Tag Archives: History

Any Given Sunday in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #9b)

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As discussed in the previous post on the medieval Church, church life in the Middle Ages was life.

The services it provided contributed to every key turning point in people’s existence.  According to John R.H. Moorman, author of Church Life in the Thirteenth Century,

It gave first, the regular worship of the Church on Sundays and weekdays.  It gave also the opportunities of Christian baptism, matrimony and burial, together with a little teaching and some spiritual direction mainly administered in the confessional.  Further, it offered to the sick and the dying spiritual comfort and perhaps, in some places, medical help as well. (p. 151)

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(Church) Life in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #9a)

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In the medieval world, the influence of the Church was ubiquitous.

The average modern inhabitant of the western world, even a religious one, might struggle to conceive of how much this was the case.

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War and Peace (and War and Peace) in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #8c)

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If there’s one aspect of medieval knights that tends to be grossly exaggerated in mainstream media, it’s the amount of time they spent in open warfare.

To begin with, as previously discussed in my post on the feudal system, a “knight’s fee”—that is, the assorted obligations a vassal owed his lord in exchange for the land he lived upon—was both passive and active in nature.

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Chivalry Was Already Dying in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #8b)

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Few aspects of medieval history capture the imagination quite like the medieval knight.

The chivalric ideal

At the same time, few aspects of 13th century medieval history are as grossly misrepresented in mainstream entertainment as the medieval knight.

My previous post about knights in the Middle Ages touched on how the process of becoming a knight involved training in manners, music, and poetry when a young boy was a page, and sacred vigil and dedication of his sword when a squire was elevated to knighthood.

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Living the Knight Life in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #8a)

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Few aspects of medieval history capture the imagination quite like the medieval knight.

In many ways, it is the knight who seems to embody the spirit of the Middle Ages.

With his horse and sword, his armour, and the perception that he fought with honour and for good, the knight seems to harken back to a simpler time of when the forces of evil had a singular face and could be vanquished with a noble heart and a strong forearm.

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A (Holi)day in the Life in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #7)

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The medieval year during the 13th century in England was noticeably different than in modern life.

To begin with, the four seasons – marked in accordance with the medieval agricultural calendar – were observed at different times of the year than we recognize then today.

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It’s Greek to Me: Five Surprising Facts I’ve Learned So Far Researching the Ancient World

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Ancient Greek men at a symposium (being entertained by a female musician) (painted mixing bowl, c. 420 BC)

It took me two whole years, which is at least a year and a half too long.

Ever since I decided my next writing project would be my first (incomplete, shelved) novel – a fantasy – rewritten as historical fiction and set in Ancient Greece, I knew I had to seriously beef up my knowledge of that period in history.

In many ways, this would be me starting from ground zero in my research.

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For the (Carnal, Courtly, and Hypocritical) Love of Books

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Books I’ve stolen borrowed from others (and haven’t even read yet)

I almost never lend people books.  But I have no problem borrowing those that belong to others.

I fully acknowledge the hypocrisy, and perhaps even level of selfishness, that applies to this policy of mine.

I’m not even a particularly good borrower of other people’s books.  Or rather, good returner of them, I should say.

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Medieval (Forest) Law & Order (Medieval Mondays #6e)

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No examination of medieval hunting would be complete without a more thorough discussion of forest law.

1225 reissue of England’s 1217 Charter of the Forest

To say nothing for the corresponding legend – one that lives on to this day – that grew up surrounding it.

As mentioned in my first post about medieval hunting, forest law stipulated such matters as who was permitted to hunt what and when, what the punishment for poachers would be, and even how many talons were permitted on dogs that lived in households and villages within a royal forest.

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All the Bells and Jesses: Falconry in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #6d)

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In the medieval times, hunting with dogs was the most typical form of the sport.

It wasn’t, however, the only way to bring down prey – or even the most popular one, particularly among the noble class.

Neither were deer and boar – which were restricted to all but the king and his favourites – foxes, hares, squirrels, and other beasts of the warren the only quarry that was hunted during the Middle Ages.

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