On 30th May 1445, a 15-year-old French girl was crowned Queen of England. Her French name (Margueritte) literally meant ‘daisy’, a flower she took as her personal emblem. By her parents and siblings she was… Read More »Young Margaret of Anjou
The Rise to Power of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk The Wars of the Roses, and the political turmoil that led up to them, involved many notorious political actors. Perhaps one of the… Read More »Jackanapes!
If you were to travel through medieval England, you’d encounter a world very different from our own. Of course, you’d probably expect a more rural landscape and you’d no doubt be keen to see some… Read More »The Landscape of Medieval England
When we think of how people travelled in medieval England, images of nobles in coaches, knights on horseback or perhaps pilgrims on the road to Canterbury might spring to mind. We might also assume that,… Read More »Travel in Medieval England
Henry VI inherited his father’s throne before he was even one year old. For the first 15 years of his reign, government lay in the hands of a council. It was dominated by his three… Read More »The Minority of Henry VI
The Romans finally left Britain in 410 CE, but independence was short lived. Over the next two centuries Britain was overrun by pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders. Perhaps the most important British source for this period is… Read More »Taliesin and the Struggle for C6th Britain
Starting in the C14th, western Europe experienced a cultural revolution we now call the Renaissance. It was a revolution that had been long in the making, building on earlier medieval and classical art, literature, and… Read More »How a Persian King Inspired the Renaissance
The cult of saints and relics was a true medieval European phenomenon. By the High Middle Ages, the number of saints easily outnumbered the number of days in the year. There were patron saints for… Read More »The Antisemitic Cult of William of Norwich
Easter is the most important time of year in the Christian calendar. Whilst our medieval forebears had Easter eggs and hot cross buns, there was no Easter bunny and (even more disappointingly) no chocolate. However,… Read More »Medieval Easter
Early in 1426, a tense, angry Parliament met at Leicester. One of the king’s uncles accused another of his uncles of treason. The atmosphere was tense, violence threatened to erupt at any time. England was… Read More »Parliament of Bats