Daily Medieval

Baldwin II, Count of Edessa, and Morphia of Melitene had four daughters. When it seemed likely that a son was not going to happen, Baldwin n...

When Thierry of Alsace, the Count of Flanders, made his third pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1157, he took his wife, Sibylla of Anjou . They...

When Fulk V of Anjou married his daughter Sibylla (c. 1112 – 1165) to William Clito , a grandson of William the Conqueror, it seemed like a ...

So King Henry I of England managed to get the marriage of William Clito and Sibylla of Anjou annulled in 1124 through the help of Pope Cali...

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

When Pope Honorius II wanted to resolve a dispute in England between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, he sent Giovanni of Crema as h...

Bernard of Clairvaux was concerned (as just about everyone for several centuries) about the relationship between religious and secular autho...

After making a deal with Roger II of Sicily , Pope Honorius II turned his attention back to focusing on monasteries he felt were too powerf...

On July 1127, William II, Duke of Apulia, died without an heir, and Roger II of Sicily (pictured) raced to the peninsula to take control of ...

Pope Honorius II (pictured) was aggressive about doing what he felt was right for the Church, which sometimes meant taking to task religious...

After his atypical election  in December 1124, Pope Honorius II got to work clashing with Holy Roman Emperor Henry V over Henry's claim ...

Lamberto Scannabecchi was born on 9 February 1060 in a rural community. He entered the priesthood and became the archdeacon of Bologna. He g...

Arguably one of the longest names for a Holy Order, the name comes from The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, called so because the Orde...

In the Czech Republic is the town of Milevsko, first mentioned in records in 1184, placed at the intersection of two important trade routes....

The Catholic Encyclopedia says "The question has long been debated whether Christ was crucified with three or with four nails." [ ...

The "Arms of Christ" refers to the collection of items that are linked to Jesus, relics that exist all over the world and are pres...

In 600 CE, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a 4th-century church in Jerusalem supposedly bui...

Seeking aid against the fear of a complete Ottoman takeover of the Byzantine Empire (currently a vassal state under Turkish Emperor Bayezid...

Manuel II Paleologos was the son of the beleaguered John V Paleologos . At that point in time, the Byzantine Empire was a vassal state of th...

One of the oldest monasteries in the Peloponnese, the Agia Lavra  (Greek: literally "Holy Monastery") was built in 961. It is on C...

Alexius was a 4th-century son of a wealthy family who married well and had riches, but right after his wedding decided he wanted to give awa...

Yesterday I talked about the end of Crescentius II at the hands of Otto III, because he caused too much trouble in Rome even after having b...

After Otto III's coronation , he and Pope Gregory V (his cousin Bruno) summoned all the Roman nobility who had created such difficulties...

The latest scion of the Crescentius family was lording it over Rome and dominating the pope, John XV, who had been forced to flee Rome. Otto...

After the death of his mother, Holy Roman Empress Theophanu , the responsibility for the regency of Otto III (still only 11 years old) passe...

  We are continuing from here , after a detour through the Great Gandersheim Conflict . Otto was only a few years old in 983 when he became ...

The Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Hildesheim each wanted jurisdiction over the wealthy Gandersheim Abbey . This conflict reached a p...

A significant controversy during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III while he was still under the regency of his mother, Theophanu , wa...

Otto III (980 - 23 January 1002) became King of Germany at the age of three on the death of his father, Otto II. He was in line to be Holy R...