The Cross-dressing Women of Medieval London
Women going around dressed as men, wearing men’s hats, and even having their hair cut short, was not an acceptable practice in medieval society. However, in late medieval London there were at least 13 cases of women accused of doing just that.
Boys’ Names from Medieval London (not the usual ones!)
Looking to go back to the Middle Ages to name your newborn son? But you don’t want to go with the names everyone knows. Try these ten names!
Girls’ Names from Medieval London (not the usual ones!)
Looking for that great ‘medieval’ name for your newborn daughter? Here are ten names from medieval London that you may never had heard of!
What to See in Westminster Abbey
A review and tour of Westminster Abbey
What to See at The Tower of London
Here is a list of our ‘Must sees’ and things you can skip if you’re pressed for time when you tour the Tower of London.
Old St. Paul’s Cathedral of London
It was the fourth church to be built on the site on Ludgate Hill and the presence of the shrine of St. Erkenwald made the church a pilgrimage site in medieval times.
Quiz: Know Your Way Around Medieval London
How well do you know your way around medieval London? Try this quiz of various sites around England’s largest city.
Archaeologists discover London’s Black Death mass grave
Skeletons discovered last year in London were victims of the Black Death, according to new research announced yesterday. Furthermore, archaeologists believe that have found an emergency burial ground created in 1348 for victim of the pandemic.
Medieval Tavern Names
Looking for a cool name to call your drinking establishment? Check out what the names of these taverns from medieval London.
Youth and Old Age in Late Medieval London
This article is concerned with the relationship between life stages and a person’s place in urban society. The two life stages studied here are the end of youth and the onset of old age, that is to say the two stages at either end of that period in life when men were most active economically, socially, and politically, when they were expected to build a family and run a business.
A Male Transvestite Prostitution In 14th Century London: The Testimony of John Rykener
A Male Transvestite Prostitution In 14th Century London: The Testimony of John Rykener By Erkan Oruçoğlu Published Online (2013) Introduction: Studies of sexuality, homosexuality,…
The Middle English culinary recipes in MS Harley 5401: an edition and commentary
The culinary manuscripts of the Middle Ages are increasingly a concern of those interested in social history — among others;(1) yet a significant impediment to research on Middle English culinary matters remains in the remarkable fact that there are still at least six sizeable collections of recipes that have never been edited and/or printed at all, as well as about a dozen more that have been only selectively collated in editions of material taken primarily from other manuscripts.
The Government of Medieval London
The city had always, even from Roman times, a great deal of control over its own governance.
The Last Week of the Life of Edward the Black Prince
Edward the Black Prince died in the palace of Westminster, after years of debilitating illness, on Trinity Sunday, 8 June 1376. There has been little or no discussion by historians of why the prince should have chosen Canterbury for burial, when Westminster abbey was already well-established as the royal mausoleum, or any discussion at all of another matter to which the prince gave attention in his very last days, namely the grant of a charter of disaffor- estation to the community of Wirral in his earldom and county of Chester.
Twilight Tours at the Tower of London!
A review of the Twilight Tour at the Tower of London!
St. Augustine’s Tower – Hackney, London
My trip to St. Augustine’s Tower in Hackney, London.
Two dozen and more Silkwomen of Fifteenth-Century London
This article attempts to record systematically all the silkwomen of London who were daughters or wives of London mercers between 1400 and 1499.
The Bankside Stews: Prostitution in London 1161-1546
Although historians frequently associate prostitution with a number of social, political and cultural concerns, including society’s attitudes toward both women and sexuality, and the spread of venereal disease, remarkably few have made it the central focus of their inquiries.
Philippa Russell and the Wills of London’s Late Medieval Singlewomen
Never-married women were common in the streets and lanes of late medieval London, but few of their wills survive. Philippa Russell is one of only 15 such testators recorded in London probate courts between 1450 and 1500, and her will is especially long and informative.
Cheapside: commerce and commemoration
The broad street of Cheapside, Vanessa Harding shows, was a central location in the lives and minds of early modern Londoners. In a crowded city it was a significant open space where public events could be staged and important issues communicated to a wide audience. The everyday reality of shop and market trading — where qualities and values were scrutinized and false dealing punished – enhanced its association with truth and patency. Normally dominated by the authorities, it was on occasion captured by oppositional groups, though their activities tended to reinforce Cheapside’s identity as a place of publicity and validation.
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.
The Interrogation of of a Male Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London
Despite the general rule that sexual offenses were matters for the church courts, in some cases the city of London took charge of these offenses. Prostitution and procuring, for example, involved public order; the temporal courts dealt with them for that reason, so that the same people might be prosecuted in both jusrisdictions for the same offense.
Burial ground discovered in London may be victims of Black Death
Thirteen skeletons have been uncovered lying in two carefully laid out rows on the edge of Charterhouse Square at Farringdon, and are believed to be up to 660 years old.
The tailors of London and their guild, c.1300-1500
The unusually full medieval records of the guild of London tailors, known from 1503 as the Merchant Taylors’ Company, provides a rare opportunity to assess the variety of roles which these organisations played in late-medieval London.