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Trials and Tribulations
Dreamers
& Martyrs in a Turbulent Age (Paperback - 25 Mar 2011)
Robert D. Morritt
Availability
Trials and Tribulations is an
examination of periods of turbulence, medieval warfare, victors and the
vanquished and ever changing monarchies.
The creation of the Knights Templars.
The famous Order of the Temple of
Jerusalem, founded in 1118 by a small band of nine French knights, sworn to
protect Christian pilgrims and how power corrupts in a turbulent age.
 A sea
fight at Sluys in June 1340 that began the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It was England's
first great naval victory resulting in the destruction of most of
France's fleet, which made a French invasion of England impossible.
We visit , the battle of Crécy , in which an Anglo Welsh army of 9000 to
10,000 , commanded by Edward III of England
heavily outnumbered by Philip VI of France’s force of 35,000 to
100,000 , was victorious as a result of superior weaponry and tactics,
demonstrating the importance in battle of fire power.
An overview of Petrarch, Italian
scholar, poet, known as the "Father of Humanism". His sonnets were admired and imitated
throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical
poetry. He also devoted his life to a woman he had viewed from a distance, a relationship that would
never occur.
The appearance of Cola di Rienzo,
born of humble origins. He rose from
obscurity to run a government and
later offended the Pope by his arrogance which led him down the path
to oblivion when he proposed to set
up his own ‘Roman Empire’.
An overview of the Renaissance is covered and
the tragedy of the Black Death , a severe bubonic plague that decimated most
of Europe and Britain
A viewpoint of Boccaccio shows
his conception of human existence ,
he felt it was a joy to be
accepted. He saw only the beauty in
his world, the goodliness of youth, strength and love and life.
John Wycliffe is included the
translator of the bible into English and of his fate in transgressing by
producing his bible.
These are reflections of people
who sensed that a new era would one day arise from out of their state of
darkness. The book concludes on a more positive theme as read of the life of
Copernicus, of his astronomical discoveries as the world perched on the edge
of a new age of enlightenment and discovery.
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