Tag: Medieval History
-
Royal People: Jacqueline of Hainault, pawn or political player?
I recently received a request for some Dutch history, and I am always happy to oblige. In all honesty, I know fairly little about Dutch history on its own, with most of what I do know being how the country was used by the French, English, and Spanish for their own gains. One person who…
-
Feeble or Fierce? Colonial Women of North America
You may or may not be aware of the recent article in The Guardian reviewing the new historical television drama, Jamestown. This article has garnered a lot of criticism in the historical world, and for good reason. If you don’t want to read the article, then the main summary points are this: Now, after I…
-
Vikings and America: The People who beat Columbus
If you asked the average person on the street who “discovered” America (we’ll put aside the racist and Eurocentric issues this raises for another time) most people would probably tell you it was Christopher Columbus. In 1492, Columbus undertook his first voyage Westwards, under the theory that he would reach Asia – contrary to popular…
-
Mythical Creatures: Medieval Elves
It is a fairly common belief that the legend of elves was created by JRR Tolkien amongst other now popular mythical creatures that he created. However, Tolkien simply popularised the creatures, and legends of elves have existed for centuries as a distinct legend from fairies (although the two legends often get conflated). The English word…
-
Royal People: Queen Joan of Navarre’s Confinement as a Witch
As my blog has been up and running for just over 6 months now, I thought I would return to the topic of my Masters dissertation: fifteenth-century English royal witches. My first post here was about Eleanor Cobham, the aunt-by-marriage of Henry VI who in 1441 was scandalously tried for using witchcraft, with her accomplices…
-
Magic and Robots: Medieval Automatons
When people think of the medieval or early modern period, often it conjures images of the witch trials across the western world. These people are considered a superstitious bunch, deeply religious, and very suspicious of magic. Whilst there is of course substance to some of these ideas (and I have already discussed one case of…
-
The Biggest Party Ever? The Field of the Cloth of Gold
In 1509, Henry VIII – one of England’s most famous monarchs – ascended the throne, ensuring the Tudor succession after his father, Henry VII, won the throne from Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. After almost a decade of rule, the young King agreed to follow the advice of his close advisor, Cardinal Wolsey,…
-
Mythical Creatures: Medieval Mermaids
Mermaids are creatures that appear time and again throughout history and across cultures. Typically a mermaid is portrayed as having the top half of a woman, and the bottom half of a fish, though this sometimes varies slightly. The first known stories of mermaids come from Assyria around 1000BC; the goddess Atargatis, who was the…
-
World Book Day: Millennia of Firsts – a Brief History of the Book
As many of you may know, today – March 2nd – is World Book Day. Typically this is a day mostly celebrated by school children, often as an excuse to dress up as favourite book characters. As such, I decided that today’s blog post should be dedicated in its honour. Due to the nature of…
-
How Medieval Medicine is Helping us Today
Today, many people have very staunchly held beliefs on medicine and cures for all sorts of ailments. Some people rigidly champion ‘western’ medicine, only believing in the effectiveness of drugs prescribed by doctors, usually in the form of man-made pills. Others go for the ‘alternative’ medicine route, preferring to use natural products in the form…
Just History Posts 