The boys and girls of these stories lived from five hundred to fifteen hundred years ago, in the period which we now call the Middle Ages.  They had to face problems and difficulties that needed courage and initiative just as much as children of today need courage and initiative, for these are qualities essential in every age.

Each of the twelve stories in this book is based upon an exciting event or a turning point in European history.  Charlemagne, King John, Gutenberg, are some of the real people in the tales—which are all accurate in historical detail—but Remy, the peasant boy who sang for Charlemagne, Karl, who crept in the workshop to find out about Gutenberg's "magic", Geoffrey, who served one of the earls who forced King John to sign Magna Carta, Alix, the Norman girl who became friends with a Saxon, and the other boys and girls of the tales seem to be just as real.

The tales are in chronological order, and, by the introductory note to each one, the boy or girl of today who reads them gains an idea of the continuity of the development of Europe.

From the dust jacket of the British reprint, The Conqueror: Tales From the Middle Ages