Daily Medieval

When Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066, he supposedly made a deathbed statement committing his kingdom into the care of Harold God...

In 1051, when King Edward the Confessor was inviting more friendly Normans to join him in England, Duke William of Normandy visited. Accord...

Godwin, Earl of Wessex (c.1001 - 15 April 1053) had played his cards carefully, supporting whomever was in power. Although English, he rose ...

Robert of Jumièges was Norman French, abbot of Jumièges Abbey. In the 1030s, Edward the Confessor was living in exile in Normandy, which is...

Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, was a powerful landowner during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042 - 1066), and Edward was wary of him. Ed...

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, was very powerful in the England of the 11th century, and he was able to procure good positions for his family. His ...

When Edward the Confessor came to the throne in 1042, he was not in a good position. The country had swayed back and forth between English a...

In 1037, Harold Harefoot was declared king in England. The next year he expelled Emma of Normandy , mother of his half-brother Harthacnut wh...

Magnus Olafsson became king of Norway at the age of 11. He originally talked about getting revenge on those who were his father's enemie...

The Cinque Ports were, initially, five port towns on the southeast coast of England. Over the centuries, the rights and privileges granted ...

Anglo-Saxon England called it "devil-sickness" and felt that lupins were an effective treatment, and they might have been right . ...

...are the hands of a healer." This line from The Lord of the Rings  sounds fantastical, but as a first-rate historian and medievalist,...

In the absence of historical photographs, I give you Lego Stamford Bridge ! In the competition for the throne resulting from the death ...

Window at Cathedral of St. Michael in Veszprém, Hungary, where Gisela is buried Gisela (985 - 1065) was mentioned as the wife of King (...

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...

Edgar and his sister, St. Margaret, landing at Wearmouth after their ship was blown off course Yesterday was the anniversary of the Ba...

I started this here with the origins of what we now call " Westminster Abbey ." A major rebuilding campaign began about 1245 by...

When Leofric , Earl of Mercia, died in 1057, his estate of Kingsbury passed to his widow, the Countess Godgifu, better known to later genera...

Remember Edward the Confessor ? He may have had good qualities, but getting along with family was not one of them. Not only was he harsh to...

In 1051, when King Edward the Confessor was inviting more friendly Normans to join him in England, Duke William of Normandy visited. Accord...