Random post of the week – who are my top 5 people from the Middle Ages – real historical medieval people, not characters from any of my stories that is! Frederick II Hohenstaufen – not quite the Renaissance prince that earlier historians such as Kantowicz would like to think, but even so still quite amazing [...]

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 [...]

The historical PC game experts Paradox Interactive seem to have a new game featuring the War of the Roses coming out. The video below was uploaded in August, but there doesn’t seem to be any news on a release date. If it’s historically accurate, which some of Paradox’s games are, then it could be very [...]

As the world economy appears to collapse around our ears perhaps it would be well to think about some of the historic events that have lead us here. I am blaming war. In the Middle Ages the high cost of warfare created the need for the first time to tax a realms subjects on a [...]

Do you like it? I had been having my doubts about the original cover for Chivalry – the Lady of Shallot Pre-Raphaelite picture – I thought it perhaps conveyed the mystery of the female antagonist in the story, but it didn’t convey the tone of the story, which is all about the gritty awfulness of [...]

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 [...]

Zio the Hero by Marc Grimston I came across this medieval adventure story for children over Twitter. It’s by a UK author and seems to be doing very well. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’m planning to soon. I would recommend that you take a look at the video – [...]

I have been reading The Scourging Angel by Benedict Gummer, which is an account of the Black Death in Britain. The books is well worth a look if you are interested in this period of history during the Middle Ages. One thing I came across that I didn’t know is what happened to Jewish populations [...]

At University I studied Medieval History, Language and Literature, which I loved, and I guess it has influenced some of my interests later in life! I went on to do a Masters in Medieval Literature, choosing The Court in English Alliterative Poetry, 1350-1450 as my thesis topic. Why did I choose this subject and what [...]

Chivalry in Medieval England by Nigel Saul Hardcover: 440 pages Publisher: Harvard University Press (15 Oct 2011) Language English ISBN-10: 0674063686 ISBN-13: 978-0674063686 I think this is a new title! It’s not always easy to tell after all – for instance there seems to be another title by Nigel Saul The Age of Chivalry, but this is only 144 pages, [...]