Margaret, Maid of Norway and Queen of Scots
Margaret was called Queen but was never crowned. She was known as Lady of Scotland, Margaret of Scotland and the Maid of Norway. The story of her life is very poignant and short lived.
Auðun of the West Fjords and the Saga Tradition: Similarities of Theme and Structural Suitability
This paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a þáttr dating from the Sturlunga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas in terms of their mutual concerns with kings, peace, and the place of Iceland in a larger Christian world.
Crusading as a Knightly Deed
How far do the works of Jean of Joinville and James I of Aragon depict crusading as an integral part of chivalry in the thirteenth century?
Living stones : the practice of remembrance at Lincoln Cathedral, (1092-1235)
This thesis analyses four different aspects of devotional life at one of England’s largest and wealthiest medieval cathedrals between the years 1092 and 1235.
The Origins of the Tale of the Blood Drinking Hungarians
The motif of the covenant of blood was quite widespread in West European chronicle literature, and it was not necessarily applied to Oriental peoples, nor particularly to Hungarians.
Ermengarde de Beaumont, Queen of Scotland
Very little is known of Ermengarde de Beaumont who became Queen of Scotland in 1186 when she married the forty three year old King William I of Scotland, later known as ‘The Lyon’.
A Medieval Multiverse
Ideas in a thirteenth-century treatise on the nature of matter still resonate today, say Tom C. B. McLeish and colleagues.
Unpleasant Affairs That Please Us: Admonition and Rebuke in the Letter Collections of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 11th and 12th Centuries
From the Norman Conquest in 1066 up to the famous “murder in the cathedral”2 in 1170, six archbishops of Canterbury ruled over the English church…
A Heresy of State: Philip the Fair, the Trial of the ‘Perfidious Templars,’ and the Pontificalization of the French Monarchy
This article provides an outline for a new interpretation of the trial of the Templars, with special attention to the texts written by the instigators of the case, namely, Philip the Fair and his ministers.
Kickstarter campaign to restore St.Francis of Assisi’s home in Rome
The Franciscan order hopes to raise $125 000 to restore a convent in Rome which was the home of St. Francis of Assisi. They have created a Kickstarter campaign to ask for donations from the public.
Elizabeth de Burgh, Queen of Scotland
When Robert the Bruce carried on his fight for the Scottish throne, Elizabeth and the rest of Bruce’s family were to suffer the consequences.
Discrimination Against the Jewish Population in Medieval Castile and León
I have tried to show the degree of discrimination suffered by the Jewish community in these two kingdoms in the Middle Ages through a deep analysis of the legal sources, lay as much as ecclesiastical, and also through documentary collections reflecting their practical application
The Battle of Herat (1270): A Case of Inter-Mongol Warfare
When the armies of the Ilkhan Abaqa (r. 1265-1282) met the troops of the Chaghadaid Khan Baraq (r. 1266-1271) in 1270 at Herat in present-day Afghanistan, it was for a full-scale and decisive combat.
BOOKS:Medieval Celebrities!
They may not have won any Oscars, but they were definitely medieval celebrities! Here are some great reads about some of the most famous faces of the Middle Ages
How to defraud your lord on the medieval manor
Here are six ways to commit fraud explained by Robert Carpenter in the 13th century.
Whose secret Intent?
Hülegü Khan’s arrival on the south bank of the Amu Darya, or the Oxus, in the 1250s was the second time that a large Mongol-led military force had landed south of the great river poised to advance on the Iranian plateau.
Tenure to Contract: Lordship and Clientage in Thirteenth-Century England
English historians have increasingly stressed the underlying continuity between feudalism and ‘bastard feudalism.’ Indentured retaining is no longer seen as a corrupted and disruptive form of feudalism, but instead as its ‘logical successor.’
Notarial Convention in the Facilitation of Trade and Economics in Mid-Thirteenth Century Marseille
This paper examines Marseillaise notarial documents of 1248 from the cartulary of Girauld Amalric. Amalric’s cartulary demonstrates how notarial techniques and related legal conventions facilitated Marseille’s long- and short-distance trade.
A Medieval Guide to Friendship
What kind of friend are you? A 13th-century writer looks at types of friends, most of whom you want to stay away from!
Resonance and the Photographing of Medieval Architecture
In this essay I aim to convey in text and photographs what it might mean to experience medieval architecture with some degree of connectivity or what Wittgenstein calls, poetically, “resonance.”
Cecco D’Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages
Probably the only natural philosopher of the Middle Ages to be burnt at the stake at the behest of the Church was one Francisco degli Stabili (c. 1269 – 1327) in Florence in late 1327.
Violence and Repression in Late Medieval Italy
Between the second half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, central and northern Italian city-states frequently suffered moments of disruption of the social peace because of factional battles.
Life in the Pauline Monasteries of Late Medieval Hungary
The Pauline order emerged in the second half of the thirteenth century and became one of the most popular religious communities of medieval Hungary.
Holy War and the home front : the crusading culture of Berry, France in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries
Le Berry, in the geographical centre of France, developed its own “crusading culture” that both affected the ideas of the people living there and effected new institutions and traditions in that society pertaining to the crusades.