Rupert Matthews: 47 books

A book about the bloody Battle of Northampton, a key turning point in the Wars of the Roses fought in 1460. In 1460 the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses seemed doomed. The Duke of York was in exile, his friends in hiding and his army scattered. Then Edward, Yorks dashing son, returned from France...

A book dedicated to the only battle ever fought in Rutland - the Battle of Losecoat Field, a turning point in the Wars of the Roses. In 1470 the Yorkist King Edward IV was apparently secure on his throne, but unknown to him he was about to be betrayed by his own brother, George of Clarence, and the...

Lenin wrote "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" in the spring of 1916, though it was not published until the summer of 1917. The timing was fortuitous for what had been a minority view of interest to few when he wrote it had come to be a powerful message with resonance with many by the...

Fought on 18 June 1815, the Battle of Waterloo was one of the most dramatic and decisive battles ever fought. Now in the bicentenary year of Waterloo, an experienced military historian takes a fresh look at this momentous conflict between Napoleon's celebrated grande armee and Wellington's battle-hardened...

A book dedicated to the Battle of Lincoln that marked a turning point in the Wars of Anarchy during the reign of King Stephen in the 12th century. A civil war between King Stephen and his rival Empress Matilda broke out in 1136. By 1141 England had fallen in to anarchy with nobles using the unrest...

At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, such was the build-up of men and materials in the RAF that Lincolnshire was already known as ‘Bomber Country’. Its four main airfields—Hemswell, Scampton, Waddington and Cottesmore—were home to eight squadrons of Bomber Command under...

A book dedicated to the four sieges of Newark during the English Civil War, the last of which marked the collapse of Royalist power in the Midlands. In 1642 King Charles I summoned Newark to support him, which it did with men, money and munitions. The city and castle where thereafter a loyal bastion...

Today the rivalry between St. Andrew and St. George may be fierce but at least it is limited to the sporting field. This was by no means always the case, before the Act of Settlement in the Eighteenth Century (400th Anniversary in March 2003). Author Rupert Matthews has researched more than twenty...

This book was written in 1887 at a critical time for both the debate on Irish Home Rule and for Gladstone himself. It influence on events proved to be great, though as with all efforts to solve the "Irish Question" in the 19th century it was ultimately doomed to failure.For decades Gladstone...

From armor to jousting, Knights and Castles covers everything there is to know about knights and medieval castles. Knights and Castles takes an up-close look at the history of knights, their chivalrous code, the battles they fought, and more. Learn about the heroic actions of famous knights,...

Follow the blogs of an adventurous young explorer through the Amazon to her uncle's rain forest research station. Her trip takes her along the Rio Blanco river; she goes jaguar tracking, joins tribal villagers for a feast after hunting, and discovers an ancient site. The 48-page Level 3 books,...

From the Roman invasion, through tall tales of Merlin and King Arthur, and right up to and beyond the incredible power of the mining industry, 'Wales, A Very Peculiar History' takes a quirky, sideways look at some of the slightly bizarre aspects of the home of welsh rarebit, Maelgwn the Dragon, and...

The Little Book of Surrey is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic, or simply strange information which no-one will want to be without. The county's most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters, royal connections, and...

The great spectacles of ancient Rome have become proverbial for their cruelty, bloodlust and glory. In the arena, the games were savage and brutal. Gladiators fought each other to the death, wild animals were put to fight each other and criminals were executed by barbaric means. Military victories were...