Edmund II, the son of King Ethelred the Unready, ruled over Wessex for a short period of time. His reign lasted all of seven months, from April 23 to November 30 of the year 1016. During that time, Edmund managed to hold off Canute (or Cnut or Knute) from invading… Read More »Edmund II Ironside
Ice Land by Betsy Tobin Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Plume (August 25, 2009) ISBN-10: 0452295696 Destiny is everything. At the foot of the tree Yggdrasil, the Norns sit and spin the threads of fate. The shuttle carries the weft through the loom, moving back and forth, back and forth, until… Read More »Review of Ice Land by Betsy Tobin
He was the pious king, the saintly king, one of the last Anglo-Saxon rulers to sit the English throne. He was St. Edward the Confessor, the son of King Ethelred II and Emma, the daughter of Richard II of Normandy. Exiled due to Danish invasions and unrest among the English… Read More »Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 – 1066)
Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (August 1, 2009) ISBN-10: 1402215274 He was the son of a traitor. The prisoner of a queen. The lover of two women. The soldier of a king. And the target of something greater than all of these. He was… Read More »Review of Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham
My friend Linda McCabe has posted an article about a medieval castle being built in Arkansas. It’s part of a project to reconstruct a castle based on the actual methods used in the Middle Ages. The project is called the Ozark Medieval Fortress, and it began in June 2009. By… Read More »Construction of a Medieval Castle in Arkansas
On this day, July 27, in medieval history: 1214 – Battle of Bouvines: King Philip II of France defeated the forces of Otto IV (Holy Roman Emperor), the count of Flanders, and King John of England, in effect establishing a stronger position for the French monarchy Read contemporary accounts of… Read More »Timeline: Today in Middle Ages History
Old Wardour Castle, located near Tisbury in the English county of Wiltshire, sits on a slight rise above a lake and was once the home of Baron John Lovell, the fifth Baron Lovell. John Lovell acquired the land from the St. Martin family when Sir Lawrence de St. Martin died… Read More »Medieval Castles: Old Wardour Castle
The detailed service records of 250,000 medieval soldiers – including archers who served with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt – have gone online. The database of those who fought in the Hundred Years War reveals salaries, sickness records and who was knighted. More at BBC News. I didn’t… Read More »Online Medieval Battle Records
I’ve compiled a list of blog topics related to medieval history, historical fiction, fantasy, fiction writing, or industry news. Here’s a brief rundown: Mark Lord dicusses Medieval Myths about Witchcraft and Sorcery ABC will air an hourlong documentary about the woman behind the boy wizard, “J.K Rowling: A Year in… Read More »Blogs of Interest