Sean McGlynn is the author of "By Sword and Fire: Cruelty and Atrocity in Medieval Warfare" and is a regular contributor to history magazines and academic journals such as "BBC History," " English Historical Review," and "History Today."

Exactly 150 years after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, history came extremely close to repeating itself when another army set sail from the Continent with the intention of imposing foreign rule on England. This time the invasion force was under the command of Louis the Lion, son and heir of the powerful French king Philip Augustus. Taking advantage of the turmoil created in England by the civil war over Magna Carta and by King John's disastrous rule, Prince Louis and his army of French soldiers and mercenaries allied with the barons of the English rebel forces. The prize was England itself.The invasion was one of the most dramatic episodes of British history. This specially updated edition of Blood Cries Afar contains new material on the importance of the Magna Carta and the conflict that surrounded its birth. It tells a dramatic and violent but overlooked story, with a broad appeal to those interested in the history of England and France, and war in an age of kings, knights, castles, battles and brutality.