‘Laugh, My Love, Laugh’: Mottos, Proverbs and Love Inscriptions on Late Medieval Bone Saddles
Fifteenth-century bone saddles form a particularly unique and special object group in medieval Central European history.
Vi et Armis: Londoners and Violent Trespass Before the Common Pleas in the Fifteenth Century
The Londoners who entered pleadings in this court between 1405 and 1415 have left a fascinating glimpse into both interpersonal violence and the world of savvy litigators.
Child death, grief, and the community in high and late Medieval England
Today, the heartbreaking news about child death, in most cases, is viewed as “unexpected” or “rare.” However, the medieval corpus reflects the grim reality that child death was common.
Between Brothers: Brotherhood and Masculinity in the Later Middle Ages
This dissertation examines aristocratic brothers in order to understand how elite men negotiated the pressures of gender and kinship in the context of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453).
Well-Poisoning Accusations in Medieval Europe: 1250-1500
During the later Middle Ages, a new idea fueled suspicion of minority groups in Europe: a belief
that they might poison wells to cause widespread illness and mortality.
How medieval marriages laws changed Western society
The Western Catholic Church’s influence on marriage and family structures during the Middle Ages shaped the cultural evolution of the beliefs and behaviors now common among Western Europeans and their cultural descendants, researchers report.
First genetic history of Rome reveals migrations and diversity from ancient and medieval periods
The DNA analysis reveals that as the Roman Empire expanded around the Mediterranean Sea, immigrants from the Near East, Europe and North Africa pulled up their roots and moved to Rome.
Henry VIII’s marital troubles may have influenced other splits, newly-discovered documents show
Newly-discovered documents show Henry VIII’s legendary marital troubles may have led to other copy-cat splits around the country.
Old Age in Viking-Age Britain
Did the same negative attitudes towards the old exist in Viking-Age England? What was considered ‘old’ in Viking-Age colonial society? And, what sort of life could the old individual expect?
Black Death burials reveal the diversity of London’s medieval population
New research on people buried in London during the Black Death suggests that the city’s population was more diverse than currently believed, including the presence of people with African heritage.
Viking Age Hair
In Viking-Age Scandinavia, hair also seems to have played an important role in social dynamics.
Population genomics of the Viking world
We find evidence for a majority of Danish Viking presence in England, Swedish Viking presence in the Baltic, and Norwegian Viking presence in Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland.
Defamation, Gender and Hierarchy in Late Medieval Yorkshire
At some point in 1362, one Robert de Berlay, servant in a gentry household in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was accused of impregnating Margery de Pickworth, the unmarried daughter of Thomas de Pickworth, a knight and Robert’s master.
The Cooks of the Canterbury Tales: The Backstage of Bourgeois Social Drama
This article aims at analysing Chaucer’s depiction of the cooks in the Canterbury Tales, and to discuss their function in contributing to the social changes as figures at the backstage of bourgeois social drama.
The Danger of the Soft Life: Manly and Unmanly Romans in Procopius’s Gothic War
Rather than uncovering the Goths, Byzantines, and Italians “as they really were,” this paper seeks to unearth some of the purpose and reasoning behind Procopius’s gendered depictions and ethnicizing worldview.
Prisons and Punishments in Late Medieval London
In the history of crime and punishment the prisons of medieval London have generally been overlooked.
10 Things to Know About the Great Famine
One of the most severe crises to strike medieval Europe was the Great Famine. Beginning in the year 1315, much of northern Europe would face years of bad weather, crop failures and widespread deaths from disease and starvation.
Children of a One-Eyed God: Impairment in the Myth and Memory of Medieval Scandinavia
This thesis counters scholarly assumptions that the impaired were universally marginalized across medieval Europe. It argues that bodily difference in the Norse world was only viewed as a limitation when it prevented an individual from fulfilling roles that contributed to their community.
New Discovery Sheds Light upon England’s leading Medieval family
A small medieval memorial brass has brought to light the sad story of a young girl whose short life, and tragic death, had previously gone unnoticed by historians and academics.
Prostitution in Urban Brothels in Late Medieval Austria
Municipal authorities officially established urban brothels in late medieval Austria as a necessary evil in order to control the lust of unmarried men and thus protect women from sexual abuse
Love, marriage and abduction in Byzantium: the epic romance of Digenes Akritas
What can an epic poem from the the 12th century tells us about love and marriage in the Byzantine world?
Gendered viewing, childbirth and female authority in the residence of Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk, at Ewelme, Oxfordshire
This article examines the visual culture of the late medieval great residence from the perspective of the female gaze.
Medieval torture with Larissa ‘Kat’ Tracy
What was torture really like in the Middle Ages? Larissa ‘Kat’ Tracy joins Danièle to talk about iron maidens, dungeons, executions and more on The Medieval Podcast.
The Rocky Road to Assimilation: Converso-Old Christian Intermarriage in the Late 15th Century
Focusing on converso / old Christian intermarriage will I hope shed more light on the social and religious processes in the individual decision making that were involved in the gradual assimilation of a good number of converso families into old Christian society.
