In the 14th century, an ongoing feud ensued between the Hanseatic League and non-Hanse merchants. Here’s a quick look at the rise and fall of the one of the most powerful organizations of the Late Middle Ages.
Medieval Fort Building 101
September 24, 2015 By
What does it take to build a fortification in the 10th century?
The Evil Spirit that Terrorized a Medieval Village
August 16, 2015 By
Today’s horror movies could make use of this story from the ninth-century, of how an evil spirit terrorized a village, and the attempt to get rid of it, which seems to be one of the earliest recorded exorcisms from the Middle Ages.
Magna Carta Conference Offers New Insights Into The 800-year-old Document
June 22, 2015 By
Magna Carta just celebrated its 800th birthday this past Monday. In honour of this incredible milestone, King’s College London, and the Magna Carta Project, hosted a 3 day conference dedicated to this historic document.
Bishops and Their Towns
June 1, 2015 By
Another #KZOO2015 post – this one examines Bishops and Their Towns.
Medieval London as Seen through the Eyes of Czech and German Travellers
May 7, 2015 By
The aim of this article is to analyze the first depictions of London in Czech literature, namely in travel journals of the Czech writer and traveller Wenzel Schaseck of Birkov and the German burgher Gabriel Tetzel of Gräfenberg
Books of Art: 20 Medieval and Renaissance Women Reading
April 12, 2015 By
I love to read. I also love books depicted in art. I became fascinated with Medieval and Renaissance pictures of women reading or with books. I noticed while I was walking around the National Gallery, Musèe Cluny and the Louvre recently that there are many beautiful images of women reading or with books. Saints, sinners, and laywomen; I wanted to share a few of my favourites. Here are 20 works of art of women and their books
Ostsiedlung or Transition of German Law? Legal Perspective on Settlement According to German Law in Medieval Poland
April 3, 2015 By
Paper given at Twenty-First Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians – 6th Berg Institute International Conference
Philippa Langley: The End of Richard III and the Beginning of Henry I
March 27, 2015 By
Amidst all the excitement, and the whirlwind that was Richard III’s reburial in Leicester, I managed to catch up with one of the world’s most famous Ricardians, ‘the Kingfinder’, Philippa Langley.
Castle for Sale in Germany: The Sauerburg
March 25, 2015 By
This ruined 14th-century castle in western Germany is now used as a hotel for the picturesque region that is designated a World Heritage Site.
Environmental Crusading: The Teutonic Knight’s Impact After the Baltic Crusades
March 12, 2015 By
Environmental archaeologist and Professor of Archeology at Reading, Dr. Aleks Pluskowski, examined Malbork and several other sites across Eastern and Northern Europe in his recent paper, The Ecology of Crusading: The Environmental Impact of Holy War, Colonisation, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Pluskowski is keenly interested in the impact the Teutonic Knights and Christian colonisation had on the region. His ambitious 4 year project on the ecological changes in this area recently came to a close at the end of 2014.
The imperial abbey of Ellwangen and its peasants: a study of the polyptych of 1337
January 31, 2015 By
This paper presents an analysis of Ellwangen Abbey’s polyptych of 1337, with a view to understanding better the nature of the south German rural economy in this period.
Beautiful Images from the Nuremberg Chronicle
January 25, 2015 By
Created in 1493, the Nuremberg Chronicle is a history of the World going back to Biblical times. Written by Hartmann Schedel, it was printed in Latin and German editions with hundreds of copies being sold. The 1801 woodcut illustrations were done by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Here are some of favourite images!
Medieval Black Magic
January 4, 2015 By
Sins of evil black magic, as listed by the medieval theologian Burchard of Worms in the 11th century.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Medieval Mass Abduction?
December 7, 2014 By
What really happened on June 26, 1284, in the German town of Hamelin?
Charlemagne’s Denarius, Constantine’s Edicule, and the Vera Crux
December 1, 2014 By
In 806 a much-discussed silver denarius bearing the likeness of Charlemagne was issued. This is called the “temple-type” coin due to the (as yet unidentified) architectural structure illustrated on the reverse side, and which is explicitly labeled as representing the epitome of “Christian Religion.”
CONFERENCES: The Stellinga, the Saxon Elite, and Carolingian Politics
November 26, 2014 By
This is my summary of a paper presented at the Institute of Historical Research on the causes of the Stellinga uprising in the Carolingian period.
Raymund’s Daughter’s Divorce in the 9th-Century: a Woman’s Textual Role in the Breaking of an Alliance
November 23, 2014 By
This chapter will analyse an aspect of one of the divorce cases of the mid 9th century: I review its links with politics of the day and reconsider the roles given to wife and husband in the only text that deals with this case…
Skirts and Politics: The Cistercian Monastery of Harvestehude and the Hamburg City Council
November 14, 2014 By
In 1482, Catharina Arndes lifted up her skirts in front of the archbishop’s chaplain. She was a respectable townswoman from Hamburg, and her action was carried out in defense of the Cistercian monastery of Harvestehude which was close to the city and where several of Catharina’s nieces lived as nuns.
King’s sister, queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network
November 7, 2014 By
This study reconstructs the previously unknown history of the most important dissident group within France before the French Reformed Church formed during the 1550s.
Conflicting expectations: Parish priests in late medieval Germany
November 2, 2014 By
The study investigates the expectations various groups in late medieval German society held of their parish priests and how these expectations were mediated through specific relationships.
10 Medieval and Renaissance Things to See at the Victoria and Albert Museum
October 9, 2014 By
My latest visit to the Victoria and Albert Musuem: 10 Medieval and Renaissance Things to See at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
CONFERENCES: Arnold Fitz Thedmar: an Early London chronicler
October 4, 2014 By
Another fascinating paper given at the Institute for Historical Research in central London. For those of you interested in chronicles, urban history and London, this paper was definitely for you. Ian Stone discussed his dissertation about thirteenth century London through the eyes of wealthy Alderman, Arnold Fitz Thedmar.
Different roles of Empire(s) in the Universal Chronicle of Frutolf of Michelsberg
October 3, 2014 By
Frutolf, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Michelsberg in Bamberg, wrote five years before his death in 1103 a universal or world chronicle of about 300 folios.
Rose without Thorn, Eagle without Feathers: Nation and Power in Late Medieval England and Germany
September 28, 2014 By
It is hard at times to take the Agincourt Carol entirely seriously. Patriotism of such brash exuberance seems more properly to belong in a brightly lit Laurence Olivier world of mid twentieth-century medievalism than amid the grim and tangled realities of fifteenth- century politics and war.
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