In the year 937, the new king of England, a grandson of Alfred the Great, readies himself to go to war in the north. His dream of a united kingdom of all England will stand or fall on one field-on the passage of a single day. At his side is the priest Dunstan of Glastonbury, full of ambition and wit (perhaps enough to damn his soul). His talents will take him from the villages of Wessex to the royal court, to the hills of Rome-from exile to exaltation....

"Winter 1461 - Richard Duke of York is dead, his ambitions in ruins, his head spiked on the walls of the city. King Henry VI is still held prisoner. His Lancastrian Queen rides south with an army of victorious northerners, accompanied by painted warriors from the Scottish Highlands. With the death of York, Margaret and her army seem unstoppable. Yet in killing the father, Margaret has unleashed the sons. Edward of March, now Duke of York, proclaims...

The three surviving sons of Genghis Khan vie for the crown while striving to protect their father's empire and establish independent legacies, agendas marked by efforts to build a city in the wilderness, conquer Southern China and tame the steppes of Russia.

"In ancient Greece an army of slaves gathers on the plains of Marathon...Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army--swollen by 10,000 warriors known as The Immortals--have come to subjugate the Greeks. In their path, vastly outnumbered, stands an army of freeborn Athenians. Among them is a clever, fearsome, and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus. Against all odds, the Athenians emerge victorious. Yet people soon forget that...

After gentle Henry VI takes the throne and is promised a royal bride from France, the rival royal line, the House of York, begins their quest to oust him.