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1298: Alexander of Wells watches William Wallaces army across the field at Falkirk. Hours later, he is dead, cut down by the Scots.1381: Hated collector of the Poll Tax, Robert Hales, is dragged from the Tower of London and executed, his head paraded through the streets before being placed on a spike on London Bridge.1490s: John Kendal sends coded letters to Perkin Warbecks supporters and hires an astrologer to murder Henry VII.These men were not scheming lords: they were Knights Hospitaller. Commonly known as warrior monks, they were a religious and military order that fought to defend the Holy Land, supposedly above war and petty politics. But in Europe they became entangled in local government, taking up positions as royal commanders, administrators and politicians. They led armies, attended Parliaments, and joined court intrigues and civil wars.While the Knights Templar have long captured the public imagination, the Hospitallers were just as influential, yet their story has been left largely untold until now. From the English invasion of Ireland through to Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries and beyond, the Hospitallers story in Britain and Ireland sees the brethren drawn into civil wars, violent feuds, duels, assassinations and witchcraft.Employing the latest research, Warrior Monks reveals the fascinating account of medieval Britain through the eyes of the Knights Hospitaller: a powerful order that made kings, toppled regimes and shaped history.

Eric Bohme analyses two processes of conquest which are generally considered prime examples of the expansion of Latin-Christian powers into the Islamicate Mediterranean. The Norman conquest of Sicily 10611091 put a close to more than two hundred years of Muslim rule over the island. Two centuries later, the Catalan-Aragonese conquest of eastern al-Andalus (c. 12291245) and its transformation into the Kingdom of Valencia constituted a major advance in the Christian expansion on the Iberian Peninsula. The striking parallels between both changes of rulership are now analysed indepth for the first time. At the centre of the analysis is the perspective of the conquered Muslim communities: With what motivation and strategies did they participate in processes of interaction and negotiation with the new rulers and other immigrant groups?