Daily Medieval

The earliest version of the game now called "real tennis" (or court tennis or royal tennis) was jeu de paulme , literally "pa...

Poor Louis X of France! He became king after his father's death, but he did not have an heir. (Well, he did , but she was a daughter, so...

The Avignon Papacy, when the French Pope Clement V decided to move the papal headquarters from Rome to Avignon, was not a simple change in ...

In the early 13th century, Philip II of France fortified Paris with four large guard towers. The Tour de Nesle (the "s" is silent...

In the post on short-lived reigns, I mentioned John I of France, sone of Louis X and Clémence of Hungary, who reigned five days because he ...