s portrait of Alexander is unmatched for its accuracy and immediacy. Having served as a high Roman official with command of an army, Arrian had a unique perspective on Alexander, imbued with a level of understanding that only firsthand military experience can provide. In the richly illustrated and annotated style of the Landmark series, The Campaigns of Alexander, which features an engaging and eloquent new translation by Pamela Mensch, brings together some of the preeminent classics scholars at work today to create what is certain to be the definitive edition of this essential work of history. - Publisher.

"Of Franco-Scandinavian descent through his father, Duke Robert 'the Magnificent', William the Conqueror's life is set against his true background, the turbulent Norman Duchy which, even after the Conquest of England, remained his primary concern. William is revealed as the brutal and violent product of his time, much given to outbursts of rage, capable of great cruelty, autocratic, avaricious and prone to a sort of grisly humour, yet, with all that he could also be a loyal friend and affectionate husband and father. His military reputation rests mainly on his victory at Hastings and he showed little sign of strategic or tactical genius. He was a competent rather than inspired general, benefiting from the mistakes and disunity of his foes. Only at Hastings did he meet and defeat a man who was his peer as a leader of men. He inspired great loyalty in some and even greater hatred in others. His primary attribute was his ruthless will which made him the driving force behind Norman ambition in North Western Europe. His propagandists shamelessly manipulated the facts to justify his conquest of England, a dubious enterprise if ever there was one."--Publisher.