Daily Medieval

In 1184, Glastonbury Abbey was devastated by a fire in the monastic buildings. A new Lady Chapel was consecrated in 1186, after which progre...

Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset may be the best-known of English abbeys. Originally founded in 712 with the construction of a stone church, it...

Speaking of ailments caused by elves and other supernatural beings, "elf shot" was a concern in the Middle Ages, caused by invisib...

I want to talk about  Wið færstice , an Old English medical text whose title is pronounced (roughly) "with fair-stitch-uh" and mea...

I mentioned previously that St. Æthelwold had a single church dedicated to him in England. It is in Alvingham, in the East Lindsey district ...

Æthelwold, one of the Three English Holy Hierarchs, saintly figures who spurred the revival of monasticism in England, was a truly saintly m...

Æthelwold was born about 910CE to a wealthy Winchester family. He served at the court of King Æthelstan (reigned 924-939), learning as much ...

Of the countless people who lived in the Middle Ages and accomplished things—writing, building, etc.—a very few are remembered by name. One ...

When priests and monks prayed the Canonical Hours, praising God through hymns was considered an important part of the experience. We are for...

Canonical Hours were fixed times during the day for prayers. The Bible was the source for planning multiple times during the day for prayer....

The Bewcastle Cross has what is considered the earliest surviving English sundial. It is actually a "tide dial." The "tide...

The Bewcastle Cross is one of two stone monuments from the same era with similar iconography. Standing 14.5 feet high (it would be higher, b...

In a part of southwest Scotland that used to be in Northumberland stands a stone cross 18 feet high, the Ruthwell Cross, carved with runic i...

The imagery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified is common in religious writings. It even made its way into an Old English poem. The Dr...

Empress Helena of Constantinople went to Palestine from 326-328CE to find Christian relics, consistent with her recent conversion to Christi...

 Helena was a common name for Greek females all over the Mediterranean. One Helena, born to a lower-class family c.246CE, became anything bu...

 The "True Cross" refers to the cross upon which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Although it would have been of ordinary wood, Cl...

 The Horns of Hattin is an extinct volcano whose twin peaks overlook Hattin in the Lower Galilee. In 1187, a battle took place between the f...

 Cardinal Pelagio Galvani (c.1165 - 30 January 1230) was the papal legate leading the Fifth Crusade. He hailed from the Kingdom of León, and...

Were the Crusades successful? If the objective as stated was to put Jerusalem under Christian rule and maintain  that rule, then the Crusade...

Desiring with an ardent desire to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the ungodly, we decree with the advice of prudent men who are ful...

The Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages did not invent persecution of the Jews, but it worked hard to perfect it. The final four of the...

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

Debate during the 4th Lateran Council Despite Peter Lombard's Sententiæ  making the case for marriage not needing an officiant or consum...

Peter Lombard (c.1096 - July 1160) was the Bishop of Paris and the author of Four Books of Sentences  which became the standard theological ...

I mentioned yesterday that, although Richard and Gunnor had several children, when one of them as an adult and Richard tried to make him Arc...

I mentioned that Emma of Normandy's mother was an interesting character. Gunnor (c.950 - c.1031) was a countess of Normandy by virtue of...

Emma of Normandy (c.984 - 6 March 1052) was queen of England, Denmark, and Normandy. As the daughter of Richard the Fearless of Normandy, sh...

In the previous post, I mentioned that a certain name showed up in the Liber Vitae , a title which literally means "Book of Life" ...

So far as medieval records go, we usually have good lists of rulers and church personnel, especially since churches/abbeys are most likely t...

It seems obvious to Westerners that the new year should start on the first of January, which we then named New Year's Day. This is fairl...

I have written about Muslim-Christian relations before ( here and here ). Conflict between the forces of Western European culture and the A...

Recent posts on the Tutbury Hoard led to a discussion about Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who is the likeliest candidate for losing such an ...

This is about Thomas, the 2nd Earl of Lancaster. He was born about 1278 to Edmund Crouchback (the second son of King Henry III). His life...

Some of the pieces from the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard. The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver coins was uncovered in St...

Part of the Tutbury Hoard The sudden acquisition of wealth can change people. When coins started to be found in. the River Dove in 1831...

The coins were found in casks in the River Dove Workers in 1831, while repairing a mill-race on the Dove River, found a chunk of mud-ca...