Daily Medieval

It was expected that kings and other nobles would try to gain alliances (and therefore security) by marrying their sons and daughters to imp...

In the later years of their marriage, Eleanor of Aquitaine spent long stretches of time apart from King Henry II. From 1168 until 1173, for...

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

When Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Curtmantle (the future King Henry II of England), the move felt threatening to many people on the c...

With the annulment on 21 March 1152 from King Louis VII of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine was now a target for any unscrupulous noble who t...

King Louis VII of France had a problem. His clever and wealthy wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine , was really getting on his nerves. On the Second ...

The decision of Eleanor of Aquitaine to accompany her husband, King Louis VII of France , on the Second Crusade might have been made thinki...

The Second Crusade was the first to be led by European kings. It was announced by Pope Eugene III , preached widely by Bernard of Clairvaux ...

King Louis VII of France was thrust into the spotlight in his late teens. Intended for the Church, he became his father's successor when...

King Louis VI of France (1120 - 1180) had several children with his second wife, Adélaide of Maurienne. Their eldest, Philip (1116 - 1131) w...

In 1876, in the nave of the chapel of Mont Saint-Michel, a grave was opened to reveal the remains of a former abbot. With the remains was a ...

Richard I of England was not his father. Not only did he rebel against his father and reject support of his father's favorites, but he...

Peter of Blois (c.1130 - c.1211) was well-connected; not through his family, but through people he knew growing up and going to school. One ...

The earliest settlement in Salisbury was Old Sarum, and by "earliest" we mean starting at c.3000BCE. Around 400BCE a hill fort was...

"Courtly love" is the phrase used to describe a set of "rules" expressed in medieval literature about the relationship o...

On his way back from the Third Crusade, King Richard I "Lionheart" of England was captured. He had made many enemies in Europe. Th...

King Henry VI of Germany who survived the Erfurt Latrine Disaster went on to become Holy Roman. Emperor. He was the second son of Holy Roma...

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 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...