Daily Medieval

Some women in the Middle Ages became pawns as wives to powerful men. Some women had power in their own right and wielded it despite oppositi...

When William the Conqueror died, he had already made his wishes clear about the division of his lands. His older son, Robert Curthose , bec...

The first marriage of James I of Aragon was to Eleanor of Castile. She was the daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of Engl...

Theodore of Tarsus likely never thought that a Greek who in his youth had to flee Persian and Muslim invasions would one day wind up Archbis...

King Louis VII of France had a problem. His clever and wealthy wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine , was really getting on his nerves. On the Second ...

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

King Alfonso IX of León (1171 - 1230) may be noted for calling the Three Estates together to advise him—the first such gathering in Western...

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

The word "consanguinity" comes from Latin consanguinitas ["blood relation"], and refers to having a close kinship with s...