Daily Medieval

Yesterday's post started the discussion of forgeries and mentioned the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Forging documents was an attempt to re-cre...

Severianus and Theodora were members of well-to-do Hispano-Roman families in the 6th century who bore four children, all of whom became sain...

Gregory of Tours mentions, regarding an event in which the body of King Clovis I was exhumed, "Though I did not know who he was, I reco...

Childeric I was presumably a child of Merovech, and the first king of the dynasty called Merovingians. He lived from about 437 until 481 CE....

The Merovingians were the predecessors of the Carolingians (Charlemagne's family) and can be considered the founders of France. I've...

St. Nivard was one of those early medieval saints of whom we know next to nothing. He was archbishop of Reims from before 657 CE until 673. ...

7th c. Asturian Church of Santa Cristina de Lena, Spain This will be a brief introduction to the styles of medieval architecture that e...

A 17th century depiction of Chelles Abbey The 7th century saw a great trend in France and Britain of women entering religious houses. O...

Electrical and Mechanical Engineers have their own patron saint—at least, in the British Army they do. Saint Eligius (or Eloi, or Eloy) was...

Nicknames: so easy to get, so hard to get rid of. When Mayor of the Palace and military genius  Charles Martel presented his 12-year-old s...

Kings cannot run every administrative detail of their household themselves, so they appoint people to do it for them. Chamberlain, senescha...

What do you do when a dynasty seems to become useless? You name them Le Rois fainéants (The do-nothing Kings). The Merovingians are the...

Chilperic I speaking to Bishop Gregory Georgius Florentius (539-593) was born into a distinguished Gallo-Roman family in Arverni in s...