Daily Medieval

The Council of Vienne (1311-1312; seen here in a painting in 1880 by Paul Lacroix) has been mentioned before, and produced some positive dec...

The Avignon Papacy, when the French Pope Clement V decided to move the papal headquarters from Rome to Avignon, was not a simple change in ...

In the early 13th century, Philip II of France fortified Paris with four large guard towers. The Tour de Nesle (the "s" is silent...

Isabella of France was the only surviving daughter of King Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre, promised to the Prince of Wales (later...

About 60 years before the Peasants' Revolt in England over a poll tax, the lower classes of the Low Countries revolted against taxes. Ro...

Why were two of the compounds for legal training in London named "Inner Temple" and "Middle Temple"? First, let's ex...

In 1307, Philip IV of France arrested several Templar Knights, accusing them of horrible sins. Some of the worst sins took place during a ...

Everyone knows about the Templars, or Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Their avowed goal was to protect travele...

I like to link items in each post to previous posts that offer more info on those items. I have frequently referred to the time when the po...

(This one may meander a little; just hang on.) A few days after William Tell shot the apple from his son's head in 1307, another si...

The growing power and importance of Sicily in the Middle Ages was mentioned here . But the solution they found didn't quite last; co...