Historical Sources for King Arthur
Whether or not King Arthur was a real person is an either/or query. He either lived or he didn’t. Many scholars, researchers, and Arthurophile’s have strong opinions on this topic, both for and against. Because of the paucity of written records, much of the academic work has come down on the side of ‘didn’t—or at least if Arthur was a real person, his name was not ‘Arthur’ and he possibly wasn’t even a king. I, however, look at the poetry and tales from the early Middle Ages, and choose to believe he did actually exist. Medieval people certainly thought he did, and throughout the Middle Ages, an entire body of work developed around his story, much of it mythologized. Historically speaking, however, there are genuine near contemporaneous references to him that predate the kinds of stories we read about now, with the Round Read more…
Messenger Pigeons in the Middle Ages
This is kind of quirky thing, but one I ran across and found fascinating. Messenger pigeons have been used since ancient times for communication across long distances. Of course, whatever message has to be written small on a tiny piece of paper or the pigeon couldn’t carry it. Still, they have provided an invaluable service for many thousands of years. “Homing pigeons (Columba livia) can reliably deliver a short message from any location within a roughly 400-mile radius to their home base. Even today, information carried by homing pigeon can still compare favorably in speed and reliability with information carried by Internet.” http://www.helium.com/items/2380155-carrier-pigeons-through-history A great summary is here: “The first known use of pigeons as postal messengers was in ancient Egypt. In 2900 B.C.E. in Egypt, incoming ships released pigeons as an announcement of important visitors. Around the time of Moses, Read more…
The Succession of 1290 (Scotland)
When Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286 by falling off a cliff (which is another whole story–what king dies falling off a cliff when riding from one castle to another alone in the fog? Whatever.), he left Scotland without a king. He had one living grandchild, Margaret, otherwise known as the ‘Maid of Norway’. She was the child of Alexander’s daughter, who’d died at her birth, and Erik, the King of Norway. The succession was already in trouble after King Alexander’s only son died, two years earlier: “When Prince Alexander died on 28 January 1284, leaving only the king’s granddaughter Margaret living out of his descendants, Alexander III summoned all thirteen Earls of Scotland, twenty-four barons and the heads of the three main Gaelic kindreds of the West, Alexander of Argyll, Aonghas Mór of Islay and Alan MacRuari of Garmoran. At Scone on 5 February Read more…
Early Parliament and the Representative Process
It’s impossible to give a truly detailed account of the history of democracy in Great Britain on a blog, but elections and the idea of representation by people over whom monarchs rule dates back to the Middle Ages. From Anglo-Saxon times, the Saxon Kings of England consulted with their high ranking lords on matters of state. This continued after the Norman Conquest in 1066 AD, and continued throughout the Middle Ages. The Magna Carta, signed by King John in 1215, is often held up as a turning point in democracy. It was a document forced upon him by his barons insisting that he listen to their counsel and not act without consulting them: “This feudal document mainly guaranteed certain rights to the barons, who made up most of the landowning elite. But the Magna Carta also established that the king must Read more…
Medieval Help Desk
This is for all you IT nerds out there, my husband included … When e-books are all anyone has in another 100 years, this will be even funnier.
The Kingdoms of Wales
The Kingdoms of Wales, and then Wales as a country, evolved over many hundreds of years. To recap, the Romans left Britain in 410 AD, leaving the ‘Britons’ to fend for themselves against succeeding waves of raiders from the north and east. These includes the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Historians are not in agreement as to exactly how this worked, but the Britons as a culture and society were driven further and further west until they reached their last bastions in Wales. Regardless of the actual timeline, by 800 AD, the Saxons were well established right up to the border of what is now Wales. Offa’s Dyke, an earthen wall built in the 8th century, delineated the border for much of the early Middle Ages. “Offa was King of Mercia from 757 to 796 AD. His kingdom covered the area Read more…
Child Rearing in the Middle Ages
It’s hard to get a handle on what child care was like in the Middle Ages–or what exactly was the prevailing philosophy. Certainly, the ideal childhood of today’s middle class in the US or Europe, did not exist during the Middle Ages. Sources that describe what child rearing was like are all over the map, in terms of the degree of care, love, maternal obligations, and how long childhood lasted. A child’s life was also circumscribed the class into which he was born. Certainly infants were viewed as needing loving and attentive care: “Writing around 1250, Bartholomew the Englishman said that if it is too hot or too cold when a baby comes from the womb into the air, the baby becomes miserable and cries. Following the advice of medical writers, he suggested that to cleanse the infant’s limbs of their Read more…
Celebrating the New Year in medieval Wales
Celebrating the New Year dates back to Babylon, 4000 years ago. The date was celebrated on March 23, which coincides with the Persian, Muslim, and Baha’i New Year at the Spring Solstice. “The Romans continued to observe the new year on March 25, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what was come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days. Read more…
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