Daily Medieval

The early history of the founding of religious buildings goes hand-in-hand with visions and miracles, such as the August snowfall in Rome ...

Benedict holding his Rule; you can see the raven that saved him from poisoned bread. In the discussion of time I mentioned Benedict of ...

William , Duke of Normandy, who won the Battle of Hastings and conquered England, has been brought up many times in this blog. He ruled f...

Art over the door of the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica I said on Monday that Pope Liberius was usually known for one thing—his part in t...

The week, as you can imagine, is very hectic around the world for many people, and I am no exception. In  lieu of a regular post, here is a ...

Way back here we mentioned Pope Liberius, sent into exile by Constantius II because he wouldn't censure St. Athanasius for condemning...

A medieval marriage, from a British Library ms. The Christian churches that have survived until the modern era (Roman Catholicism, Easte...

Władysław the Elbow-high was honored with a 500-Złotych gold coin in 2013 You may remember the story of the Carolingian king Pepin the S...

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) has been discussed here before , and many know her as a nun and composer of devotional music. Her compos...

Page from Chapter CXXIII Everyone is familiar with the story of Marco Polo , who traveled to the Far East, had amazing adventures, and r...

A brilliant scholar and fervent theologian/philosopher did such a good job at achieving his aims that the Church realized they had to supp...

(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 climax of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 On the heels of the recent news article about how victims of the Bubonic Plague still exi...

After the first catastrophic outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in 1348-50, Europe continued to suffer about every decade. The Plague returned...

[ source ] This blog has mentioned before that St. Boniface called for help from women as well as men when he attempted to christianize...

Today is an important day in Sweden : Anna's Day, celebrating all people named Anna. It is also the traditional day to start preparati...

Syrian Astrolabe Yesterday I mentioned that Omar Khayyam spent some of his time working on calendar reform. This was not the same calen...

First page of " Cubic equation and intersection of conic sections" A book of verses underneath the bough A flask of wine, ...

Nithard, as Abbot of St. Riquier Charlemagne, looking around for suitable political marriages, chose a likely source of a bride for his ...

Abbot Angilbert (c.760 - 18 February 814)was mentioned as Charlemagne's envoy to Pope Leo III here, but there is much more to his story...

Charlemagne is no stranger in this blog, and most people learned in school of his Christmas Day coronation . The truth is, as I mentioned ...

There are several collections of medieval recipes in existence, both in printed form and online; this blog has referenced them before. A n...

In a document of 1051, the former Queen of Poland, Richeza, grants to her nephew, the palatine count Henry I, the possession of Cochem Cas...

The Middle Ages loved stories about saints finding God. Here is one of them, that was repeated through the centuries: Many inhabitants o...

I mentioned here that, after the Battle of Hastings, another claimant to the throne of England had to flee to Scotland in the face of Wil...

Clement being thrown into the sea, by Bernardino Fungal of Siena (1460-1516) If Clement truly was the second pope, following Peter (the...

When we think of the Viking invasions of England, we usually think of the destruction of villages and people's lives. This is understa...

Deer park at Kentchurch Court, UK A royal prerogative in many eras and cultures was to be able to hunt where and when the ruler wished. ...

Orderic Vitalis (1075-c.1142) has been mentioned here and here for his history writing. The 13 books of his Historia ecclesiastica [...