Medieval Topics Article Index

The Marvelous Tale of Thomas Becket's Birth. October 12, 2024. “The following beautiful legend has come down to us, of the loves of Gilbert and Matilda,...”

Ultimate Party Girl banished from Oxford, 1443. August 24, 2024. “She was a one woman wrecking crew.”

The Inventory of John Hosear's Humble Life, 1463. August 18, 2024. “These are the goods of John Hosear assigned values by the undersigned men,”

Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Richard II's BFF. July 20, 2024. “Vere had been one of the young nobles knighted by Edward III. on that last St. George’s day of his life,...”

William Marshal Deals Chivalrously with Richard I. July 15, 2024. “In 1189, Henry II Plantagenet spent the Christmas holidays in Saumur,...”

The Dukes of Normandy and the Rise of Mont St. Michel. June 7, 2024. “In 1154 Henry took the English crown back for the Duchy of Normandy.”

Batman upon Barthelme: On Dragons. April 30, 2024. “ The Elephant séeing the Dragon upon a tree, busieth him to break the tree to smite the dragon...”

Read backwards the “Mystery of the Self-Executing Bee” is solved. April 27, 2024. 'Almost no one in the West, during the middle ages,... practiced anything we would today call “science”'

Why the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans and Everybody had Easter Eggs. March 30, 2024. “For all he and others knew about the pagan rites upon which the Catholic were based,...”

The Culinary Mysteries of Dillegrout. January 9, 2024. “The Encyclopedia Metropolitana has tracked down the next steps in the ensuing history of the manor and the dish.”

Some Curious Facts About Mumming. December 3, 2023. “Not only were usurping kings in potential danger from mummers,...”

Raherus: How the King's Jester became a Prior. October 28, 2023. “The Court in which Raherus moved, before he took the cowl, was that of Henry I,...”

A Brief History of the Medieval Fair, October 21, 2023. “The first fairs were formed by the gathering of worshippers and pilgrims about sacred places,...”

Margaret Beaufort as Property. October 9, 2023. “Suitors began bidding for Margaret's hand by the time she was nine years old.”

The Christmas Tradition of the Boy-Bishop. December 2, 2021. “The “m[i]ter for a byshop at Seint Nicholas t[i]de” refers to a charming Christmas tradition at many churches and cathedrals.”

Exploring Medieval and Tudor Stuffing. November 14, 2021. “The recipe gives an excellent description of how the hole to the cavity was closed.”

Making Mincemeat Out of It: Medieval and Tudor Mincemeat Pies. November 1, 2021. “I think it’s fair to say that anyone attempting to find medieval or Tudor recipes for mincemeat has failed.”

Your Goose is Cooked! Medieval and Tudor Goose in a Hotche Pot. October 17, 2021. “Medieval and Tudor cook books are not easy to come by.”

Harvest Home and  Hock Cart: English Harvest Festivals. October 3, 2021. “In England, during the Middle Ages and Early Modern times, it was celebrated whenever the final day of the harvest might fall on a given estate.”

The Feast of St. Michael: English harvest festival and so much more. September 26, 2021. “The Feast of Michaelmas, celebrated on September 29, was like our Thanksgiving in that it celebrated a successful harvest.”

Simnel Cake: Lenten Treat of the Ages. March 7, 2021. “Samuel Pegge sees confirmation that saffron was used in the crusts of simnel cakes in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale…”

Bear-Baiting Histories: William Fitzstephen, Queen Elizabeth… and Who?  May 4, 2020. “The earliest mention of the sport which the various histories are aware is still that of William Fitzstephen in his 1174 Description of the Most Noble City of London.”

On The Twelfth Day of Christmas… January 6, 2020. “The occasion of this great cathedral brawl was the selection of music for Evensong.”

New Year’s Gifts through the Ages.  January 1, 2020.  'The Medieval historian Matthew Paris informs us that Henry III “shamelessly” extended the gift tradition to each of the citizens of London  in 1249.'

Celebrating the Days of Christmas Before the New Year. December 31, 2019. “Even the coronation of Edward IV is said to have been postponed a day rather than be held on Childermas.”

Feasting in the Great Hall on Christmas Day! December 23, 2019.  “Holinshed’s Chronicles inform us that Henry II served it personally to his son, in 1170, when the younger Henry was crowned as his successor. It was the highest and most symbolic of honors.”

Ordering the Medieval and Tudor Household for Christmas. December 18, 2019. “These were special holidays.  The good host was intent to impress, or, at least, not to seem cheap.”

Catering the Medieval and Tudor Christmas Feasts.  December 12, 2019.  “The fees of the Clerks of the Kitchen were calves’ and lambs’ heads and skins…. The Yeoman of the cellar had the wine lees and the empty casks;…”

The Wild Boar from Valhalla to Christmas Kitchen. December 1, 2019. “Those fallen in battle feasted in Valhalla after an heroic death treated to the flesh of the boar Saehrimner.  Saehrimner came back to life each day to serve as the main course for these hoards, having returned from reliving their glorious feats.”

Zombie Apocalypse & Trick-or-Treating: Halloween through History. October 30, 2019. “Among other things of the greatest importance, on Samhain the Undead rose from the abyss to spend a night back in the world of the living.”

Why the Wait for Halloween Seems to Last 7000 Years. October 21, 2019. “The accounts written in the monasteries beginning in the late 7th century are a fascinating resource telling us as much about the scribes as the  purported events they wrote about.”

Get Thee to the Mop.  September 30, 2019.  'The most curious name by far, and the most persistent, it having become the popular name for such fairs, was the “mop fair,” or “the mop” for short.'

Feast of St. Michael, September 29: Beginning of the English Year. September 29, 2019. "Those who have read my “Thousand Years of English  Terms” may recall that the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (a.k.a. “Michaelmas”), on September 29, marked the beginning to the English legal and business year." 

While I attempted forging ties between twin realms. September 3, 2019.  “One of the elegies also seems to support the the time frame by the fact that the poet mentions that Boethius was his mentor. The philosopher Boethius died in 524 CE.”

A Brief Introduction to Poisoning a Nobleman.  August 4, 2019. “As those who read the primary accounts whenever possible know, never were vagaries so vague as in the Middle Ages.”

The Journey from Gaufridus to Shakespeare.  July 22, 2019.  “After the Miracle, Geoffrey’s chambers caught fire and the copes and his books went up in  flames.”

The Best Translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. July 14, 2019.  “What a luxury.  I had hours to put toward Dante.  Hours in which to bathe in his times.”

A Brief History of the Castle Jakes.  July 7, 2019. “The surrounding walls, however, hold secrets of the castle’s Roman origins and it is not clear that it didn’t have a very different plumbing history than any other castle.”

Sleeping in the Jakes: Civilized Life in the Middle Ages.  June 30, 2019.  'But why before the “Third Dormitory”?  And why was  the Third Dormitory built two stories up on stone column-and-arch stilts?'

The Chronic Medieval Affliction of Clipping.  June 23, 2019.  “That weight of silver gave the value to the coin.  It (and the fineness of the metal) was ordered by the king in consultation with parliament and other interested parties.  The details effected every person in the realm.”

Walking Back Margaret Paston’s Famous Letter, Already?  June 9, 2019.  “Vigo’s was the first of an explosion of books about practical dentistry.  The tools of dental surgery were depicted and their operation explained.”

A Thousand Years of English Terms.  June 2, 2019.  ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”.    There was no clock to be o’.  But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’

The Medieval Chimney: Not What You Might Think.  May 19, 2019.  “To find the following in Thomas Hudson Turner’s Account of Domestic Architecture, then, as I was researching other matters, came as a surprise.”

Henry VII of England: the New Concept King.  May 12, 2019.  “Defeating Richard at Bosworth Field, won Henry more than it might have.  Much more.  So much more and so artfully that it raises the question: Did Henry plan to rule as he did from before he even won the throne?”

Henry VII’s Keeper of the Lions, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford.  May 5, 2019.  “The Park, which would seem to have hosted the first porcupine ever to inhabit English soil, was completely enclosed by a wall.”

Henry VII REALLY Loved the Voide.  April 29, 2019.  “The Court indulged as often as an excuse could be offered to do so.”

Margaret Paston’s Famous Letter.  April 22, 2019.  “But the most famous matter in her letters was a small thing.  It arrived to John who was attending to business in London in July of 1461.”

The Earliest Medieval Hodge-Podge Recipes.  April 7, 2019.  “As it turns out, there was likely an earlier recipe in an earlier scroll known as Le viandier de Taillevent.”

History of the Medieval Fork… or Lack Thereof. March 28, 2019. “The Italian and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little forke, when they cut their meate.”

A Medieval Hodge-Podge. March 17, 2019. “The hogge pot had already existed for centuries, however. Many who fail to realize this have given spurious derivations to the name.”

Office of The Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earls of Oxford.  March 10, 2019.  “All offices of the Lord Great Chamberlain, relating to the coronation of Henry IV, were refused to the Earl of Oxford, whose support had been erratic, and given to Thomas Erpingham.”

Dietary Rules for Barnacles: Innocent III to Gordon Ramsey.  March 4, 2019.  “The Barnacle was a marvel of God, a confusion to those in authority in such matters.  Their people turned to them for clarification.”

Giraldus Cambrensis on the Myth of the Barnacle (c. 1188).  March 3, 2019.  “This is what Giraldus says in his ‘Topographia Hiberniae’: There are in this place many birds which are called Bernacae: against nature, nature produces them in a most extraordinary way.

The King's Esnecce as Air Force One.  February 10, 2019.  “Much like the U.S. President’s Air Force One, the vessel had to be available 24/7, whenever sailing orders arrived.  Subpar performance of the esnecce or its crew was unthinkable.”

Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link.  January 29, 2019. “Mr. Sheffeld told me that afore the old Erle of Oxford tyme, that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”

Hedingham Castle Fact Sheet with Virtual Tour Link.  January 20, 2019. “The modern entrance to the keep is on the first floor by way of a stone stair, discharging through the W. wall, where a fore-building used to stand.”

The King's Esnecce.  January 13, 2019.  “It comes as no surprise, then, that when Maud’s son, Henry Plantagenet, Count or Duke of most of the western territories of France, and, by terms of the treaty, heir to Stephen, next rose to the throne as Henry II, he was quick to arrange for the safest possible means of transit across the channel.”

Connections: Henry II, Toulouse, 1159.  November 27, 2018.  “Once he became Chancellor, Becket never looked back.  He abandoned his duties as Archdeacon and preaching duties attached to his other positions.  He outfitted a lavish  household and lived like a secular lord.”

Medieval Scavagers: First, what they were not. November 18, 2018. ‘The fact that the professor quoted Riley — regardless that neither he nor Riley were able to give a single citation to support their claim — began a now venerated commonplace that Medieval “Scavagers” began by collecting the English tax called the “Scavage”.’