The Longest and Shortest Reigns of the Middle Ages
Queen Elizabeth II has reigned for over 63 years – how does this compare to medieval rulers?
Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them
Read an excerpt from the latest book by Nancy Marie Brown
Ten Castles that Made Medieval Britain: Windsor Castle
At one time the greatest palace complex in Europe and a favoured haunt of the British Royal family to this day, Windsor Castle is a still living relic of a time where out of necessity, the sum of a nation’s sovereignty and a State’s very existence as a politically distinct identity rested upon a crowned head.
A clerk ther was of Rowan County also…. What the Kim Davis Case Tells Us About America’s Long Middle Ages
Have you ever thought about the relationship between the words “clerk” and “clergy”?
The Long History of Teachers Complaining about Students
‘Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before.’
The Life of Medieval Students as Illustrated by their Letters
The intellectual life of the Middle Ages was not characterized by spontaneous or widely diffused power of literary expression.
Arthur Pendragon, Eco-Warrior
This essay explores the environmental agendas and ambitions that motivate John Timothy Rothwell, ‘a mad biker chieftain wielding an axe,’ who, claiming to be a ‘post-Thatcher’ King Arthur,
‘Spurred on by the Fear of Death’: Refugees and Displaced Populations during the Mongol Invasion of Hungar
Sensitized by the grim headlines which daily announce the appalling plight of twentieth-century refugees in eastern Europe, I was motivated to investigate the behavior and conditions of medieval refugees fleeing the Mongols.
Dear Dad, Send Money – Letters from Students in the Middle Ages
I ask of you greetings and money.
10 Phrases that Originated in the Middle Ages
Some of our most popular phrases have a long history, including some that go back to the Middle Ages.
Hair and Masculinity in the Alliterative Morte Arthure
This essay examines the use of forced hair cutting in the late fourteenth‐century alliterative romance, Morte Arthure, to show how it is used to develop characters that reflect the tension surrounding the English king Richard II and the tyranny that characterized the final years of his reign.
Locks of Difference: The Integral Role of Hair as a Distinguishing Feature in Early Merovingian Gaul
The aim of this paper is to understand the meanings that the Franks ascribed to hair and, in this quest, it will survey the different interpretations of hair that existed in sixth century Gaul.
Pets in the Middle Ages: Evidence from Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
How, then, did people in the High and Late Middle Ages categorize the relationships between people and animals?
Teaching Magna Carta in American History: Land, Law, and Legacy
I invite readers to consider the place Magna Carta holds in American heritage. My aim is not to demonstrate without flinch or pause that Magna Carta brought us to this day, or that Magna Carta is the ‘mother ship’ of liberty, but rather to explore how Magna Carta was woven into the American fabric.
Medieval Back-to-School Shopping List
In the Middle Ages, students entering university had to gather together materials, too, before they headed off to places sometimes very far from home like Oxford University, the University of Salerno, or the University of Paris. Here’s a list of five things that would be on a medieval back-to-school shopping list.
Finding the Battle of Bannockburn
Between 2011 and 2014, a new search for the site of the Battle of Bannockburn took place, spurred on by the 700th anniversary of the battle and the National Trust for Scotland’s new state-of-the-art Bannockburn Battlefield Centre.
A Feast fit for a King at York
The JORVIK Group offer a time-travelling gastronomic treat during York’s Food and Drink Festival
Anglo Saxon House: A Reconstruction
Four videos from Woodlands.co.uk on how trees were used in the Middle Ages
Ten Castles that Made Medieval Britain: Edinburgh Castle
Few indeed are those architectural legacies still remaining to us that can boast the iconic status of Edinburgh Castle, its distinctive silhouette known throughout the world, accompanied by the gently wafting of bagpipes. Far rarer still are those structures with a comparably singular influence upon the shaping of a nation.