Great Events from History: The Middle Ages, 477- 1453 is the second installment in the ongoing Great Events from History series, which was initiated in 2004 with the two-volume Great Lives from History: The Ancient World. The series is projected to extend to the twenty-first century, with The Renaissance & Early Modern Era, 1454-1600, The Seventeenth Century, The Eighteenth Century, The Nineteenth Century, and The Twentieth Century to appear in sequential installments.Like the rest of the series, the current volumes represent both a revision and a significant expansion of the twelve-volume Great Events from History (1972-1980), incorporating essays from the Chronology of European History: 15,000 B.c. to 1997 (3 vols., 1997), Great Events from History: North American Series, Revised Edition (4 vols., 1997), Great Events from History: Ancient and Medieval Series (3 vols., 1972), and Great Events from History: Modern European Series (3 vols., 1973).Each installment in the new series is being enlarged with a significant amount of new material—often more than half the contents. For The Ancient World, new essays numbered roughly two-thirds of the set’s contents, and the same is true here: The current two volumes of The Middle Ages, 477-1443 add 200 new essays to the original 122, for a total of 322 events. These essays were commissioned especially for the new series and appear here for the first time. In addition, the new series features a new page design, expanded and updated bibliographies, internal and external cross-references, a section containing maps of the medieval world, new appendices and indexes, plus sidebars, tables, and numerous illustrations throughout.