Where the Middle Ages Begin
In late medieval Italy, women often outlived their husbands. This book examines writings from the period to explore the different ways widows mourned their spouses and how they chose to carry on with their lives afterwards.
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.
An Eleventh-Century Farmhouse in the Norse Colonies in Greenland By C.L. Vebaek The Fourth Viking Congress, ed. Alan Small (Edinburgh, 1961) Click…
Eysteinn Haraldsson in the West, c.1151: Oral Traditions and Written Record By A.B. Taylor The Fourth Viking Congress, ed. Alan Small (Edinburgh, 1961)…
In many quarters, no doubt, a smouldering resentment and a sense of shame helped to spread the leaven of unrest and dissatisfaction among the native population.
Brus versus Balliol, 1291-1292: The Model for Edward I’s Tribunal By G. Neilson Scottish Historical Review, vol. 16 (1918) Click here to read/download…
The Cantar de Mio Cid: A Morphological-Syntagmatic Analysis of the Exile of the Cid By Jack J. Himelblau eHumanista: Journal of Iberian Studies, vol.6…
Rethinking the Arthurian Legend Transmission in the Iberian Peninsula By J. Conde de Lindquist eHumanista: Journal of Iberian Studies vol.7 (2006) Click here to…
The plot of Grisel y Mirabella is relatively simple. A Scottish king has but one child, a daughter, Mirabella. Although she has many noble suitors, her father refuses to allow her to marry. Because her beauty causes conflicts between knights and nobles, the king imprisons her in a tower to prevent her suitors from killing each other.
Some New Christians managed to escape abroad, founding Jewish communities in Bordeaux, London, Amsterdam, and other cities (Azevedo 359-430). With the union of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns (1580-1640), the number of those who moved to Spain and its American colonies was so great that the word “Portuguese” became practically synonymous with “Jew.”
The story told in Alfonso’s cantiga 103 is not original to his court writers. In fact, as has been made abundantly clear in several studies to date (Hans-Jörg [Aarne-Thomson] 471A (“The Monk and the Bird”),4 Wagner, and Röhrich 124-45), the cantiga story is a variation of a legend that had already existed for at least one hundred years before its inclusion in the Cantigas collection (the compilation of which took place during the years spanning from 1257 to 1283).
Were medieval jurors more inclined to condemn female self‐killers to a suicide’s death because of the familiar figure of the mad, possessed woman?
The way in which children’s authors have translated medieval history into their own “historicity” has changed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as popular and scholarly attitudes toward the Middle Ages have changed. Looking at these changes, my purpose in this thesis will be to answer two questions: why would children’s authors draw upon Anglo-Saxon England for their subject matter? And, what relevance does children’s literature have for an audience of medievalists?
This essay explores these encounters, whether on English shores, on board ship, or abroad in foreign ports.
Roger of Powys, Henry II’s Anglo-Welsh Middleman, and His Lineage By Frederick Suppe The Welsh History Review, vol.21:1 (2002) Introduction: In his play…
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An Interview with Christopher Dinsdale, author of Stolen Away Stolen Away is the second book written by Christopher Dinsdale. Aimed at younger readers,…
Natalie Zemon Davis is a Professor of History (Emeritus) at Princeton University and currently teaches at the University of Toronto.
Florin Curta is the Associate Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Florida. After working as an archaeologist in Romania,…
János Bak is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University (CEU), in Budapest. He is also one of the…
In the last few months we have seen three important accounts of the First Crusade. Each text offers new perspectives on the pilgrimage/campaign/movement…
Biological anthropologists are in the unique position of being able to analyze human skeletal remains in order to reconstruct health, nutrition, environmental stress, disease and mortality experiences, in past populations. Skeletal assemblages have the potential to tell us about many types of individuals – rich, poor, male, female, young, old, healthy and sick.
This dissertation studies the career of Brian ‘Bórumha’ mac Cennétig from its beginning with his election to the kingship of his ancestral kingdom of Dál Cais in 976 until his death as the high-king of Ireland at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
The sequence commentary, part of the vast commentary literature of the Middle Ages, emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a new field for writing expositions on liturgical poetry. It is, however, a genre that has been practically neglected by modern research.
The Chronica regni Gothorum or Chronicle of the realm of the Goths is the first Swedish national history in Latin prose. It was completed after 1471 by a member of the Uppsala cathedral chapter, Ericus Olai, who, arguably, intended his work primarily for the readership of his own arch see. Ericus professed to compile a history of the Swedish realm from the birth of Christ until his own time and according to the succession of kings and bishops governing from Uppsala.
The warriors from Birka’s Garrison had a share in the martial development of contemporary Europe but with their own particular traits.
In late medieval Italy, women often outlived their husbands. This book examines writings from the period to explore the different ways widows mourned their spouses and how they chose to carry on with their lives afterwards.
A conversation with Marica Cassis about the archaeological study of the east Roman world and how it interfaces with traditional, text-based historiography. What can archaeology see and what not? What challenges has it faced to emerge as a field and what are the prospects that it faces today?
A conversation with Alicia Walker on the pseudo-Arabic inscriptions that appear on a number of tenth- and eleventh-century churches in Greece, most notably at the monastery of Hosios Loukas. What did the Arabic script signify in Orthodox culture at the time if not tension with Islam?
After Henry V’s death, the Hundred Years’ War flares back to life as a Franco-Scottish army confronts the English in Normandy. In this episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly dig into the Battle of Verneuil—one of the war’s bloodiest clashes—and why it mattered.
The Assassins and the Knights Templar have become two of the most iconic groups of fighters from the period of the Crusades. In recent times, they have been popularised through the video game and movie franchise, Assassin’s Creed. But who were they really and how did they interact in the Holy Land?
A conversation with Kevin van Bladel on his proposal regarding “The Classical Near East,” a constellation of fields defined by the classical literary…
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.