Daily Medieval

Modern ideas of race and racism are largely based on skin color, but the Middle Ages saw many other factors. To quote ( again ) Regino of Pr...

So King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan was camped at Acre, ready to besiege the city and take control of it as a base for future conflict aga...

Gerard de Ridefort (that's his coat of arms to the left) is another of the many characters who has no known background recorded anywhere...

Founded originally to care for the sick and poor in Jerusalem, there were new statutes for the Hospitallers in March 1182 under the leaders...

In the 12th century, while the kingdoms established in the Holy Land by Western Europeans were struggling to maintain themselves against the...

So Heraclius of Jerusalem set off for Europe to find support for the Latin kingdoms in the Holy Land and perhaps a husband for Queen Sibyll...

In 1173 King of Jerusalem Amalric I tried to make an alliance with the Order of Assassins . They were a sect of Shi'ite Islam whose goa...

On the morning of 29 June 1170, the inhabitants of what are now western Syria, central southern Turkey, and Lebanon were rocked by one of th...

January 1169 saw the death of Bertrand of Blancfort, the master of the Templars . Bertrand was not as keen on invading Egypt as was Amalric...

After his atypical election  in December 1124, Pope Honorius II got to work clashing with Holy Roman Emperor Henry V over Henry's claim ...

Four times between 1258 and 1381, the rivalry between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice reached a tipping point that turned into m...

Ghazan Khan (1271 - 1304) was not the first Mongol leader to communicate with Christians, but he set about to firm up an alliance to deal wi...

In researching the life of Lambert of Saint-Omer , I realized that the town after which he was named had some interesting history. The town ...

After the death of Templar Grand Master  Bertrand de Blanchefort , King Amalric I of Jerusalem saw a chance to help himself out. Bertrand ha...

Formed about 1120 by Hugues de Payens and eight others—including André de Montbard, the uncle of St. Bernard of Clairvaux —the Poor Fellow-S...

After Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a long statement endorsing the new order at the request of his uncle André de Montbard , the Knights Temp...

When André de Montbard's new order of monks/knights intended to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land was suffering due to lack of donation...

James I of Aragon  (2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was used by his father as a political tool. He was the only child of Peter II of Aragon ...

Although Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was confirmed to have leprosy, he was still the only viable candidate to succeed his father, Amalric, as K...

When the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, they took over the Dome of the Rock, a temple built on the site where tradition said God created...