Daily Medieval

I outlined yesterday the complicated relationship between the Franks under Charlemagne, the Lombards in Italy, and the Byzantine Empire. Th...

The  Opus Caroli regis contra synodum  ("The work of King Charles against the Synod"), also known as  Libri Carolini  ("Charl...

York was founded in 71 CE as Eboracum, a Roman fortress overseeing the north of Britain. We know that York had a Christian community by 314,...

York was an early center of Christianity in Britain, and had its own bishop from at least the 4th century. In 735, Ecgbert of York became it...

Alcuin of York (c.735 - 804, seen here receiving the Abbey of Tours from Emperor Charlemagne) was a monk, scholar, lover of puzzles , teache...

Charlemagne prized learning as much as he prized expanding his realm. He brought scholars and artists together and created a Carolingian Ren...

Charlemagne believed strongly in education for all his children; his daughters learned to read and write as well as his sons. He was also cl...

If Eadburh , wife of Beorhtric of Wessex, was as vindictive as history reports—exiling and executing enemies—what was the catalyst for that ...

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...

Tiffany window of Charlemagne and Alcuin at LaFayette College (1898) Alcuin of York has been mentioned before, primarily in his relat...

Online version of this translation Dhuoda 's Liber manualis (Manual/Handbook) is a unique work by a female author from the 9th cen...

Far from being a complete intellectual vacuum in the years between the decline of Rome and the Renaissance, Europe experienced three distinc...

Machiavelli's Il Principe (c.1513) was far from innovative. Writers since classical times had produced works that explained the proper ...

The simplest form of acrostic is a poem or other writing in which the first letter of each line spells out a word (presumably on that is...

Is there anyone who hasn't heard the puzzle of the fox, the goose, and the bag of corn? A man has to transport these three things across...

In 635 CE, St. Aidan (c.?-651) was sent from the monastery on the island of Iona by King Oswald to re-Christianize England. He chose to foun...