Tears of the Fallen – short film examines the effects of war from medieval times
Tears of the Fallen is currently in production, and tells the story of a aftermath of a 15th century battle, a war ravaged soldier meets a peasant woman searching for her warrior son.
Women in Sport: Images from the Late Middle Ages
For a number of years, as part of my research on the history of women, I have been collecting images of medieval women in manuscript illuminations and church sculptures. I was struck by the quantity of scenes in which women were physically engaged in sporting activities.
Historia Baetica: Dramatic Play or Historical Document?
When the news of the capitulation of Granada reached Rome on the second of February 1492, it was marked by religious as well as public celebrations.
‘Old Men of the Mountains’: a comparative study of the Ghūrids and the Ismā‘īlīs of Alamūt
Striking parallels exist between these two dynasties – marginalised and despised by their neighbours, they established secure mountain strongholds, which acted as refuges and bases from which to expand.
Medieval Reimaginings: Female Knights in Children’s Television
This paper will consider three medievalist children’s television programmes, Jane and the Dragon, Sir Gadabout and Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, each of which grant knightly roles to their central female characters.
The Legacy of the Danes: A Look at the Impacts of Viking Conquest on England in the Late Ninth Century
I seek to explore the impacts of the Danish Vikings upon King Alfred the Great and the Anglo-Saxon people of the ninth century
Marriage and elite structure in Reinassance Florence; 1282-1500
About 10,500 dated marriages among Florentine surnamed families, over the period 1282-1500, have been collected and computerized from a variety of sources.
New research project begins on Staffordshire Hoard
The project, to be carried out by Anglo Saxon finds cataloguer Chris Fern and specialist artefact photographer Guy Evans, aims to produce a detailed catalogue entry for each of the 3,500 items in the hoard.
Medieval card game looking for backers through Kickstarter Campaign
For those looking to support a medieval-themed project, Blazon! The Card Game might be just what you are looking for
The orientation of pagan graves in Viking Age Iceland
It is commonly understood that Christian burials traditionally have a west-east orientation, with the head placed at the western end of the grave.
Beowulf: a heroic tale of fact or fiction?
The Old English epic Beowulf is under discussion in this essay and the idea of the truth embedded in the poem. As no concrete evidence exists on the provenance of the poem, its authorship, date or truth of content, all statements from published writers on the subject are mere conjectures
A Contemporary View of Ancient Factions: A Reappraisal
I will reassess the scholarship relating to the motivations for the increasingly frequent and destructive riots spearheaded by the circus factions between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in the Eastern Roman Empire.
“For the Honor of God and of the Holy Roman Church:” Understanding Venetian Motivations and Involvement during the Fourth Crusade
This thesis will attempt to unravel how it came to be that men who claimed to fight in the name of the cross had come to attack one of the most important cities in all of Christendom. It shall focus particularly on the motivations and actions of the Venetians, a people whose involvement in this crusade and the crusading movement in general has often been misunderstood.
Madness and Gender in Late-Medieval English Literature
Madness has been long misrepresented in medieval studies. Assertions that conceptions of mental illness were unknown to medieval people, or that all madmen were assumed to be possessed by the devil, were at one time common in accounts of medieval society.
15th century Italian banking records discovered in London manuscript
Records of Italian bankers partially covered over fifty years later by traditional English crests
Economy of Ragusa, 1300 – 1800: The Tiger of Mediaeval Mediterranean
An economist is indeed tempted to think of Ragusa as the “Adriatic Tiger “ of yesteryear, an early example of a small open economy with strong fundamentals, and to hypothesize further that, in analogy to the current consensus about what it takes to minimize the impact of external crises, these strengths also allowed Ragusa to mitigate the effects of the many external shocks and financial crises in Medieval Europe.
The Crusades, History of a Bad Idea
Given at the Lights of the East conference, St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church Houston on December 9, 2010
Drawings in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts
Medieval drawings are frequently viewed as the poor cousins of fully-painted miniatures. But in England, an appreciation of drawing persisted throughout the Middle Ages.
From Wine to Beer: Changing Patterns of Alcoholic Consumption, and Living Standards, in Later Medieval Flanders, 1300 – 1550
The basic problem with the ‘hop’ thesis is that the Flemish evidence for the relative shift from wine to beer consumption comes too late. My primary sources are the annual revenues from sales of excise tax- farms on wine and beer consumption recorded in the treasurers’ accounts of two towns: Bruges and Aalst.
Working women and guildsmen in the Flemish textile industries: Gender, labor and the European Marriage Pattern in an era of economic change
Traditionally the European marriage pattern(EMP) is considered as one of the key elements in the demographic history of Early Modern Europe, preparing Europe for the transition towards the Industrial Era. But recently, mediaevalists have also tried to claim its origins…
New Battle of Bannockburn website launched
With 700 days to go until the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, the National Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland have launched a new website to promote the medieval battle and the construction of a visitor’s centre that will make the site a major tourist destination.
Moses Ibn ‘Ezra’s “Treatise of the Garden” and Maimonides’ “Guide of the Perplexed”
The Spanish poet Moses Ibn ‘Ezra (1055-1138 ca.) is also known for a Judeo-Arabic book dealing with philosophical and philological questions, the Treatise of the Garden.
The Norman Conquest and Anglo-Saxon literacy
Michael Clanchy, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the IHR, takes a fresh look at the effects of the Norman Conquest
Castle for Sale: Ballindooley Castle in Galway, Ireland
Unique opportunity to purchase a landmark Historic Irish Castle, located a short drive from the centre of Galway city, and presented for sale in excellent condition, having undergone a sustained body of recovery, renovation and repair over the last twenty-two years.
BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE IN GREAT MORAVIA
What could the Byzantine Empire offer to Great Moravia in the field of education? Let’s leave aside the political and theological aspects of the mission for a while and point out, that Byzantium complied with Rastislav’s request out of political reasons as well. They considered Great Moravia a possible ally.