Well detailed and illustrated outline of the rulers encompassed by the Old Testament, from Abraham to Herod.

Nothing is fair in war. Jonathan King is every bit his last name. Powerful. Untouchable. Corrupted. He's also my dead sister's husband and way older than me. When I first met him as a clueless child, I thought he was a god. Now, I have to confront that god to protect my business from his ruthless grip. Little did I know that declaring a war on the king will cost me everything. When Jonathan covets something, he doesn't only win, he conquers. Now, he has his sights on me. He wants to consume not only my body, but also my heart and my soul. I fight, but there's no escaping the king in his kingdom... Reign of a King is the first part of a duet and is not standalone.

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D)--University of Cambridge, 2002.

Despite his youth, Declan Idrys knows of the evils of the world. He knows of the bastards and brigands who plague the King's lands, of the monsters skulking in the wooded depths of the realm. Together with his companion, Ryn - a beast of rather peculiar talent - he has spent the last decade of his life beneath the bloody banners of a half-dozen mercenary guilds, hunting precisely such festering wickedness within the borders of Viridian. Unfortunately, fate is quick to pull on the leash of its favorite children. When one particularly troubling contract goes sideways, Declan and Ryn find themselves thrust into a war thought legend and long-ended, a conflict so old it is synonymous with a time in which dragons still ruled the western skies. Now, as dead men rise from their graves and the terrible beasts of the northern ranges descend into the kingdom with an appetite for savagery and flesh, Declan is faced with a profane choice. He can turn, can flee an ancient rising horror that would see the realms of man left as shattered death and wind-blown ash. Or, Declan can face this mounting threat, can come to terms with the fact that his oldest friend might just be more than he appears, and learn to wield an ageless power all his own. Centuries pass, after all, but the Blood of Kings does not fade...

During the Renaissance, the monarchy became the dominant ruling power in Europe. It was an era of formidable kings and queens who crushed the feudal rights of their nobles, defended the Catholic Church against the encroachments of Protestantism, fought self-aggrandizing wars and were great patrons of art, architecture, literature and music. This work chronicles the lives and reigns of the 42 monarchs in England, Scotland, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire between 1400 and 1600, presenting in the context of their era their personalities, accomplishments and failures.

This pioneering study wrestles with the perpetual problem of chronology in the Books of Kings. Starting from the conservative assumptions that the courts of Israel and Judah maintained regnal records, and that these for the most part accurately reflect regnal length, the author arrives at a new and persuasive dating for the reigns and their synchronisms. In addition, his chronological scheme includes all points of contact between Israel and Judah and external powers, especially Assyria. The result is one of the most responsible and yet most critical chronologies proposed to date, and will be the standard chronological reference for the next decade, if not longer.