Daily Medieval

The man who would become known to Western Europe as Saint Blaise was Bishop Vlasi of Sebastea in Armenia. His life was written about 400 yea...

A 9th-century Arab dynasty almost ended the city of Dubrovnik in its infancy. At the time, it was called Ragusa, founded about 615CE by refu...

The modern city of Dubrovnik began as a town called Ragusa , founded by Romans fleeing war. From its start in the 7th century, it developed ...

The oldest apothecary in Europe was founded in Dubrovnik, in southern Dalmatia in Croatia. At the time, it was called Ragusa; to be fair, i...

The Bubonic Plague , also called the "Black Death," first hit the European Middle Ages primarily in 1348-1351, but that wasn't...

The Bubonic Plague's first appearance in medieval Europe from 1348-1351, and it was terrifying. At least one-quarter to one-third of the...

Gentile da Foligno was a physician who learned his art at Padua and Bologna and then became a teacher—quite a wealthy one, as it happens. At...

It started with King Mithridates IV of Pontus (132 - 63 BCE), who was afraid of being poisoned. He wanted to know all about poisons, so he n...

The 1st Duke of Lancaster, Henry Grosmont , the wealthiest and most popular peer of the realm, wrote a book about his sins and the way to he...

Unlike his contemporaries, Henry Grosmont was very forthcoming about his feelings about religion by writing an autobiographical treatise ca...

Henry of Grosmont was a second cousin of King Edward III through their shared ancestry as great-grandsons of Henry III. Henry was the son of...

Pontefract Castle, where Richard II was imprisoned  by his cousin (although for a very short time), had been begun very shortly after Willi...

If Richard II had treated his cousin Henry Bolingbroke a little better, Richard might have stayed king for at least a few more decades. As ...

Edward III of England had several sons. His eldest was also Edward, known as The Black Prince. Another was John of Gaunt . Prince Edward had...

England and France were at war for a long time, and neither side was in great shape in the late 1380s. England had been unsuccessful in seve...

Although the Wonderful Parliament in 1386 tried to curtail the excesses of King Richard II , it was the Merciless Parliament in 1388 that t...

From October to November 1386, the Wonderful Parliament took place in Westminster Abbey . Its initial purpose was to discuss King Richard II...

When King Edward III died on 21 June 1377, ideally his eldest son would have succeeded him. Unfortunately, Edward (called "The Black Pr...

After John of Gaunt died, in 1399, his third wife, Katherine Swynford , lost a lot of status. His health had been declining (he was approac...

The love affair between John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford could hardly be a secret, especially when she started bearing his children wh...

Katherine Swynford (c.1350? - 10 May 1403) was the daughter of a knight from Hainaut. Her father, Paon de Roet (his and Katherine's arms...

John of Gaunt (6 March 1340 - 3 February 1399) was a highly influential man in adulthood. He was the third son of Edward III and Queen Phili...

Was Lollardy popular? Besides for Sir John Oldcastle and John Wycliffe , I mean. Because Lollards believed that baptism and confession wer...

What was Lollardy, and why was it so dangerous or objectionable that Sir John Oldcastle needed to be executed for it in 1414? That Wycliffe...

When Sir John Oldcastle escaped from the Tower of London to avoid execution for the heresy of Lollardy, he fled to Cooling Castle and becam...

Thinking of King Henry V of England often brings to mind the play by Shakespeare and the characters within. Shakespeare probably learned ab...

Henry V (16 September 1386 - 31 August 1422) was King of England from 1413 until his death. For a time, in his youth, he was at Queens Colle...

Where there are royals and people of means, they will endeavor to have the best health care. A physician who had a good track record was wel...