A new research paper, Diaspora and identity in the Viking Age, published in the Early Medieval Europe journal by Lesley Abrams looks into the terminology and evidence for a ‘diaspora’ amongst the Vikings in the early medieval period. There are a number of issues involved: Is diaspora an appropriate term – is it friendlier than colonialism [...]

I have been experimenting with some video capture software recently and recorded this brief video of the Battle of Agincourt from Medieval 2 Total War. The game version of the battle is actually pretty accurate. This is the moment when the French cavalry wings charge the English and are defeated quite easily by the English [...]

Some of the top stories and most interesting blog posts on Medieval History and Medieval Historical Fiction in the past week or so: Medieval Bookworm reviews Bernard Cornwell’s Death of Kings Medievalists.net discusses evidence for Scottish Medieval Football – although is this any real surprise? Football was around for a long time in the Middle [...]

I just added another page to this site’s section on England in 1376 – this time looking at the Key Officials of King Edward III’s household. At present I don’t have much information on these individuals – indeed I suspect that for some of them there won’t be much information available, but they may well [...]

I have started a new series of articles about Medieval warfare off in the Medieval (Middle Ages) History and Literature section of the site. It’s a subject which has always fascinated me, and which I think is often misunderstood – we tend to either think of glorious knightly cavalry charges or heroic yeoman archers and [...]

SPOILER ALERT: You’ll need to have read Paul Hoffman’s Left Hand of God to appreciate this, so that’s why I’ve flagged this up as potentially a spoiler. If you’ve read the book you’ll know that nest the end of the book there is a big battle between the Materazzi and the Redeemers. What I found [...]

I blogged about the fantastic Pase Domesday project yesterday, which is an online reference tool to access data about people and places from the Domesday Book. What I should have mentioned as well is what seems to not be available from Pase Domesday, which is all the detail of what customs and fees are owed [...]

We seem to have a Norman theme today! You can now search the Domesday Book online thanks to the PASE Domesday project run by King’s College, London and the University of Cambridge. Here’s a sample output for the town where I grew up (click on the image to see it in detail): You can also [...]

Although George R. R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire series are fantasy fiction, and therefore anything goes, there is no denying that it is set within a fairly strong medieval setting. The Knights, titled Ser rather Sir, ride warhorses, joust with lances, feast in castle halls etc. I think one of the strengths [...]

This looks quite interesting, and the plot is definitely up my street: “14th century crusaders take a woman accused of witchcraft to an abbey where the monks will examine her and determine if her sorcery is the cause of the Black Plague which has decimated Europe.” Video Trailer for Season of the Witch And here: [...]