History Creator / RosemarySutcliff

* HumanSacrifice: On the night Teitri the foal is born, Vadir Cedricson explains to Owain that Saxon kings used to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their people, and though the Saxons no longer sacrifice men, they do sacrifice the "king" of their horse herds, a white stallion like Teitri.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The novel is based on ''Y Gododdin'', an epic poem allegedly written by an eyewitness of the battle, but since the major drama of the poem is that [[EverybodysDeadDave all the heroes die]], the novel focuses on their unnamed supporters, the squires like Prosper.

* CycleOfRevenge: Three separate blood feuds in the course of the novel: Onund Treefoot ambushes Vestnor and Vigibjord for killing his younger brother; Onund kills the man who was given his land, then kills the man who killed his grandfather in retaliation, then defeats the man sent to avenge that man; Melbrigda's son tries to kill Guthorm for his father's improper burial, gets killed by Thorstein, and then his brother kills Thorstein and Bjarni kills him.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Bjarni is a fictional character, but his bosses Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red and CoolOldLady [[AwesomeMcCoolname Aud the Deep-Minded]] are {{Historical Domain Character}}s who turn up in Literature/TheIcelandicSagas, such as ''Orkneyinga'' and ''{{Literature/Heimskringla}}''.

** The Washer at the Ford, a forerunner of death, appears (or is thought to appear) in ''Frontier Wolf'' and ''Bonnie Dundee''.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: If it's not the central relationship of the book, the protagonist probably has one in the background. ([[OneThingLedToAnother Inevitably leads to]] HoYay - deliberate in ''Sword At Sunset''; presumably conscious in YA novels like ''The Mark of the Horse Lord''.)

** ''Blood and Sand'': Thomas and Tussun

** The phrase "a singing magic", used by Flavia and Aquila in ''The Lantern Bearers'', is taken from "[[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/justso/chapter11.html#chapter11 The Cat Who Walked By Himself]]" in the ''Just So Stories''.

* SorryBillyButYouJustDontHaveLegs: Drem was born with his undeveloped right arm (and boundless self-confidence), and doesn't realise that other people consider him handicapped until he overhears his grandfather complaining that he'll never wear the Warrior Scarlet.

* ButNotTooGay: Alkibiades is said by Antiochus to be strictly a ladies' man, though he was noted for his beauty in a society where bisexuality was normal. The Soldier falls in love with a comrade who dies before they can do anything about it, and then is never interested in another man.

Prehistoric Argyll. Tethra, a changeling child adopted by the chief of the Epidi, is driven out to rejoin the Little Dark People. When his father is mortally wounded, he must choose between his two tribes.

!!'''''The Chief's Daughter''''' (short story)
Bronze Age Wales. Nessan [[AirVentPassageway frees]] a prisoner intended for {{human sacrifice}} and [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] to take his place.
* TheChiefsDaughter: Averted; the protagonist ''is'' the chief's daughter. And she's ten.
* CargoCult: Nessan's people worship a standing stone called the Black Mother. The negotiation of sacred debt that causes the characters so much mental agony is all done in the name of a rock.
* EquivalentExchange: Nessan initially saved Dara from HumanSacrifice by offering a glass bracelet to the Black Mother. When the stream dries up and the priest decides they need to sacrifice him after all, she engineers his escape knowing that [[BalancingDeathsBooks someone will have to take his place]]. His guard knows he'll have to take the fall, until Nessan [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] in his place. When Dara comes upon the Black Mother and finds a spear left as an offering, he takes it in exchange for all his food, inadvertently undamming the stream. When the water returns, the priest concludes that Nessan's ''willingness'' to die was an acceptable sacrifice.
!! '''''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'''''
100 BCE. Lubrin Dhu, the Iceni chief's BlackSheep artist son, finds himself the spokesman of his clan when they are conquered by the Atribates. He ransoms his SlaveRace with the design and construction of a great boundary marker [[spoiler: and his own HeroicSacrifice]].
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The Iceni's building project is the famous prehistoric chalk drawing the White Horse of Uffington.
* SolarAndLunar: The Iceni worship a moon goddess and the Atribates a sun god; the White Horse secretly symbolises both.
* {{Matriarchy}}: The patriarchal Atribates assume Lubrin is the chief of the matri''lineal'' Iceni; the rightful leaders are his sister Teleri and her husband Dara.
* HumanSacrifice: The White Horse must be dedicated with a death, and a chieftain must die for the good of his people.

A Oxford University Press fiftieth-anniversary cash-in edition of ''The Eagle of the Ninth'' in 2004 and the 2011 feature film adaptation ''The Eagle'' have sparked a minor revival of her works in more recent years. The official blog of her literary estate is http://rosemarysutcliff.com/ .

* AuthorCatchphrase

Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) was a British writer of [[HistoricalFiction historical fiction]], mainly for [[YoungAdult children]], who published some fifty books between 1950 and 1997. She was best-known for her novels set in Roman Britain, particularly ''[[Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth The Eagle of the Ninth]]''. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire (later Commander of the British Empire) for her services to children's literature.

* [[AlasPoorVillain Alas, Poor Antagonist]]: Quintus sees Calgacus only once, when his body is lying on the battlefield of Mons Graupius after his LastStand. He also points out that DoomedMoralVictor Calgacus's famous "Rome makes a desolation and calls it peace" RousingSpeech speech was [[WrittenByTheWinners written by Tacitus]].

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Liathan, the Caledone queen of the Dalriads, is a BlackWidow MyBelovedSmother EvilMatriarch infanticidal leader of a ScaryAmoralReligion. And Phaedrus's mother-in-law.

* BittersweetEnding: Victory is fleeting, but HeroicSacrifice is forever. They'll [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earn Their Happy Ending]] at the least; at worst TheHeroDies.

** ''Dawn Wind'': Vadir Cedricson is perhaps her only [[EvilCripple disabled antagonist]].

** ''Outcast'': Canog, a long-suffering mongrel like her owner Beric; his childhood dog Gelert.
** ''The Lantern Bearers'': Artos's dog Cabal, original to KingArthur mythos.

** ''Bonnie Dundee''

** ''Frontier Wolf'': Alexios refers to Cuchulainn.

** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': Phaedrus is the son of a Greek merchant and his British slavewoman, while Liathan is the daughter of a Dalriad king and a Caledone woman.

* EquivalentExchange: Nessan initially saved Dara from HumanSacrifice by offering a glass bracelet to the Black Mother. When the stream dries up and the priest decides they need to sacrifice him after all, she engineers his escape knowing that [[BalancingDeathsBooks someone will have to take his place]]. His guard knows he'll have to take the fall, until Nessan [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] in his place. When Dara comes upon the Black Mother and finds a spear left as an offering, he takes it in exchange for all his food, inadvertently undamming the stream. When the water returns, the priest decides that Nessan's ''willingness'' to die was an acceptable sacrifice.

* [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice: The White Horse must be dedicated with a death, and a chieftain must die for the good of his people.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In return for Roman insults, Boudicca reduced Camulodunum, Verulamium and Londinium to smoking ruins [[spoiler: before Suetonius delivered a NoHoldsBarredBeatDown.]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: Fulvius, who was [[SurvivorGuilt left behind by the Ninth]] and then kept in the same fort as part of the Sixth; [[spoiler:Stripey]]; and to some extent the narrator, Dexius, who claims that a lifetime in the frontier garrisons would drive anyone mad.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: [[spoiler:Stripey was one of Fulvius's men from the Ninth Legion, but he's so covered in [[GoingNative Pict tattoos]] he's unrecognisable, and so [[TraumaInducedAmnesia traumatised]] that he [[TheSpeechless can't tell anyone]]]].

* BattleAmongstTheFlames: The valour of the auxiliary cavalry is at issue in the tavern because they stampeded when the Picts fired the heather. Only the Dacian cavalry, which Aracos led, rode through the flames because they train their mounts in a trick riding display involving fire. Aracos collapses afterward from smoke inhalation.

180s CE. Phaedrus, a freed [[GladiatorGames gladiator]], plays the role of [[RightfulKingReturns lost heir]] to the patriarchal Dalriads in their war of succession against the matriarchal Caledones.

* BecomingTheMask: Phaedrus, a [[BornIntoSlavery born slave]], takes to [[GoingNative British tribal kingship]] LikeAFishTakesToWater. The "mark" of the title is not a badge or a birthmark, but the [[HeroicSacrifice willingness to die]] for his people.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Conory, the AgentPeacock of the Dalriadain.

* CycleOfRevenge: Connla borrows the Praepositus's horse because the Praepositus insulted his brother; the Praepositus has Connla executed for theft because the horse is killed; and Cunorix the chief of the Votadini attacks the Frontier Wolves because they killed his brother; Alexios can end the feud by volunteering for a DuelToTheDeath because he's the man who killed Connla.

* YankTheDogsChain: The DwindlingParty makes it to their fallback position at Habitancum. . . where EverybodysDeadDave.
* SoleSurvivor: Two: the woman at the Rath of Skolawn, and the wounded artilleryman at Habitancum.

* SnowMeansDeath: The snow begins to fall on the second day of the retreat and is falling when [[spoiler:Lucius]] is killed at the bridge, when they reach the garrison at Habitancum, and when [[spoiler:Alexios kills Cunorix]].

* EndOfAnAge: Opens with the final departure of Roman forces from Britain.

* DeathOfTheOldGods: Three-fold. British ''Christianity'' is thought by Rome to have been wiped out by the pagan Saxon conquest, and the reader knows that St. Augustine "the Dawn Wind" is going to show up any day now to convert the Saxons. However the Saxon religion, though civilizing (no more HumanSacrifice unless it's really, really important) is still going strong, and everyone but Augustine knows that the Saxon king only accepted baptism with an eye to political expediency. Meanwhile, the trope is played straight with the mostly-forgotten Roman pagan gods like those of the shrine to Pan.

* EmergencyImpersonation: Aracos takes the place of nearly-IdenticalStranger Felix, a ShellShockedVeteran, so Felix won't be charged with desertion.

* FaceYourFears: Lucian hates acknowleding his disability; the deserter has to decide whether army life is worse than life on the run.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Bjarni is a fictional character, but his bosses Onund Treefoot, Thorstein the Red and Aud the Deep-Minded are {{Historical Domain Character}}s who turn up in Literature/TheIcelandicSagas, such as ''Orkneyinga'' and ''{{Literature/Heimskringla}}''.

** ''The Lantern Bearers''
** ''Dawn Wind''
* MixedAncestry: As Britain is made of intermingled peoples, so too are Sutcliff's protagonists. (Alternatively, they might be adopted, giving them a mixed cultural heritage.) [[HalfBreedPrejudice Rarely does anyone let them forget it.]]

* TheBerserker: Bjarni is generally simmering with barely-contained aggression, so strategically ''not'' killing someone [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness is a major point in his character arc]].
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Bjarni's time in service to {{Historical Domain Character}}s Thorstein the Red and Aud the Deep-Minded is based on the ''Orkneyinga'' and ''Heimskringla'' sagas; his personal experiences are fiction.

* AnOfficerAndAGentleman: Most of Sutcliff's heroes are their culture's equivalent, be it Roman army officers, chieftains' sons, or English knights. This is unsurprising, as Sutcliff's father was an officer and she grew up on Royal Navy bases (what is perhaps surprising is that she never wrote about WoodenShipsAndIronMen).

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The colonization of Roman Britain (or Norman England) and the crumbling of the Roman Empire evoke TheRaj to the point of anachronism. Most of these novels were written during the dismantling of the British Empire and following in the footsteps of RudyardKipling.

* HeroicSacrifice: Ambrosius, who is dying of cancer, arranges a HuntingAccident to make himself a HumanSacrifice.

* "Death of a City"
* "Rome Builds a Wall"
* "Outpost Fortress"
* "Traprain Law"
* "Frontier Scout"
* "The Eagles Fly South"

* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Son]]: Kyndylan the Chief plans to use Androphon as leverage for persuading the Commander to abandon the construction of a signal tower.
* SheWillComeForMe: Androphon threatens Kyndylan with his father's DisproportionateRetribution, but he's bluffing, as the Romans don't know where Kyndylan's village is, and Kyndylan is planning to move him somewhere better hidden anyway.

Circa 129-131 CE. [[AnOfficerAndAGentleman Marcus]] and Esca search Caledonia for the eagle standard of the [[LostRomanLegion lost Ninth Legion]].

* BecomingTheMask: The "mark" of the title: [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]].
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Phaedrus's rival Liathan is a BlackWidow MyBelovedSmother infanticidal leader of a ScaryAmoralReligion.
* GoingNative: Phaedrus, a half-Greek [[BornIntoSlavery born]] slave, takes to British tribal kingship LikeAFishTakesToWater.

** TheSpymaster: Paulinus, the [[Creator/JohnLeCarre George Smiley]] of Portus Adurni. A small, plump, timid tax collector with a VerbalTic, who enjoys Euripides.
** RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Flavius's "legion", including two deserted centurions and a surgeon, a freed gladiator, and a jester, who use a battered and wingless legionary eagle as their standard.

* YankTheDogsChain: Alexios's destination is the fort at Habitancum. They arrive to find EverybodysDeadDave.

* BattleCouple: Gault and Levin, two of Artos's warband who tried out SituationalSexuality and never looked back. They become a captain and second of a squadron and save the day at Trimontium.

* HeroicSacrifice: Ambrosius, who is dying of cancer, arranges a HuntingAccident to make himself a HumanSacrifice.

* TheBerserker: Bjarni is generally simmering with barely-contained aggression, so strategically ''not'' killing someone is a major point in his character arc.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Aude the Deep-Minded, Thorstein the Red, others.

1090s-1100s CE. [[{{Tomboy}} Frytha]] and [[WarriorPoet Bjorn]] defend the last hidden Norse stronghold against the Normans.

Orkney, 2000-1000 BCE. [[OldManMarryingAChild A twelve-year-old girl is promised to the tyrannical chief]] of her prehistoric village, who proposes to sacrifice the boy she prefers to the gods who protect [[ChekhovsVolcano the great sand dune on which the village sits]].
* AStormIsComing: It's a foregone conclusion to the reader, but Moon Eye warns Long Ax about the rising winds. Unfortunately, Long Ax practices HeadInTheSandManagement.

* ChekhovsGift: The hairpin Long Ax gives to Moon Eye is the only weapon allowed into the sacrificial gathering.

!! '''''The Bridge Builders''''' (short story)

290s CE. [[WellDoneSonGuy Justin]] and Flavian stumble upon a conspiracy to assassinate the emperor Carausius and join LaResistance against the Saxon-allied usurper of Britain.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Carausius did make himself the emperor of Britain and was betrayed by Allectus. History is silent on whether he was warned by a couple of junior officers who later led a resistance with the help of a ProudWarriorRaceGuy and a guy who thought he was a dog.

* AnyoneCanDie: And they mostly do!

* BigFriendlyDog: Ubiquitous.

** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': Marcus and Cottia, who is [[SheIsAllGrownUp All Grown Up]].

* HeroesLoveDogs

** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': Marcus and Esca
** ''The Silver Branch'': Justin and Flavius

** ''The Bridge Builders'': Androphon and Cador
** ''Knight's Fee'': Randall and Bevis

** ''Blood Feud'': Jestyn and Thormod

** The Dacian Cavalry, who appear in ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', and ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'', was not a historical unit. It's the outfit Parnesius wanted to join in "A Centurion of the Thirtieth".

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Agricola and Calgacus.

Androphon, son of a fort commander on the western border of Roman Britain, is held hostage by Britons during a territorial dispute.

!!'''''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''''' (short story)
2nd or 3rd century CE. Aracos, a medical orderly, turns a battle against British tribesmen while disguised as a standard bearer.

* CycleOfRevenge: Connla borrows the Praepositus's horse because the Praepositus insulted his brother; the Praepositus has Connla executed for theft because the horse is killed; and Cunorix the chief of the Votadini attacks the Frontier Wolves because they killed his brother. Alexios has to [[HeroicSacrifice volunteer]] for a DuelToTheDeath to put an end to it.

* GoingNative: Despite being an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores who have been ReassignedToAntarctica, Frontier Wolves are expected to put aside family and tribal loyalties and form a BandOfBrothers. Each one has to kill a wolf and wear its skin, and the outgoing commander tells Alexios he'll be superstitiously touching their [[CargoCult good-luck rock]] before he knows it.

!!'''''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'''''

* JustBeforeTheEnd: Saxon invasions and the breakup of of the Roman empire are first evoked here.

340s CE. Alexios, [[EnsignNewbie a disgraced centurion]], is ReassignedToAntarctica to command the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits irregular]] [[SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder Frontier Scouts]] in a precarious border outpost.
* GoingNative: With the ''Frontier Wolves'', not with the local Votadini. Invoked in the ritual touching of the marker stone.
* ChasedByAngryNatives: [[spoiler: Across lowland Scotland in the final act.]]

** ''Simon'': Simon and Amias

October 1640 - April 1650. Simon Carey and his HeterosexualLifePartner Amias Hannaford join the EnglishCivilWar - as cornet of Parliamentary Horse and ensign of Royalist Foot. Simon's estrangement from Amias, and his corporal [[AerithAndBob Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf]]'s desertion in a vendetta against a treacherous friend, are finally tested in the battle of Torrington.

* HeterosexualLifePartner: Simon and Amias are twice likened to David and Jonathan and are symbolised by a brace of sabres.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Much of the plot depends on improbable reunions and InfallibleBabble, though admittedly it all takes place in [[ItsASmallWorldAfterAll Devon]].

5th century CE. [[KingArthur Artos]] unites post-Roman Britain against the Saxons.
* AfterTheEnd

Greece, 412 BCE. Amyntas, a young Athenian runner, [[NotSoDifferent befriends]] his [[WorthyOpponent Spartan competitor]] during an Olympiad in the middle of UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar.

* OfThePeople: Other Epidi contest that Tethra is not. [[spoiler: In the end, he decides he is not Of The Little Dark People.]]
* [[spoiler: UpbringingMakesTheHero: Tethra chooses the culture that raised him over his blood relations.]]

* {{Heterosexual Life Partner}}s: Lubrin and Dara.

* HistoryMarchesOn: The Rhee Wall is no longer believed to be of Roman date.
* GalleySlave: With the protagonist in the ScaryBlackMan role, relatively speaking.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Aude the Deep-Minded, Thorstein the Red, others

1566-1618 CE.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Throckmorton, Sir Walter Ralegh, their family; Elizabeth I; Sir Robert Cecil; Henry Stuart; many others

!!'''''The Rider of the White Horse''''' (adult novel)
17th century CE.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Anne Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax

19th century (Napoleonic Wars) Ottoman empire.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Thomas Keith, Tussun Bey

* AfterTheEnd: Artos's unification of Britain is contrasted to Prosper's decentralized era.

** ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'': Midir was blinded to make him ritually unfit for kingship.

** ''Dawn Wind'': Vadir Cedricson is perhaps her only example of a disabled antagonist.
** ''The Shining Company''

** ''The Witch's Brat''

** ''Lady in Waiting''
** ''The Eagle of the Ninth'': [[spoiler:Marcus is discharged from the army for a maimed leg.]]

** ''Blood Feud'': [[spoiler:Jestyn's leg is maimed; he becomes a physician.]]
** ''Simon''
** ''Bonnie Dundee'': [[spoiler:Hugh loses an arm; becomes a one-armed painter.]]

** ''Lady in Waiting'':Sir Walter Raleigh

* HistoryMarchesOn: Not all of her research has held up against later discoveries and interpretations - most notoriously, the Ninth Legion might or might not have been [[LostRomanLegion lost.]]

* BuryYourDisabled: Is constantly averted. This is RealitySubtext - Rosemary Sutcliff used a wheelchair for most of her life, and strongly disliked this trope.

** ''Dawn Wind'': Vadir Sigurdson is perhaps her only example of a disabled antagonist.

Orkney, 2000-1000 BCE. A twelve-year-old girl is promised to the tyrannical chief of her prehistoric village, who proposes to sacrifice the boy she prefers to the gods who protect the great sand dune on which the village sits.

She published her first books for children, ''The Chronicles of Robin Hood'' and ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', with Oxford University Press in 1950. They were followed by four more novels before her breakout bestseller ''[[Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth The Eagle of the Ninth]]'', which became a set text in schools, and has spawned numerous radio, television, and film adaptations. It was eventually followed by seven loosely linked sequels sometimes known as "The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles" or "the Dolphin Ring sequence", after the signet ring passed down through the generations of a Roman British family. It's also a contender for the modern TropeCodifier of the LostRomanLegion. Other major YoungAdult novels of the fifties and sixties include ''Knight's Fee'' (1960) and ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'' (1965).

* BuryYourDisabled: Constantly averted. ''Warrior Scarlet'', ''A Circlet of Oak Leaves'', ''Dawn Wind'', ''The Shining Company'', ''Sword Song'', ''The Witch's Brat'', ''The Queen Elizabeth Story'', ''Lady in Waiting'', [[spoiler: ''The Eagle of the Ninth'', ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', ''Blood Feud'', ''Simon'', and ''Bonnie Dundee'']] feature protagonists or prominent characters with physical disabilities.
** This is RealitySubtext - Rosemary Sutcliff developed arthritis when she was very young and used a wheelchair for most of her life.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: If it's not the central relationship of the book, the protagonist probably has one in the background. ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', ''Blood Feud'', and ''Knight's Fee'' contain notable examples. [[OneThingLedToAnother Inevitably leads to:]]
** HoYay: Deliberate in ''Sword At Sunset''; presumably conscious in ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'' and other YA novels.
* {{Historical Domain Character}}s: Usually limited to cameos, but ''Lady in Waiting'' (Sir Walter Ralegh); ''The Rider of the White Horse'' (Sir Thomas Fairfax); ''Sword At Sunset'' (Artos); ''The Flowers of Adonis'' (Alcibiades); ''Song for a Dark Queen'' (Boudicca); ''Bonnie Dundee'' (John Graham of Claverhouse); and ''Blood and Sand'' (Thomas Keith) are based on the lives of real (or [[KingArthur allegedly real]]) people

* MadeASlave: Happens with some regularity to her protagonists or their sidekicks, including in ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', ''Outcast'', ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'', ''Blood Feud'', ''The Shining Company'', [[spoiler: ''The Flowers of Adonis'', ''Sun Horse, Moon Horse'', ''The Lantern Bearers'', and ''Dawn Wind'']].

!! Myths and legends:

!! Picture books

!!Non-fiction

A British writer of [[HistoricalFiction historical fiction]] for [[YoungAdult children]] who published some fifty books between 1950 and 1997. Best known for her works set in Roman Britain, most famously ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''.

!! Recurring themes and tropes typical of Rosemary Sutcliff's work include:

!! Historical fiction
In chronological order of setting (approximate):

* '''''Shifting Sands''''': Orkney, 2000-1000 BCE. A twelve-year-old girl is promised to the tyrannical chief of her prehistoric village, who proposes to sacrifice the boy she prefers to the gods who protect the great sand dune on which the village sits.
* '''''Warrior Scarlet''''': Britain, 900 BCE. [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Drem]] must pass a [[RiteOfPassage warrior initiation ceremony]] with an [[HandicappedBadass atrophied right arm]], or be [[TheExile cast out]] of his tribe to live among [[SlaveRace the people they conquered]].
* '''''The Flowers of Adonis''''': [[AncientGreece Greece, 415-404 BCE]]. The rise and fall (and rise and fall and rise and fall) of Alkibiades, the notorious Athenian politician - and of Athens - through the eyes of his companions as he sets out on the Sicilian Expedition, reignites UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar, seduces the queen of Sparta, escapes to the Persians, is welcomed back with open arms by the Athenians, and then loses it all again.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Alkibiades; Antiochus; Timandra (loosely); Timea; Agis; Endius; Pharnobazus; Creator/{{Socrates}}; many others.
** SupportingProtagonist: At least eleven, including one from beyond the grave: the Citizen, the Soldier, the Seaman, the Dead, the Priest, the Queen, the King, the Spartan, the Rower, the Whore, the Satrap.
** ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Sympathetic character = forgives Alkibiades anything.
* '''''The Truce of the Games''''' / '''''A Crown of Wild Olive''''': Greece, 412 BCE. Amyntas, a young Athenian runner, [[NotSoDifferent befriends]] his [[WorthyOpponent Spartan competitor]] during an Olympiad in the middle of UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar.
* '''''The Changeling''''': Prehistoric Argyll. Tethra, a changeling child adopted by the chief of the Epidi, is driven out to rejoin the Little Dark People. When his father is mortally wounded, he must choose between his two tribes.
** MosesInTheBullrushes: Complete with OrphansPlotTrinket, in order to escape HumanSacrifice. He is HappilyAdopted by a MamaBear and PapaWolf.
** OfThePeople: Other Epidi contest that Tethra is not. [[spoiler: In the end, he decides he is not Of The Little Dark People.]]
** [[spoiler: UpbringingMakesTheHero: Tethra chooses the culture that raised him over his blood relations.]]
* '''''The Chief's Daughter''''': Bronze Age Wales. Nessan [[AirVentPassageway frees]] a prisoner intended for {{human sacrifice}} and [[HeroicSacrifice volunteers]] to take his place.
** TheChiefsDaughter: Averted; the protagonist ''is'' the chief's daughter. And she's ten.
* '''''Sun Horse, Moon Horse''''': 100 BCE. Lubrin Dhu, the Iceni chief's BlackSheep artist son, finds himself the spokesman of his clan when they are conquered by the Atribates. He ransoms his SlaveRace with the design and construction of a great boundary marker [[spoiler: and his own HeroicSacrifice]].
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: The Iceni's building project is the famous prehistoric chalk drawing the White Horse of Uffington.
** SolarAndLunar: The Iceni worship a moon goddess and the Atribates a sun god; the White Horse secretly symbolises both.
** {{Matriarchy}}: The patriarchal Atribates assume Lubrin is the chief of the matri''lineal'' Iceni; the rightful leaders are his sister Teleri and her husband Dara.
** {{Heterosexual Life Partner}}s: Lubrin and Dara.
** [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice: The White Horse must be dedicated with a death, and a chieftain must die for the good of his people.]]
* '''''Song For a Dark Queen''''': 20s-61 CE. Boudicca, young queen of the Iceni, eventually makes her peace with her bitterly-resented requirement of a male chieftain and a [[ArrangedMarriage political marriage]] to Prasutagus, prince of the Parisi. But when the Roman authorities threaten to confiscate her entire kingdom, she leads the British tribes [[KillEmAll in a bloody uprising]].
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Boudicca, Prasutagus, their daughters; Caratacus; Agricola and other Roman officials and officers
** AntiHero
** SupportingProtagonist: A bard with an avuncular relationship to Boudicca.
** RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In return for Roman insults, Boudicca reduced Camulodunum, Verulamium and Londinium to smoking ruins [[spoiler: before Suetonius delivered a NoHoldsBarredBeatDown.]]
* '''''The Capricorn Bracelet''''': Six short stories of a Romano-British family, linked by an heirloom military decoration, from the Boudiccan Rebellion to the end of the Roman occupation.
* '''''Eagle's Egg''''': 80-83 CE. Quintus, a standard-bearer, can't marry Cordaella without a promotion to Centurion, but it will take Agricola's three-year Caledonian campaign, a mutiny, and the battle of Mons Graupius to get it.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Agricola and Calgacus.
* '''''The Bridge Builders''''': Androphon, son of a fort commander on the western border of Roman Britain, is held hostage by Britons during a territorial dispute.
* '''''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''''': circa 129-131 CE. [[AnOfficerAndAGentleman Marcus]] and Esca search Caledonia for the eagle standard of the [[LostRomanLegion lost Ninth Legion]].
* '''''Outcast''''': 150s CE. Beric, a Roman {{foundling}}, is cast out of his adoptive British tribe and [[MadeASlave enslaved]] in Rome.
** HistoryMarchesOn: The Rhee Wall is no longer believed to be of Roman date.
** GalleySlave: With the protagonist in the ScaryBlackMan role, relatively speaking.
* '''''The Mark of the Horse Lord''''': 180s CE. Phaedrus, a freed [[GladiatorGames gladiator]], plays the role of [[RightfulKingReturns lost heir]] to the patriarchal Dalriads in their war of succession against the matriarchal Caledones.
** BecomingTheMask: The "mark" of the title: [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]].
** GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Phaedrus's rival Liathan is a BlackWidow MyBelovedSmother infanticidal leader of a ScaryAmoralReligion.
** GoingNative: Phaedrus, a half-Greek [[BornIntoSlavery born]] slave, takes to British tribal kingship LikeAFishTakesToWater.
** EvenTheGuysWantHim: Conory, the AgentPeacock of the Dalriadain.
* '''''A Circlet of Oak Leaves''''': 2nd or 3rd century CE. Aracos, a medical orderly, turns a battle against British tribesmen while disguised as a standard bearer.
* '''''The Silver Branch''''': 290s CE. [[WellDoneSonGuy Justin]] and Flavian stumble upon a conspiracy to assassinate the emperor Carausius and join LaResistance against the Saxon-allied usurper of Britain.
** JustBeforeTheEnd: Saxon invasions and the breakup of of the Roman empire are first evoked here.
* '''''Frontier Wolf''''': 340s CE. Alexios, [[EnsignNewbie a disgraced centurion]], is ReassignedToAntarctica to command the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits irregular]] [[SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder Frontier Scouts]] in a precarious border outpost.
** GoingNative: With the ''Frontier Wolves'', not with the local Votadini. Invoked in the ritual touching of the marker stone.
** ChasedByAngryNatives: [[spoiler: Across lowland Scotland in the final act.]]
* '''''The Lantern Bearers''''': 5th century CE. Aquila deserts from the departing legions and devotes his life to holding off the Saxons from Roman Britain.
** EndOfAnAge: Opens with the final departure of Roman forces from Britain.
* '''''Sword At Sunset''''': 5th century CE. [[KingArthur Artos]] unites post-Roman Britain against the Saxons.
** AfterTheEnd
** {{Demythtification}}
* '''''Dawn Wind''''': 6th century CE. Owain, a Briton, [[MadeASlave becomes a Saxon thrall]] and is drawn into the affairs of a Saxon family.
** EndOfAnAge: Opens on the defeat of Kyndylan and British resistance to the Saxon conquest.
** AfterTheEnd: Britons turn on each other; Owain and Regina forage to survive in the abandoned city of Viroconium.
** DawnOfAnEra: The alliance of Saxons and Britons and the arrival of St. Augustine "the Dawn Wind" of Canterbury.
* '''''The Shining Company''''': 600 CE. Prosper, a Welsh shieldbearer, recounts the mustering and destruction of the Gododdin host against the Saxons of Catraeth.
** AfterTheEnd: Artos's unification of Britain is contrasted to Prosper's decentralized era.
* '''''Sword Song''''': 8th century CE. Bjarni Sigurdson, a Norwegian Viking, is exiled from his British settlement for killing the man who kicked his dog and sells his sword as a mercenary, embroiling himself in the feuds of Viking earls from Dublin to the Orkneys.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Aude the Deep-Minded, Thorstein the Red, others
* '''''Blood Feud''''': 985-990 CE. Jestyn, an English Christian, joins his Viking [[BloodBrothers blood brother]] on a pagan feud that takes them to the ByzantineEmpire.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Khan Vladimir of Kiev, Basil II
* '''''The Shield Ring''''': 1090s-1100s CE. [[{{Tomboy}} Frytha]] and [[WarriorPoet Bjorn]] defend the last hidden Norse stronghold against the Normans.
** JustBeforeTheEnd: Of Norse independence in the face of the Norman conquest.
* '''''Knight's Fee''''': 1090s-1106 CE. Randall, a half-Saxon dog-boy, is raised as a squire by the Norman lords of a feudal manor.
** DawnOfAnEra: Of a shared English nationality united against [[FrenchJerk further invasions]].
* '''''The Witch's Brat''''': 12th century CE. Lovel, an orphan with a crooked back and foot, becomes an infirmarian monk and helps found St. Bartholomew's hospital.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Rahere
* '''''Brother Dusty-Feet''''': 16th century CE. A runaway headed for Oxford joins a troupe of travelling entertainers.
* '''''The Armourer's House''''': 1634 CE. Tamsyn Caunter, who desperately wishes she could be a merchant venturer, must instead go to live with her uncle in London. She settles into the colourful life of the household and city while sharing the secret of their mutual seafaring ambition with her quiet cousin Piers.
** SliceOfLife
** DescriptionPorn
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn make a cameo appearance.
** ShowWithinAShow: Most of one chapter is an in-story telling of ''Literature/TamLin''.
* '''''The Queen Elizabeth Story''''': 16th century CE. Perdita Pettle, who can see "[[OurFairiesAreDifferent Pharisees]]", is granted her wish to see the Queen's Grace in a year and a day. The year passes through the adventures of Elizabethan country childhood.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth I.
** SliceOfLife
** DescriptionPorn
** ShowWithinAShow: Two chapters are given over to in-story recountings of "[[KingArthur Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady]]" and ''Literature/TheChildrenOfLir''.
* '''''Lady In Waiting''''': 1566-1618 CE.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Throckmorton, Sir Walter Ralegh, their family; Elizabeth I; Sir Robert Cecil; Henry Stuart; many others
* '''''Simon''''': October 1640 - April 1650. Simon Carey and his HeterosexualLifePartner Amias Hannaford join the EnglishCivilWar - as cornet of Parliamentary Horse and ensign of Royalist Foot. Simon's estrangement from Amias, and his corporal [[AerithAndBob Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf]]'s desertion in a vendetta against a treacherous friend, are finally tested in the battle of Torrington.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Sir Thomas Fairfax, Col. Ireton, Maj. Disbrow, Sir Philip "Daddy" Skippon, Oliver Cromwell, Dr. David Morrison, Chaplain Joshua Sprigg, and other Parliamentarian officers and pastors; Royalist commanders
** HeterosexualLifePartner: Simon and Amias are twice likened to David and Jonathan and are symbolised by a brace of sabres.
** ContrivedCoincidence: Much of the plot depends on improbable reunions and InfallibleBabble, though admittedly it all takes place in [[ItsASmallWorldAfterAll Devon]].
* '''''The Rider of the White Horse''''': 17th century CE.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Anne Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax
* '''''Bonnie Dundee''''': 1680s Scotland. Hugh Herriot becomes galloper to Claverhouse, leader of government forces against the Scottish Covenanters. When William of Orange takes the English throne, Claverhouse's men become rebels in turn.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee; other lords and officers.
* '''''Flame-Coloured Taffeta''''': 18th century. Damaris and Peter shelter a wounded Jacobite smuggler.
** HeroOfAnotherStory: The events of the novel are an episode in passing among Tom Wildgoose's adventures.
* '''''Blood and Sand''''': 19th century (Napoleonic Wars) Ottoman empire.
** HistoricalDomainCharacter: Thomas Keith, Tussun Bey

* ''A Saxon Settler''

* ''Heroes and History''