Were there Conspiracy Theories in the Middle Ages?
Did conspiracy theories exist in the Middle Ages? Exploring how medieval plots, suspicions, and scapegoating gave rise to early forms of conspiratorial thinking.
Timur the Lame’s Pyramids of Skulls: Terror as a Medieval Imperial Strategy
Discover how Timur the Lame used pyramids of human skulls to instil fear, crush resistance, and build a brutal medieval empire.
Medieval London Murder Solved: Priest Killed by Noblewoman’s Orders
A priest murdered in 14th-century London. A noblewoman’s vendetta. Cambridge’s Medieval Murder Maps reveals a tangled tale of adultery, public penance, and revenge near St Paul’s Cathedral.
Violence, Wine, and Everyday Life: Crime in the Taverns of Medieval Dubrovnik
A look into tavern life in late medieval Dubrovnik reveals a world of wine, violence, and everyday crime, drawn from court records and social patterns.
Vikings and Violence: What Bones Reveal About Norway and Denmark
New research reveals stark differences in Viking violence between Norway and Denmark, uncovering patterns of brutal deaths, executions, and weapon use through the study of ancient bones and grave goods.
Medieval Justice in the Modern Day: The ‘Social Bandit’
Two high-profile US criminal cases have some surprising similarities to medieval ideas of justice.
Weapons, Violence, and the Crusades: A Medieval Arms Race
The sword and shield of medieval Europe weren’t just tools of war—they were catalysts of chaos, reshaping societies and escalating crime rates. From Christendom to the Crusader States, weapons played a dual role: defence and destruction.
Grisly Power Plays: Did Medieval Rulers Drink from Enemy Skulls?
Did medieval kings really drink from the skulls of their enemies, or is this just one of history’s grisly exaggerations?
How Gender Shaped Crime and Punishment in the Medieval World
By Steve Tibble In the medieval world, crime was not just about survival or greed—it was deeply influenced by gender roles and social…
Study Reveals Norway’s Viking Society Was Far More Violent than Denmark’s
It turns out that Norway’s Viking Age was much more violent.
Medieval Corruption: How Crooked Cops and Officials Profited from Crime and Bribery
In the tumultuous world of the Middle Ages, the line between law enforcement and lawbreaking was often blurred, and sometimes, the enforcers were as corrupt as the medieval criminals they pursued.
Religious Responses to Social Violence in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine
The late tenth and early eleventh centuries were a time of political anarchy and social disorder in southern France.
Deadly Medieval Assassinations: Top 10 Historic Murders of the Middle Ages
Discover ten of the most dramatic and influential medieval assassinations that reshaped the political landscape of Europe and the Near East.
Top 10 Most Brutal Medieval Deaths: Gruesome Tales from the Dark Ages
Even though some reports may blur the lines between truth, rumour, and legend, these tales of brutal medieval deaths are worth exploring.
Medieval Forensics: 20 Key Observations by Song Ci
Explore the origins of forensic science through the groundbreaking work of Song Ci, a medieval physician and judge. His observations revolutionized the investigation of unusual deaths and laid the foundation for modern forensic techniques.
Murder and Political Drama in Medieval Syria and Egypt
The Crusaders were tough – but they had no monopoly on political violence. Murders within Muslim hierarchies were relatively common too.
Murder Below Stairs: Killing Servants in the 12th Century
Life in the crusader states and their Muslim enemies could be harsh – and the strictures of that life occasionally drove people to murderous violence
A Surfeit of Blood? Murders in the Middle Ages
Murder in a time of perpetual war seems faintly ridiculous.
Medieval Trial by Combat: Champions and Justice in the Middle Ages
Over the course of the thousand years that made up the Middle Ages, people were constantly working to refine their justice systems so that they would be more fair and impartial. Along the way were various missteps, of course – trial by ordeal stands out as a particularly nasty stage of the process.
The Mysterious ‘Lord S’ and a Murder in the Latin Empire of Constantinople
Who killed William, Archbishop of Philippi, in 1217?
The Murder of the Bishop of Acre in 1172
The murder of the bishop of Acre, however, which took place on the night of 29 June 1172, was something altogether more disturbing.
How to Murder a Byzantine Emperor
An empire like Byzantium does not last for a thousand years without its own share of political intrigue. Here are three accounts of murder told by medieval chroniclers in vivid detail, in which the plot did not go as smoothly as the conspirators hoped but ultimately resulted in a new emperor on the throne.
Medieval Executions: The View from the Scaffold
Let’s take a brief look at what judicial execution was really like in the Middle Ages.
The Viking Blood Eagle: Horrific Ritual or Horrific Metaphor?
As described in a number of sagas, the “blood eagle” was a particularly gruesome form of ritual sacrifice of high-status captives to the god Odin. Historians have debated whether this ritual was an actual practice or an invention of thirteenth-century saga writers based on a misunderstanding of an eleventh-century skaldic poem.
