Daily Medieval

On 19 December 1154, Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury crowned Henry Curtmantle as King Henry II of England. His wife, the former queen of F...

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster  in 1184 took place when too many German nobles gathered on a second floor of the Petersberg Church at the reque...

The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I had many accomplishments, but establishing the Corpus Juris Civilis ("Body of Civil Law"), oft...

You are Frederick I, offspring of two of Germany's most powerful families. As a young man, you went on Crusade and distinguished yoursel...

Personalities and politics prevent progress. When Barbarossa received letters from the Holy Land asking for help in fighting Muslims, he re...

Born about 1122-23, Frederick (Friedrich) was born in France to the Duke of Swabia. He grew up learning the noble arts of hunting and riding...

Yesterday we discussed the problem of decay when a corpse had to be transported over a long distance. A medieval historian named Boncompagno...

Saint Albert of Jerusalem was born Albert Avogadro in 1149 in Italy. He became one of the Canons Regular (Dominicans) after studying theo...

The Shrine of the Three Kings The Three Kings, or Magi, appear suddenly in the Gospel of Matthew and just as quickly disappear. That pa...

19th century bust of Arnold. For those in the Middle Ages who thought the pope should be solely a spiritual leader and not wield tempor...

Frederick II of Sicily (1194-1250) has crossed the path of this blog more than once, but has not yet been featured. He declared the Edict ...