Top Ten Videos from Museum Secrets
One of the best history TV shows being made right now (and made in Canada too!), Museum Secrets takes viewers each episode to a new museum to explore its artefacts and stories.
Writing Away the Caliph: Political and Religious Legitimacy in Late Medieval Islamic Political Thought
In 632, the death of the Prophet Muhammad was met with confusion, as he died without naming a successor; nor did he leave a blueprint detailing how political rule should take shape after his death
Unusual Life, Unusual Death and the Fate of the Corpse: A Case Study from Dynastic Europe
This article explores how deviant behaviour in life, deviant circumstances of death, and young age at death affected mortuary treatment among historically documented individuals from Medieval and Post-Medieval European dynasties.
Economic Credit in Renaissance Florence
What were the social and institutional factors that led to, and reinforced, the precocious emergence of Florentine commercial capitalism, especially in the domain of international merchant banking?
Vikings – Review of Episode 8: Sacrifice
This week’s episode of Vikings takes a break from the usual raiding and pillaging with the gang headed out to get some spiritual fulfillment. Fortunately, this also involves killing.
Game of Thrones – Review of Season 3 Episode 4: And Now His Watch Is Ended
This week’s episode of Game of Thrones was packed full of plot twists, interesting dialogue and focused on revenge.
The Borgias – Review of Season 3 Episode 2: The Purge
This week, Rodrigo has lost faith in everything, including God. He finally realizes he’s surrounded by a nest of vipers and his family is in danger.
Society and Settlement in Glendalough and the Vartry before 1650
Glendalough and the Vartry yielded some of its secrets in these last four years and I became aware of its many unique aspects and the fact that the island viewpoints ofthe general political historian were not necessarily appropriate.
The commons in medieval England
Why was the same term ‘commons’ used to describe both a part of the English legislature and a large gathering of rebellious people? How had this double meaning come about and what did it imply for the workings of politics in late medieval England?
From Montpèlerin to Tarabulus al-Mustajadda: The Frankish-Mamluk Succession in Old Tripoli
Modern Tripoli still shows the division into two different urban areas existing since the Middle Ages. Until the arrival of the Crusaders Tripoli merely consisted of the ancient town on the coast.
Identifying Women Proprietors in Wills from Fifteenth-Century London
Most Londoners lodged their post obit requests with the Husting Court, the county court of London. The testators were primarily wealthy artisans and merchants, since one needed to possess a substantial amount of property in order to register the details of the division of that property.
“Walkynge in the mede” : Chaucerian gardens and the recasting of the Edenic fall
In this thesis, I intend to illustrate how Chaucer uses his knowledge of garden traditions, both biblical and practical, to discuss the concept of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of humanity.
Penance and Peter Abelard’s Move Within
Of the many individuals in the twelfth century whose fame in their own time has reached down to ours, figures like Thomas Becket, Frederick Barbarossa and Bernard of Clairvaux, there is no one whose fame surpassed that of Master Peter Abelard and no figure more public. Indeed, fame was something Abelard coveted, something he consciously built.
Down and Out in Westeros, or: Economy and Society in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire
So What’s a Dragon Worth, Anyway?
Captain of Fortune: Galeazzo da Montova
Equally part knight and part bandit, the profession of condottiero created opportunity and social mobility unlike anything seen in the rest of Europe
Fiore dei Liberi’s Armizare: The Chivalric Martial Arts System of Il Fior di Battaglia
In this book, Robert Charrette brings together his experiences as a martial artist and respected 14th century living historian with his skills as a professional author graphic artist to not only take readers on a walking tour of Master Fiore’s manuscripts, but into the mindset behind its creation.
Reconstructing a Late Medieval Irish Library
‘It is a tricky thing to discuss a library that has not existed for 350 years.’
In search of the medieval ‘Anonymous’
The extent of fifteenth-century historical works from the Low Countries can be deduced and accessed by historians through www.narrative-sources.be, the online encyclopedia of narrative sources from the medieval Low Countries. The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains similar entries on history works in all of medieval Europe.
Medieval Astrology and The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
It is useful to begin by comparing the way the sages are initially described to the Emperor in the Latin, Middle English, and Middle Scots texts. Although the Middle Scots text is not connected to the English ones, they serve as a useful backdrop to illustrate the singular nature of the Scottish version of the story.
Conflict in the Parish: Antagonistic Relations Between Clerics and Parishioners
Parishioners repeatedly complained about suffering under the rule of a petty tyrant who held grudges and exploited his power to administer the sacraments, or about the surly, combative temperament of their priest who was prone to fighting and creating discord within the parish.
Symbel: The Heathen Drinking Ritual?
Examination of symbel in Anglo-Saxon society from archaeological and literary evidence and its role in modern Heathen/Pagan societies
“Becoming Mary of the Gael”
This paper focused on the comparison of St. Brigit and the Virgin Mary in early Irish texts.
The Lost Western Settlement of Greenland, 1342
In the early 1340s, something was amiss in the Western Norse Settlement in Greenland.
Femininity in the Marketplace: The Ideal Woman in Fourteenth-Century Florence
Throughout this period, in advice manuals and in humanistic dialogues, writers emphasize the importance of learning to read and write, and of gaining the social skills necessary for creating a network of friends; these were considered
necessary abilities for becoming a successful merchant and citizen.
Wynne whoso may, for al is for to selle: Sexual Economics and Female Authority in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Chaucer’s inimitable Wife of Bath stands out as one of the most analyzed literary characters of all time, in part because of her existence outside of any defined medieval cultural classification, and in part as an archetype of a rising social tradition.