The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople
Jonathan Phillips sees one of the most notorious events in European history as a typical ‘clash of cultures’
Gruesome murders to mythical beasts: Britain’s historic church wallpaintings now can be seen online
Earlier this month, the Churches Conservation Trust – the national charity protecting historic churches at risk – launched a brand new online resource providing an interactive guide to just some of the fine wallpaintings in its care
The Myth of the “Invincibility” of the Norman Cavalry Charge in the Eleventh Century: a Comparative Analysis of the Battles of Hastings (1066) and Dyrrachium (1081)
Did the Normans simply implement the same battle tactics they successfully used in Northwest Europe when they went to Italy?
Conqueror: A Novel of Kublai Khan, by Conn Iggulden
An epic tale of a great and heroic mind; his action-packed rule; and how in conquering one-fifth of the world’s inhabited land, he changed the course of history forever.
Anglo-Saxons: The Making of England
There is evidence that Alfred came to see himself in some sense as a king of all Englishmen. There is almost no evidence that Englishmen beyond Wessex and perhaps the West Midlands would have agreed with him.
Niccolo Machiavelli – the Cunning Critic of Political Reason
Is Machiavelli’s lasting reputation as the philosopher-king of political manipulation really justified?
Terror in the Old French Crusade Cycle: from Splendid Cavalry to Cannibalism
This paper examines representations of fear inspired by battle tactics: when do the Franks imagine they have terrified the Saracen?
The Colour of Money: Crusaders and Coins in the Thirteenth-Century Baltic Sea
Were coins actually perceived as coloured? Several studies have elucidated the idea that there are ways of perceiving, understanding and classifying colours other than in the modern western sense.
A Penis-shortening Device Described by the 13th Century Poet Rumi
The poem continues with the maidservant’s mistress who ‘‘peeked through a crack in the door and saw the animal’s marvelous member and the delight of the girl’’.
Permanence of Early European Hand-Made Papers
The genuinely European technique of making paper by hand was developed in Fabriano, after paper-making was introduced to the town in the second half of the thirteenth century.
Regency Medievalism and the Early-Romantic Guitar
Professor Christopher Page, a celebrated musician and musicologist, will be coming to the University of Bristol on Thursday to give a lecture, entitled ‘Regency Medievalism and the Early-Romantic Guitar’, which will consider how the guitar, so favoured by amateur musicians among the nobility and gentry by 1830, came to be involved with a developing interest in the Middle Ages during the Regency period.
Miniature toys of medieval childhood
There is an immediate appeal in these early playthings – not least because many of them are strikingly similar to the toys that anyone over the age of about 35 today used to play with in their own childhood.
“What If … Charlemagne’s Other Sons had survived?” Charlemagne’s Sons and the Problems of Royal Succession
On January 28th 814, Charlemagne died at the age of 72. His son Louis the Pious succeeded his father into kingship and empire.
Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland
Many scholars have written about ‘the Irish law of dynastic succession’ since Eoin Mac Neill published an article with that title in 1919.
Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York
The leather described here spans a range of 600 years and provides an insight into one of York’s principal trades during the Anglo-Scandinavian and medieval periods
Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern Historiography of Western Africa
The first seeds, within European learning, of the conquest hypothesis were sown by Leo Africanus.
The Marlowe-Shakespeare Authorship Debate: Approaching an Old Problem with New Methods
The facts surrounding the life and death of the men called Shakespeare and Marlowe are murky at best. Both men had births recorded in 1564. Before Shakespeare’s name became widely known, Marlowe had already produced several major works in various genres, including Tamburlaine the Great and Dr. Faustus.
Culpability and Concealed Motives: An Analysis of the Parties Involved in the Diversion of the Fourth Crusade
This article is in direct contrast to an earlier one by Joseph Gill, in which he utilizes primary sources in an attempt to establish Pope Innocent III’s lack of responsibility in the outcome of the Crusade.
Shame as a Means of Punishment
My main concepts are honor and shame, and they were not only inner or personal, but very public values in the late medieval German society, at least in the sense of the criminal justice system and the dishonoring punishments.
Ireland’s Viking Towns
Comparison of recent excavation results from Irish Viking Age towns in terms of location, layout, defences and buildings show that they have many physical traits in common…
Practical Texts in Difficult Situations: Bulgarian Medieval Charms as Apocrypha and Fachliteratur
The apocrypha are one of the most important phenomena of the Middle Ages. They provide a different perspective and a valuable insight to the mentality of the period.
Lady of the Elves: The Great Germanic Goddess
The most prominent goddesses in Germany were Holda (propitious) and Berchta (bright, glorious).
‘Temple Pendants’ in Medieval Rus’: How were they Worn?
A useful contribution towards the understanding of the wearing practices of Byzantine and other medieval ear ornaments is supplied by archaeological evidence from the territory of medieval Rus.
Maimonides: an early but accurate view on the treatment of haemorrhoids
Moses Maimonides was not only one of the most influential religious figures of the middle ages, but also a pioneer in a wide variety of medical practices.
The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal’s Embassy to the Vikings
Before Dozy’s work,only excerpts from ibn-Dihya in incomplete shape had been known from the writings of the seventeenth-century Maghribi man of letters, al-Maqqari…