Daily Medieval

While Bishop Adhemar was traveling through Slavonia with the First Crusade , he was accosted by a group of Pechenegs. They were described i...

Besides sharing the story of Peter Bartholomew and his finding of the Holy Lance and his subsequent Trial by Ordeal, Raymond of Aguilers ...

One of our sources for the events of the First Crusade was the participant Raymond of Aguilers of Provence. Raymond was a lay canon (a lay p...

So Peter Bartholomew was about to undergo Trial by Ordeal to verify whether he was being honest about his visions and   discovering the Ho...

After the "finding" of the Holy Lance , the Crusaders in Antioch felt emboldened to break the siege around the city by Kerbogha, t...

One of the "side-effects" of the Crusades was allowing Western Europeans to look for artifacts connected to the Bible and the life...

Trial by Ordeal took many forms in the ancient world and the Middle Ages. In a sense, it was an appeal to God to reveal the culprit. In Old ...

The first case in England of " blood libel " (although more precisely it was only child sacrifice) was the case of William of Norw...

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, so let's talk about a terrible Palm Sunday (18 March) event in 1190 in the English town of Bury St. Edmunds. ...

In the second half of the 12th century there was a monk in the town of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk named Jocelyn de Brakelond. He became cha...

Our next example of the accusation of blood libel is Harold of Gloucester. As with similar cases of "child martyrs," the body was...

The death of Hugh of Lincoln led to the arrests of so many Jews because of the belief in "blood libel": that the Jews stole/kidna...

The murder of a child is a particularly heinous act that tugs at the heart strings. In the eyes of society, the murderer of a child must be ...

When Simon de Montfort wanted to kick off the Second Barons War , he needed funding. One of the easiest ways for most medieval Europeans to ...

By the early 1260s, Oxford had become a place where scholars went to teach and learn . Violence was not unknown, as conflicts between studen...

The claim of Balliol College to be the first college at Oxford has been challenged by both University College and Merton College. Balliol w...

John I Balliol (died 25 October 1268) was an English nobleman. He married Dervorguilla of Galloway, whose extensive lands (inherited from he...

(See Parts One and Two ) After rejecting the claims of others, The Great Cause concluded that John Balliol was the most appropriate choice ...

( Part One ) So the 13 claimants for the throne of Scotland came down to the four most likely candidates. The  An t-Adhbhar Mòr  (Scottish G...

After the death of Alexander III of Scotland and his granddaughter, Margaret , the problem of who would rule Scotland rose again in Septemb...

The child Margaret, Maid of Norway , was the only surviving heir of King Alexander III of Scotland. After some contention, she was finally ...

When King Alexander III of Scotland died unexpectedly , the only heir to the throne was his granddaughter in Norway, Margaret. He had named ...

After the death of his first wife, Margaret of England , Alexander III did not marry again for a decade. There was no "need," sin...

The marriage of King Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England did not start out as a happy one.  As the daughter of King Henry III...

Alexander III of Scotland (4 September 1241 - 19 March 1286) wanted to finally bring all of Scotland and surrounding islands into one unifie...

King Alexander II of Scotland had a problem: there were strings of islands off his northern and western coasts that he'd like to think o...

Alexander II came to the throne of Scotland at the age of 16 with two missions in mind: ensure Scotland's unity by subduing attempts by ...