Where the Middle Ages Begin
This open-access book traces the rise of the Florentine florin, the gold coin first minted by Florence in the mid-thirteenth century. More than a merchant’s currency, it became a monetary powerhouse sought after by traders, kings, and popes alike.
What everyday objects did people use in the Middle Ages? From clothing and household necessities to tools for work and warfare, these 25 medieval items were essential to daily life and shaped how people lived, ate, and survived.
Delve into the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages whose enduring legacies shaped the course of history. From visionary leaders and profound scholars to prolific writers and formidable warriors, these individuals left an indelible mark on medieval society.
Discover the 50 most significant events of the Middle Ages, spanning the years 500 to 1500.
Here are seven vivid facts about colour in the Middle Ages
In medieval times, many unique jobs, such as Ale-wife and Groom of the Stool, were essential but have since vanished. Discover these obsolete occupations and how historical changes led to their disappearance.
Are you wanting to talk more like someone from the Middle Ages? We have a list of 30 great sayings and proverbs that you can use in your conversations.
Have you wondered what a medieval king did on a typical day? Thanks to Christine de Pizan, we have an account of what daily life was like for King Charles V of France.
Some of our most popular phrases have a long history, including some that go back to the Middle Ages.
Want to know what kind of jobs there were in the Middle Ages? A unique source from the 15th century gives us some beautiful images of medieval people at work.
A new open-access book is revealing fresh details about Finlaggan on Islay, a site long linked to the Lords of the Isles. The study argues the loch’s islands were not just symbolic, but the working centre of a medieval kingdom within Scotland.
Byzantine Studies is still larger than Sumerology and Hittitology, but the numbers of our full-time faculty is shrinking. How can our fields navigate an uncertain future?
This open-access book brings together more than thirty essays on languages and the ways they develop, interact, and influence one another. Its main focus is the Middle East, where Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic long existed side by side and often overlapped in everyday use, scholarship, and culture.
Historian Attila Bárány re-examines how Richard the Lionheart was captured after the Third Crusade, arguing that political rivalries, route choices, and the ambitions of Philip Augustus and Emperor Henry VI mattered more than legend or bad luck.
Explore how life in the Byzantine Empire differed between cities like Constantinople and the countryside, from social hierarchies and work to festivals, religion, and economic interdependence.
Archaeologists in Suffolk, England, have uncovered a nationally significant early medieval burial ground, including a “princely” grave with two individuals, a harnessed horse, weapons, and personal items dating to the 7th century.
How did medieval Mongolian women wear their hair and dress at court? This feature explores braids, shaving customs, and the iconic boqta headdress across Yuan and Ilkhanid art, travellers’ accounts, and archaeological finds.
This 10-week course begins on January 15th, with live sessions each Thursday from each 3:30 to 5:30 pm EST.
In May 1187, the Templars were annihilated at the Springs of Cresson in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Explore how the order turned catastrophe into a story of martyrdom and “victory in death,” on the eve of Hattin.
The writings of Julian of Norwich, the fourteenth-century English mystic, have long fascinated medievalists. This book zeroes in on Julian’s illness during her visions, asking what that experience was like in human terms — as the author puts it, “What did she really experience, what did she feel, there in her sickbed in 1373?”
New research suggests the Staffordshire Hoard’s mysterious object may be a ceremonial headpiece worn by a priest or holy warrior in early medieval England.
How a mysterious climate disaster in AD 536 may lie behind the Norse myth of Fimbulvetr, when medieval people believed the sun itself had gone dark.
Early medieval commanders knew that rivers could stop an army as effectively as walls. Using Frontinus alongside case studies from Otto I and Henry II, this article explores feints, bridge-building, and the tactics behind forced crossings.
Winchester Cathedral is reinterring remains from its famous mortuary chests after more than a decade of scientific analysis, with new findings on early medieval royals and bishops expected in 2026.
Archaeologists on Selja, a Norwegian island off the country’s western coast, have uncovered a previously unknown medieval stone building just 30 metres from Selja Monastery, raising new questions about monastic life and work.
What’s new in medieval studies? Here are ten open-access articles published in December, which include papers on new runic finds to how inquisitive was medieval inquisition.
A medieval gold ring with a deep-blue stone has been found during excavations in Tønsberg, Norway. Archaeologists say the rare find highlights elite jewellery styles and long-distance craft influences in the Middle Ages.
The second instalment of a translation of an early seventeenth-century Chinese source on scams and cons offers a fascinating window into pre-modern crime.
Discover how medieval artists began putting themselves into their work — ten vivid self-portraits from St Dunstan to Albrecht Dürer.
Beginning January 9th, this four-week course will have 90-minute live sessions each Friday from 1:00 – 2:30 pm EST.
A major bioarchaeological study combining tooth-enamel isotopes and ancient DNA finds migration into early medieval England was continuous from AD 400–1100, with regional and gendered patterns and evidence shaped by climate shifts.
At the Battle of Mont Gisard in 1177, the Templars came within yards of killing Saladin. This feature looks at the near-assassination, the shock of the Frankish charge, and how Saladin sought revenge in the years that followed.
We have relatively few sources for the Islamic conquest of Iberia in the early eighth century. This translation of a later account offers fresh insight into those events.
Travel across the medieval world through its major languages—from Latin and Greek to Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, and Classical Chinese—and see how English, French, Slavic, and other tongues evolved from the Early Middle Ages to the late medieval period.
This open-access book traces the rise of the Florentine florin, the gold coin first minted by Florence in the mid-thirteenth century. More than a merchant’s currency, it became a monetary powerhouse sought after by traders, kings, and popes alike.
Scotland’s in turmoil in the 1330s—and Edward III spots an opening. In this episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly break down the Battle of Dupplin Moor, where tactics, terrain, and timing turn chaos into catastrophe.
Byzantine Studies is still larger than Sumerology and Hittitology, but the numbers of our full-time faculty is shrinking. How can our fields navigate an uncertain future?
In the latest Q&A episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly tackle listener questions on Joan of Arc, standout new books on medieval warfare, and whether Richard III really killed the Princes in the Tower.
A conversation with Kim Bowes about her recent book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, which presents a brilliant new model of the Roman imperial economy, specifically for how the majority of the population experienced it.
In this episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly head to the Pyrenean stronghold of Montségur to unpack the dramatic siege that brought the Cathar refuge to its end. They explore how faith, politics, and military pressure collided on the mountain—and what the fall of Montségur meant for the wider Albigensian Crusade.
This week on The Medieval Podcast, in keeping with tradition, Danièle speaks with Peter Konieczny, editor of Medievalists.net, about the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2025.
