In a recent article dedicated to the Ninth Crusade, we explained that the English prince and future king Edward I landed in Acre in the spring of 1271, ready to confront the Egyptian Mamluks under Sultan Baibars. His army was too small to prevail on its own, but he had an exotic ally with whom […]
Middle Ages
Posted inMiddle Ages
The Pope Who Bore the Name of a Roman God and Changed It Upon Election, Beginning a Tradition
Rome, year 533 AD. The Eternal City, once the capital of the Empire, now under Ostrogothic rule, prepares to receive a new pontiff. But this will not be just any pope—he will go down in history as the first bishop of Rome to change his name upon ascending the throne of Saint Peter. His election […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
The End of the Crusades: The Failure of the Last Christian Kingdoms in the Holy Land
On June 16, 1272, the city of Acre awoke to shocking news that quickly spread by word of mouth: that night, there had been an assassination attempt on Lord Edward, son of the English king Henry III, who was in the Near East leading a crusade. A hitman—perhaps a member of the Nizari or Hashashin […]
Posted inMiddle Ages, Science
Many Medieval Manuscripts Found to Be Bound in Seal Skins from the Arctic
An interdisciplinary team of researchers has documented the widespread use of seal skins in Romanesque bookbindings of manuscripts produced between the 12th and 13th centuries in Cistercian monasteries in France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. The study, led by Élodie Lévêque and published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, combines archaeology, protein analysis, and […]
Posted inMiddle Ages, Science
Robert Grosseteste, the English Bishop and Philosopher Who Conceived a Precursor to the Big Bang Theory in the Middle Ages
Legend has it, as recounted by the English Benedictine monk Matthew of Paris, that the energetic Pope Innocent IV died of a heart attack triggered by the terrifying nocturnal vision of a ghost. It was the spirit of Robert Grosseteste, a British Franciscan who had died a year earlier, serving as Bishop of Lincoln, whose […]
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Olga, the Vengeful Widow Who Became the First Woman to Rule Kievan Rus and Convert to Christianity
It was the mid-10th century AD when Kievan Rus was ruled for the first time by a woman, appointed as regent on behalf of her three-year-old son. She was the one who defeated the Drevlians, a Slavic tribe that had brutally killed her husband, Prince Igor, thus avenging his memory and conquering their territory. She […]
Posted inCulture, Middle Ages
Intriguing Details Revealed About the Mysterious Medieval Manuscript Containing the Only Surviving Version of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Two years ago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) literature professor Arthur Bahr experienced one of the most memorable moments of his academic career. At the British Library, he had the privilege of examining firsthand the Pearl manuscript, a unique medieval volume dating back to the 14th century that preserves the only known copies of four […]
Posted inHistory, Middle Ages
The Fascinating History of Castel dell’Ovo, the Fortress Where the Last Roman Emperor Retired
As much as Julius Nepos refused to recognize his legitimacy and continued to hold the title in parallel until his death in 475 AD, history considers the last Western Roman emperor to be Romulus Augustulus, who was deposed ten months later by the Herulian chieftain Odoacer. Odoacer allowed him to retire to a fortress located […]
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The Tower of Nesle: The Medieval Scandal That Led to the Revival of the Salic Law, Barring Women from the Throne
Alexandre Dumas, the renowned author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, lived a life nearly as eventful as his characters. Among other things, he fought several duels, both with swords and pistols, one of them against the writer Frédéric Gallardet, who accused him—rightly—of having appropriated his theatrical drama The Tower of […]
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Bakt, the Longest-Lasting Treaty in History, Was in Effect for Seven Centuries
Since the dawn of civilizations—and perhaps even earlier—humanity has had no choice but to reach agreements with its neighbors in order to live in peace. In this sense, the longest-lasting treaty known in history was the one signed between the Muslim rulers of Egypt and the Christian kingdom of Makuria, which was located in what […]
