By early August, Edward received news that forty Castilian ships had gathered at Sluys and there were plans to attack England.
Lords Of The North Sea: A Comparative Study Of Aristocratic Territory In The North Sea World In The Tenth And Eleventh Centuries
April 5, 2014 By
The paper is a comparative study on the aristocrats of eastern England, eastern Normandy, western Flanders and central Norway.
Auðun of the West Fjords and the Saga Tradition: Similarities of Theme and Structural Suitability
April 5, 2014 By
This paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a þáttr dating from the Sturlunga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas in terms of their mutual concerns with kings, peace, and the place of Iceland in a larger Christian world.
10th century find points to medieval sea routes around Ibiza
March 3, 2014 By
A bronze candelabra discovered by a diver in Ibiza in the 1970s is offering clues to the maritime history of this region.
Eustace the Monk: Scourge of the seas
January 5, 2014 By
Eustace the Monk, one of the most colourful and remarkable naval commanders of the Middle Ages, operated in the chilly waters of the English Channel.
New underwater robot will allow archaeologists to examine ancient shipwrecks
December 3, 2013 By
Known as the U-CAT, it will allow archaeologists to go inside the remains of ancient and historical shipwrecks without damaging them.
Finland, Tallinn and the Hanseatic League: Foreign Trade and the Orientation of Roads in Medieval Finland
November 24, 2013 By
What was the role of Finland in the trade of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages? Thisquestion has been widely discussed in Finnish history since 1882, when J.W. Ruuth publishedhis study on the relationship between Finland and the Hanse before 1435.
De Itinere Navali: A German Third Crusader’s Chronicle of his Voyage and the Siege of Almohad Silves 1189 AD
October 16, 2013 By
Eleven shiploads of German crusaders from the cities of Lübeck and Bremen departed the Holy Roman Empire in 1189CE, part of Frederick Barbarossa’s crusader army destined for the Holy Land via England, Portugal, and the Mediterranean polities.
Women of the Sea, Muses of the Ages
September 1, 2013 By
Mermaids, sirens, selkies, water nymphs – female mythological figures of the sea were a source of both inspiration and fear for seagoing men over hundreds of years.
Medieval Europeans and their Aquatic Ecosystems
August 23, 2013 By
Purposeful medieval fish-catching activities combined with unintended consequences of large-scale agricultural, urban, and commercial development during the Middle Ages to affect, separately and together, aquatic ecosystems and their component fish species in demonstrable ways.
Dragon Harald Fairhair: The construction of a Viking Dragon Ship
August 9, 2013 By
A ten-minute video on the construction of a Viking dragon ship, which began in 2010 and is the largest Viking ship ever built in modern times.
‘Defending the Christian Faith with Our Blood’. The Battle of Lepanto (1571) and the Venetian Eastern Adriatic: Impact of a Global Conflict on the Mediterranean Periphery
July 22, 2013 By
The battle of Lepanto, which took place on the 7th of October 1571, was the greatest naval battle of oar driven vessels in the history of the Mediterranean1. It was then that the mighty Ottoman navy suffered its first and utter defeat in a direct confrontation with Christian forces, joined in the Holy League. Its purpose was to help Venice in the defence of Cyprus, stormed by the Ottoman troops in July of 1570, but to no avail, as on the 3rd of August 1571 the island was taken by the Ottomans.
Bread and Falcons: The View from Crete in 1501
July 19, 2013 By
An overview of 62 letters written between 1500 and 1502 by Bartolomeo Minio, Venetian Captain of Crete.
Negotiation and warfare: The Hospitallers of Rhodes around and after the Fall of Constantinople (1426–1480)
June 20, 2013 By
At the beginning of the 14th century, the Order of the Hospital, unlike the Temple, had managed to safeguard its image as a religious military order still able to pursue its mission to fight against the enemies of the Christian faith.
Was the White Ship disaster mass murder?
May 21, 2013 By
It was perhaps the worst maritime disaster of the Middle Ages, not just because it cost 300 lives, but because one of them was the heir to the Anglo-Norman Empire. One scholar has a theory that the sinking of the White Ship on the night of November 25, 1120 was not a tragic accident, rather a case of mass murder.
William the Conqueror and the Channel Crossing of 1066
May 16, 2013 By
William the Conqueror waited several weeks before making his maritime crossing of the English Channel in 1066 – was he hampered by weathered or did the Norman Duke intentionally remain in Normandy, hoping that events in Anglo-Saxon England would turn to his favour?
Danger from the high seas: Pirates shaped the history of the Mediterranean for 3000 years
March 22, 2013 By
Eye patch, peg leg and hook arm – these are the attributes commonly connoted with pirates. What many might not know is that pirates had been painting the waters of the Mediterranean red for almost 3,000 years.
Coastal Command: Surveying Scotland’s maritime superhighway
February 3, 2013 By
From ground level, the western Scottish seaboard can be a place of glorious isolation. Dave Cowley and Colin Martin climb to 2,000 feet to reveal once bustling sea-lanes and a Viking harbour.
Early Islamic Maritime Technology
December 30, 2012 By
This paper examines the extent to which the events of the 7th century were actually responsible for alterations to the maritime technology and associated practices of the Mediterranean during the early Islamic period.
The Sovereign and the Pirates, 1332
December 7, 2012 By
One Monday in early Spring 1332 a galley commanded by two Genoese ran aground on the tiny island of Brescou in the Mediterranean, a mile or so off shore of the episcopal city of Agde.
The sea republic of Genoa and the conquest of Black Sea in 1261
November 1, 2012 By
I’m going to explain how Genoa conquered the Black Sea in 1261, which was the most important, or better, only road to Asia
A Peripheral Matter? Oceans in the East in Late Medieval Thought, Report and Cartography
October 21, 2012 By
Focusing in particular on the southern and eastern parts of the Ocean Sea, this article traces the broad contours of a representational and conceptual shift brought about, I argue, by the interplay between geographical thought and social (navigational, mercantile) practice.
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail
October 12, 2012 By
W. Jeffrey Bolster takes us through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in the world.
How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America
October 7, 2012 By
The author’s attempt to rewrite world history, however, is based on a hodgepodge of circular reasoning, bizarre speculation, distorted sources, and slapdash research.
Sailing with the Mu’allim: The Technical Practiceof Red Sea Sailing during the Medieval Period
September 30, 2012 By
The status of the Red Sea as a lane of communication be-tween the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean has beenwidely commented upon…The medieval period was no exception to this. The establishment of Mecca as a centre of pilgrimage and theincreasing importance of Cairo both served to provide further motives for seafaring activity along and across theRed Sea.
How you can Follow Us!