Fought between the armies of Henry II and rebellious factions in Normandy, Brittany and England, the Anglo-Norman rebellion takes only a brief page in the volumes of middle ages history. Lasting approximately two years, Henry II battled against his own sons to maintain control of his kingdom. His eldest three… Read More »The Anglo-Norman Rebellion
Castles of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance By William Anderson, Photographs by Wim Swaan Copyright 1970 – Paul Elek Productions, London; Random House, USA Castles of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance is an older book — at least the edition I own — and you’ll likely have to… Read More »Review of Castles of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance
On this day, June 15th, in medieval history: 1330 – Birth of Edward (“The Black Prince”), Prince of Wales and eldest son of King Edward III of England 1381 – Death of Wat Tyler, leader of the English Peasants’ Revolt; Sir William Walworth, the mayor of London, killed Wat during… Read More »Timeline: Today in Medieval History
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Paperback: 552 pages Publisher: Harvest Books; 1st edition (Sept. 28, 1994) ISBN-10: 0156001314 The Name of the Rose is a book I read several years back and one I wanted to revisit here on my blog. This historical fiction novel set in… Read More »Review of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Melissa Snell has an in depth post on her blog regarding the heraldic symbols of the medieval period and what those symbols mean. The information is taken from W. Cecil Wade’s The Symbolisms of Heraldry or A Treatise on the Meanings and Derivations of Armorial Bearing, a document that is… Read More »What Do Different Heraldic Symbols Mean?
The power vacuum left after the deaths of King Henry I and his only legitimate son, William, resulted in a power struggle between Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, and Henry’s daughter, Matilda. Before Henry’s death, the barons had agreed to support Matilda as the next ruler of England, but instead… Read More »Stephen of Blois
“The popularity of Internet sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace might make social networking seem relatively modern. But a team of French researchers has challenged this idea by trawling through medieval documents to create the oldest detailed social network ever constructed. Working from records of land transactions dating back… Read More »The Medieval Social Network
Google’s 3D Warehouse allows you to search through 3D models of various kinds of collections and models that people have sketched. You can find all kinds of medieval related items: castles, buildings, cathedrals, weapons, etc. You can search in broad terms (e.g. – medieval castles), or more specifically, such as… Read More »Medieval History in 3D
In the County of Laois in Ireland, there stands the ancient ruins of the castle of Dunamase overlooking and dominating the surrounding landscape. Built over a pre-existing fortification, the castle was occupied over the years by people such as Strongbow, Meiler FitzHenry, and William Marshal. The Marshal family occupied the… Read More »Medieval Castles: Dunamase