PREFACE: History has no period which makes a more vivid appeal to the young reader than the thousand years which we call the middle ages. The mediaeval world is just such a world as he would like to live in, where nights ride off on crusades, and kings wander out from their places in disguise; where heroes sail away to explore unknown seas, and gay cavaliers sally forth to tournament and joust. It requires no effort to interest boys and girls in this part of history. They turn to it with the enthusiasm with which they seize fairy tales and legends of chivalry and romance, and find in its reality a satisfying response to the desire for a true story....... The purpose of this series is to relate this fascinating and heroic past to the present by telling the stories from the point of view of the contribution of the middle ages to the world of today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900"s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We