In 1809 the dispossessed Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick, consumed by his desire for revenge against Napoleon, entered into an agreement with the Austrians to raise a new corps of infantry and cavalry. As a physical expression of this vengeance he decided to clothe his new troops all in black and adopted as his badge the skull and crossbones, resulting in his corps' christening as Die Schwarze Schar (the Black Horde). This book details the pivotal role that the Black Brunswickers played in major battles of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), including Quatre Bras and Waterloo (1815), and outlines the organization, uniforms and equipment of these formidable troops.

PLAGUEBORNE contains the first two books in the epic Plagueborne Trilogy. THE RITUALA devastating plague is sweeping the continent of Greater Virren...Its origin is unknown, its dominance of the land near complete. In times of grim desperation, pestilence has given way to superstition, and the citizenry are now more divided than ever.Yet the city of Rothenberg remains inexplicably untouched...The Council has grown convinced of their immunity, even as their neighbours are consumed before them. As the world teeters on the brink of collapse, a zealous religious order has re-emerged. They claim to have discovered the source of the plague... but can they be trusted?The plague will never reach Rothenberg... Katarina Lorenz, a noble of the city and veteran of the civil war that shook the continent, remains unconvinced. She conspires to leave the city with her companion Tannhauser, to find out what's really going on beyond its walls.THE RITUAL is the first in a trilogy of gripping high-fantasy novelettes. The debut possesses all the beloved hallmarks fans of the genre will recognise, but is distinguished by its gritty atmosphere and confrontation with some of the most unsettling chapters of human history.THE ZEALOT Greater Virren teeters on the brink of collapse...The continent writhes in the throes of a deadly plague. Great cities have fallen into ruin, and bands of godless marauders stalk the lands unopposed. As the survivors emerge, it seems the whole world has taken one final breath before the plunge into darkness absolute.The Whispered Words of a Witch...Far afield from the fires of Lunburrow, its intended victim vanished, Katarina and Tannhauser bear west in search of "the source." With the stakes higher than ever, they must contend with cunning members of the provinces' crumbling upper crust, the threat of infection, and forces altogether more ancient and powerful than they can as yet conceive.The Wolf at Their Heels...Wrenched from the jaws of death, Ezekiel lives. With renewed vigour, and an unlikely companion, he dogs their every step in relentless pursuit of vindication-and vengeance.The sequel to The Ritual, the gripping inauguration of Mitchell Lüthi's Plagueborne Trilogy, The Zealot builds upon the intrigue, suspense, and gritty realism that made the debut so enjoyable. The latest addition to an exhilarating fantasy series, The Zealot is a must-read for fans of character-driven stories and heart-racing action sequences.

Napoleon's Hussars made their first real impact during the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, with their astonishing pursuit of the Prussians over 1,160km from the river Saale to the Oder in twenty-five days. They then capped this feat on arrival when, by dint of audacious demonstrations by the 500 men of the combined 5th and 7th Hussars, the 6,000-strong Prussian garrison was bluffed into capitulating its fortress at Stettin along with 160 cannon. This splendid volume by Emir Bukhari describes the organization, war records, dress and equipment of these most colorful of Napoleon's troops.

Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask, is the most famous French writer of the nineteenth century. In 2002, his remains were transferred to the Panthéon, a mausoleum reserved for the greatest French citizens, amidst much national hype during his bicentennial. Contemporary France, struggling with the legacies of colonialism and growing diversity, has transformed Dumas, grandson of a slave from St. Domingue (now Haiti), into a symbol of the colonies and the larger francophone world in an attempt to integrate its immigrants and migrants from its former Caribbean, African, and Asian colonies to improve race relations and to promote French globality. Such a reconception of Dumas has made him a major figure in debates on French identity and colonial history. Ten tears after Dumas’s interment in the Panthéon, the time is ripe to re-evaluate Dumas within this context of being a representative of la Francophonie. The French re-evaluation of Dumas, therefore, invites a reassessment of his life, works, legacy, and previous scholarship. This interdisciplinary collection is the first major work to take up this task. It is unique for being the first scholarly work to bring Dumas into the center of debates about French identity and France’s relations with its former colonies. For the purposes of this collection, to analyze Dumas in a “francophone” context means to explore Dumas as a symbol of a “French” culture shaped by, and inclusive of, its (former) colonies and current overseas departments. The seven entries in this collection, which focus on providing new ways of interpreting The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Georges, are categorized into two broad groups. The first group focuses on Dumas’s relationship with the francophone colonial world during his lifetime, which was characterized by the slave trade, and provides a postcolonial re-examination of his work, which was impacted profoundly by his status as an individual of black colonial descent in metropolitan France. The second part of this collection, which is centered broadly around Dumas’s francophone legacy, examines the way he has been remembered in the larger French-speaking (postcolonial) world, which includes metropolitan France, in the past century to explore questions about French identity in an emerging global age.

The 11th Armoured Division, famous for its Black Bull insignia, was widely recognized as being among the best armoured divisions in north-west Europe during the Second World War. This book tells the story of the Division in the words of the soldiers who fought with it: of its part in the three ferocious battles in Normandy – Operations EPSOM, GOODWOOD and BLUECOAT, the great 'Swan' to Amiens, the taking of Antwerp; right flanking for MARKET GARDEN, back-up in the Ardennes and the final slog into Germany across well-defended river barriers, to the liberation of Belsen, Lübeck and the Danish frontier. The Division suffered 10,000 casualties, with almost 2,000 lost in action, and so this is also a story of courage and the hardships of a winter campaign, of being wounded, comradeship and fighting fear. Contributions are included from twelve of the regiments who proudly wore the sign of the Black Bull. Memories from troop commanders and riflemen, bombardiers and signalmen, tank crews, troop leaders and from the dashing GOC are brought together to reveal what life was like at the sharp end. The Black Bull is liberally illustrated with contemporary photographs showing the Division in action. It will appeal not only to those who still have memories of the battles and to those who fought in the Second World War, but also to readers interested in the day-to-day actions and thoughts of soldiers in the front line for almost a year.