With the success of the Sharpe series, Cornwell began to write about other time periods and historical events of English and American history, both in series and in single novels. "Azincourt" was released in the UK in October 2008. The protagonist is an archer who participates in the Battle of Agincourt, a devastating defeat suffered by the French during the Hundred Years' War. In 2004, he released "The Last Kingdom", beginning the Saxon Stories centered on protagonist Uhtred of Bebbanburg and telling how the nation of England began under Alfred the Great. The twelfth novel in the series was published in 2019 as "Sword of Kings". He realized that few in England knew how England began, unlike Americans who have a clear date for their nation's beginning—so this became his big story. His own ancestral roots gave him the little story in the protagonist Uhtred.