Daily Medieval

The Joust was a specific kind of tournament , and was one of the few types of military contests that had to be on horseback and involved on...

Isabella of Gloucester (c.1160/1166 - 1217) was the youngest (surviving) daughter of the 2nd Earl of Gloucester, William FitzRobert, and Haw...

Henry II of England had such a hold over William I of Scotland (after William joined in the rebellion of Henry's sons against their fa...

Prince John (24 December 1166 - 19 October 1216) had been made Lord of Ireland by his father, Henry II, in the 1177 Council of Oxford. He to...

Gerald of Wales (c.1146 - 1223) wrote about Henry II and his sons, giving a different facet to the most prominent figures in England at the ...

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis, c.1146 - 1223) was a priest and a writer of history. That could be the introduction for many of the fo...

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

Last week, a young co-worker expressed his disbelief that there were ever things like outhouses. I told him that I had used an outhouse many...

The Royal Touch was not just for scrofula , nor was it just a simple touch. Epilepsy was another disease that would bring folk to the king ...

Although Geoffrey of York may have seemed like his father's favorite ( despite his illegitimacy ), Henry II's other sons were genero...

A stannary was an administrative division in the counties of Cornwall and Devon based on tin-mining. The term comes from Middle English sta...

Isabella of Angoulême was born c.1186-88, the only daughter of Count Aymer Taillefer of Angoulême. At a very early age she was betrothed to ...

When King Henry II of England was looking for a wife for his younger son John, he was not as interested in pleasing John as he was in making...

John, son of Henry II, having seized the throne of England after Richard the Lionheart's death, and subsequently having lost several pos...

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...

Collections of animals for private amusement or public display have existed for a long time. There is a current trend toward calling them &q...

Blanche of Castile was born on 4 March, 1188, in Palencia in north-central Castile (Spain). Her father was King Alfonso VIII; her mother was...

The border separating England from Scotland almost became a little thicker last week, and this week is the anniversary of its creation, w...

Redvers Coat of Arms William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon, died 10 September 1217; he was born sometime before 1146, (the year his mot...