Arguably, without his wife Matilda’s financial backing, powerful family ties and queenly skills, William may never have achieved any of his lofty ambitions.
Articles on Medieval England
Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 articles
Chaucer and Shakespeare lived through periods of weird weather not unlike what we are seeing today. So what can we learn from their writing?
Challenging word-based games are not a modern invention. In early medieval England there was a strong appetite for word puzzles.
Dubbed Yorkshire’s Atlantis, Ravenser Odd has been largely forgotten, despite its importance in the 13th century. That’s because it was swallowed by the sea.
Jewish communities still use liturgical poems written by the French rabbi known for having taught in York in the 12th century.
Many people gathered and slept in a shared warm space in medieval times.
Dragons have been used for political manoeuvring throughout the history of Britain.
The objects buried with people provide important clues about their lives.
Today most societies take the A.D. time system for granted. That wasn’t always the case.
The English paid a high price for medieval fashion: in bunions and broken bones.
Plague-wary Londoners tolerated mischievous red kites and ravens for their services to the city’s sanitation.
With the plague decimating the ranks of laborers, surviving workers started pining for higher wages. When the monarchy responded by enacting taxes and restrictive labor laws, the peasants rebelled.
Yet again sexism rears its ugly head in this portrayal, from Arthurian legend, of a much maligned woman.
From Scarecrow to Scabby William, what can medieval names tell historians today?
Monarchs and prime ministers have spent centuries working out which decisions need to be made in public.
The panic about British children reaching puberty younger is unwarranted. Medieval skeletons provide a different answer.
The anxiety that young people are messing things up goes back centuries.
Religious and secular festivals followed the rhythm of the seasons to provide a balance between work, prayer and leisure for medieval Britons.
Historic heroes like King Arthur have helped audiences through the ages to cope with troubling times.
Mysterious lumps found at the bottom of a 7th-century burial ship have turned out to be bitumen from the Middle East. But how did they get there?
Top contributors
-
Professor of Medieval Literature and English Literature, Bangor University
-
Lecturer in Organic Geochemistry, University of Aberdeen
-
Professor of English, University of Liverpool
-
Professor of Literature and Environment, University of Hull
-
Associate Professor of English, University of California, Irvine
-
Associate Professor in Bioarchaeoloy, University of Reading
-
Associate Professor of History, Keene State College
-
Research Fellow in History, University of York
-
Senior Research Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
-
Assistant Professor in Anatomical Sciences, University of Cambridge
-
Lecturer in Later Medieval British and European History, Lancaster University
-
Professor of Human Bioarchaeology, University of Staffordshire
-
Professor in High Medieval History, Durham University
-
Lecturer in Energy and Environment, University of Hull
-
Associate Lecturer in Arts and Humanities, The Open University