Daily Medieval

After a few years in the papacy, Pope Eugene III  thought there were some issues that needed discussing/ratifying. A letter he wrote to Abbo...

The first case in England of " blood libel " (although more precisely it was only child sacrifice) was the case of William of Norw...

The Angevin Empire begun by King Henry II of England started to crumble after Henry's son and successor, Richard the Lionheart , died i...

The previous post discussed how Stephen of Blois seized the throne of England in 1135 upon the death of King Henry I, despite having sworn ...

Stephen of Blois (c.1096 - 25 October 1154) was a nephew of King Henry I of England. His mother was (Saint) Adela, a daughter of William the...

Hang on, this can get complicated. Here's the backstory: Henry I of England had two legitimate children by his first wife, William and M...

Probably the easiest way to sum up the medieval view of hostages is a line from Adam Costa's Hostages in the Middle Ages : In medieval E...

"Mortgage" is a Late Middle English word from Old French, and literally means "dead pledge"; folk etymology will say the...

Henry II was king of England from 1154 (when he was 21) until his death in 1189. His mother, Matilda, fought to get the throne of England aw...

St. Michael and All Angels, Haselbury Plucknett On 20 February 1154, a fight broke out over a corpse. The corpse "belonged" to...

I mentioned here that, after the Battle of Hastings, another claimant to the throne of England had to flee to Scotland in the face of Wil...

Since we brought up Canterbury yesterday, and arguably its most famous archbishop, let us take a look at his predecessor, who was very much...

Let's sum up: when the White Ship sank , taking the heir of King Henry I with it, he finally settled on Empress Matilda (Henry's ...

Before we conclude our three-part journey through the 20 years of civil war between Stephen of Blois (a usurper whom history calls king) a...

In 1135, upon the death of Henry I of England, his nephew Stephen of Blois (c.1192-1154) assumed the throne. All well and good, except tha...

When the White Ship sank in 1120, drowning King Henry I's son and heir, William Adelin, England was in crisis. Henry decided that his d...

William of Malmesbury tells us of a disastrous event on 25 November 1120: the sinking of the White Ship off the coast of Normandy: Here al...