EMPIRES OF THE NORMANS by Levi Roach, read by Luke Thompson - audiobook extract
The first global history of the Normans, who\u2014beyond the conquest of England\u2014came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.\n\nHow did descendants of Viking marauders came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East?\n\nIt is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten\u2014until now.