Daily Medieval

When Henry II died, his eldest son living was Geoffrey. Geoffrey was not in a position to ascend to the throne, however, because he was ille...

It was perfectly acceptable in the Middle Ages for kings to father children outside of wedlock. Although these illegitimate children were un...

Henry II had conflicts with the Scotland, with Ireland, with Wales, with France, but the most difficult conflicts may have been with his fam...

The martyrdom and subsequent popularity of Thomas Becket  inspired several legends, which is not unusual. Since pilgrimages were popular i...

It's a rare medieval post that starts with a Star Wars reference, but here it is (spoilers!): when Obi Wan confronts Darth Vader, he war...

Thomas Becket rose from decent middle-class origins to the highest non-royal position in England. As Archbishop of Canterbury, however, hi...

When King Henry II of England saw his good friend and loyal Lord Chancellor become Archbishop of Canterbury, he assumed he had an ideal oppo...

Thomas Becket is a name already familiar to many, but I am going to talk about him anyway. It is popular to think of Becket as having 'h...

The term "chancellor" has appeared over two dozen times throughout this blog, but the position—and its changing rôle over time—has...

Simon of Sudbury, or just Simon Sudbury, was one of those people who shows up here and there, for instance during the Peasants' Revolt w...

The dog pictured here is the Talbot Dog or Talbot Hound.  The Talbot was a hunting dog popular in the Middle Ages. I saw was  because the br...

The picture in this post shows the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury presenting a book to Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI. The earl, John Tal...

Why was the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (pictured to the left on his knees and mentioned here ) the second  1st Earl of Shrewsbury? That is becau...

The image to the left shows Alton Towers in 1880, designed by Augustus Pugin , near the town of Alton in Staffordshire (not the Alton where ...

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852) was an architect who designed the tower the houses Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the interio...

Sometime during the Bronze Age, as human beings were experimenting with different metal ores, someone tried mixing the abundant-but-brittle ...

Tin is a relatively rare metal, found in two parts per million (as opposed to copper's 70 parts per million and the abundant iron at 50,...

A stannary was an administrative division in the counties of Cornwall and Devon based on tin-mining. The term comes from Middle English sta...

Isabella of Angoulême was born c.1186-88, the only daughter of Count Aymer Taillefer of Angoulême. At a very early age she was betrothed to ...

When King Henry II of England was looking for a wife for his younger son John, he was not as interested in pleasing John as he was in making...

John, son of Henry II, having seized the throne of England after Richard the Lionheart's death, and subsequently having lost several pos...

The Angevin Empire begun by King Henry II of England started to crumble after Henry's son and successor, Richard the Lionheart , died i...

When King Stephen I of England died in 1154, the terms of the Treaty of Wallingford meant his rival's son would inherit the throne. Hen...

The previous post discussed how Stephen of Blois seized the throne of England in 1135 upon the death of King Henry I, despite having sworn ...

Stephen of Blois (c.1096 - 25 October 1154) was a nephew of King Henry I of England. His mother was (Saint) Adela, a daughter of William the...

Hang on, this can get complicated. Here's the backstory: Henry I of England had two legitimate children by his first wife, William and M...

After the death of his first wife, Matilda of Scotland, King Henry I of England needed a second wife. Well, mostly he needed an heir, becaus...

The first royal wedding too take place at Windsor Castle was that of King Henry I and Adeliza of Louvain.  Henry (c.1068 - 1135) was a young...