Historical fiction · ~500–1500

Medieval historical fiction books

Medieval historical fiction (~500–1500): Knights, plague, faith, early nations. Medieval historical fiction ranges from cathedral epics and court intrigue to plague years and crusades. Start with our curated shelf, then refine by place and subgenre.

Plan this era as a journey Bestsellers & decade ratings

Curated on HisFic (9)

Hand-picked titles from HisFic's catalog tagged for this era.

The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett
Cathedral-building, civil war, and intertwined lives in twelfth-century England.
Medieval · Adventure & epic · Family saga
The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell
Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon earl’s son raised by Danes, is pulled between a pagan war-band and Alfred’s Wessex as ninth-century England is carved up. Cornwell’s opening Saxon novel is medieval military historical fiction: shield walls, divided loyalty, and the making of England.
Medieval · Military & war · Adventure & epic
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates murders in a labyrinthine abbey where books are power.
Medieval · Mystery · Literary
News of the Dead
James Robertson
A Highland glen’s stories across centuries of saints, strangers, and secrets (Walter Scott Prize 2022).
Medieval · Early modern · Literary · Time-slip
The Ten Thousand Things
John Spurling
A painter’s life in Yuan-dynasty China—landscape, politics, and the “ten thousand things” (Walter Scott Prize 2015).
Medieval · Biographical · Literary
Pope Joan
Donna Woolfolk Cross
In the ninth century, a canon’s daughter hides her sex, takes her dead brother’s name, and rises from a Fulda monastery to Rome as scholar, healer, and—according to the legend—pope. Donna Woolfolk Cross’s international bestseller is medieval biographical historical fiction of learning, disguise, and a woman the church spent a thousand years denying.
Medieval · Biographical · Literary
The White Queen
Philippa Gregory
In 1464, widowed Lancastrian Elizabeth Woodville marries Yorkist King Edward IV in secret and steps into the Wars of the Roses as queen, mother, and survivor. Gregory’s opening Cousins’ War novel is late-medieval biographical historical fiction of a commoner queen, the Woodville rise, and the mystery of the princes in the Tower.
Medieval · Biographical · Romance
Ivanhoe
Walter Scott
In 1194, disinherited knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to an England split among Saxons, Normans, and the absent King Richard, with Rebecca of York and Rowena caught in the same violent pageant. Scott’s romance of tournament, outlaw woods, and Templar menace is the template later historical novels still copy.
Medieval · Adventure & epic · Romance
Matrix
Lauren Groff
Marie de France is sent to a failing English abbey—and remakes it into a kingdom of women.
Medieval · Literary · Biographical