If you take a good look around a medieval church today, you’ll see a variety of different images. You might see carvings of saints and other obviously Christian symbols. However, you might also see images… Read More »The Green Man – History and Origins
At the end of May 1444, representatives of England and France signed the Treaty of Tours. Initially it was heralded as great triumph for peace. However, as the details became more widely known, a great… Read More »The Treaty of Tours – Peace in Our Time 1444
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
When we think of Norse mythology, we immediately think of such names as Odin, Thor, Loki, Asgard, Yggdrasil, and Ragnarök. Most of us know something of these stories, even if it’s only what we may… Read More »The Father of Norse Mythology
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