The Measure of Literacy in Late Medieval England: The Case of St. Albans, 1237-1399
In the mid-thirteenth century, the tenants living on the manors of the liberty of St Albans had no use for letters.
‘I wanted to make them a little book’: The knight and the book for his daughters
I wanted to make them a little book to read so they might learn and study and understand the good and evil that has already happened, in order to keep them from that which is yet to come.
Domestic violence against women as a reason to sanctification in Byzantine hagiography
The lives of Matrona of Perge, Mary the Younger and Thomaïs of Lesbos are rare examples of how domestic violence against women could be also interpreted as a reason to sanctify the woman suffered abuses of this sort.
Bastards and Priests in the Middle Ages with Sara McDougall
What was it like to be a bastard in medieval Europe? Were you excluded from one of the most important institutions of the time: the priesthood? Danièle is joined by Sara McDougall to talk about bastards, priests, and if you could be both at that same time.
Wages of sin: The financial operations of a medieval church court
An overwhelming number of the criminal charges made in the Consistory from the second half of the fourteenth century until the last quarter of the fifteenth, the period for which records are most complete, were sexual in nature.
Disabilities in the Middle Ages with Kisha Tracy
How did medieval people deal with physical and mental challenges? Danièle speaks with Kisha Tracy of Fitchburg State University on why its important to talk about disabilities in the Middle Ages and what evidence we have for how people cared for each other when there was physical or mental disabilities.
Medieval manliness – Students design board game in history class
What better way to understand medieval masculinity than through a game?
Medieval Marriage with Ruth Mazo Karras
Episode 7 of The Medieval Podcast – What was marriage in the Middle Ages really like? Danièle is joined by Ruth Mazo Karras to discuss love, weddings and partnerships in medieval society.
Elen More: The Moorish Lass in James IV’s Court
It won’t take you long to spot an ‘Elen More’ among the courtiers of King James IV. Or the ‘Moorish Lass’, as they dubbed her.
Childhood in the Middle Ages
What was childhood like in the Middle Ages?
Love and Eroticism in Medieval Norwegian Runic Inscriptions
Although other emotions are obvious in various inscriptions, clearly the one most often and most explicitly expressed is love, at times more specifically erotic interest.
The Legacy of Medieval Muslim Spain: Contemporary Identities and Conceptions of Tolerance
Christina Civantos examines the contemporary presence of medieval Muslim Iberia in Arab and Hispanic cultures and in global understandings of tolerance.
Were women ever sacred? Some medieval and modern men would like us to think so
What do we really know about this phenomenon of medieval “courtly love” and the gender roles it displayed?
Children in Viking Studies: a case for material culture studies
I will argue that the study of Viking-Age children, though historically stagnant, could be expanded through implementation of theoretical frameworks focused on the influence of both actors and their material culture.
Big Men During the Icelandic Commonwealth
By comparing chosen cases of ambitious men taken from the Íslendingasögur and the Sturlunga compilation, the applicability of the category to commonwealth Iceland is assessed.
The service patterns and social-economic status of English archers, 1367-1417
This thesis is a study of the men who served as archers in the armies of the English kings between 1367 and 1417. However, the focus is not the archers in their military capacity, but the motivations behind their service and their position in late medieval English society.
Sibling Rivalries, Scriptural Communities: What Medieval History Can and Cannot Teach Us about Relations between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Today there are literally hundreds of writers turning to the Middle Ages in order to make this or that argument about the relationship between Western and Islamic civilization.
The Calamity of Violence: Reading the Paris Massacres of 1418
The prelude to the massacres began on the night of 29 May 1418. The city had been brutally occupied for five years by the Armagnacs, the ruling junta hostile to both the Parisians and the populist Burgundian party that the vast majority of the capital’s residents favored.
Labour Pains: Scenes of Birth and Becoming in Old Norse Legendary Literature
In its ability to produce sons, the maternal body offered one of the few means for women to attain power and influence in the medieval world. However, it is constantly depicted as being broken down in Old Norse legendary literature, a loose generic distinction taken here to encompass principally the poems of the Poetic Edda and the prosimetric narratives of the fornaldarsögur.
Medieval people’s obsession with crystals: an interview with Marisa Galvez
Stanford medievalist Marisa Galvez is examining the origins of people’s fascination with crystals. She finds that crystals inspired the writing and poetry of some medieval authors in unexpected ways.
Sumptuary Legislation and Conduct Literature in Late Medieval England
This study is an examination of attempts to control dress in late medieval England.
From Civilitas to Civility: Codes of Manners in Medieval and Early Modern England
Argues that to see the contrasts between late medieval ‘courtesy books’ and early modern manuals of manners as markers of changing ideas of social conduct in England is an interpretation too narrowly based on works written in English.
Intermarriage in fifteenth-century Ireland: the English and Irish in the ‘four obedient shires’
This paper explores the interaction between these two groups through the curiously understudied phenomenon of intermarriage, and centres on the ‘four obedient counties’ of Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Kildare in the fifteenth century.
Genetic origins of Iceland’s first settlers revealed
“It’s like having a time machine. Now it is possible to study the actual people who participated in the founding of Iceland.”
