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Medieval sex was frequently restricted by the Catholic Church in many ways. Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1500. Source: Public Domain

Medieval Sex Rules - How Not to Have a Good Time

These days, sex is everywhere. It's in our books, films, songs, TV shows, and now, even our history articles. Although some countries still impose strict rules upon sex, the fact is most western...
The armor of Henry II, King of France, ca. 1555 AD. This is one of the most elaborate and complete French parade armors. The surfaces are covered by dense foliate scrolls inhabited by human figures and a variety of creatures that derive from the Italian. Weight: 53 lb. 4 oz. (24.20 kg). Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain.

16 Insanely Cool Suits of Armor

We have likely all seen the stereotypical image of a knight in shining armor , but there is more to the world of armory than the steel plate armor we are often exposed to. Armor came in innumerable...
Researchers at the Tomb of David building, examining what they hope is the mark of Adrian von Bubenberg.	Source: IAA

Knight's Graffiti Shows Swiss Links With King David’s Tomb

A charcoal inscription has been identified at the alleged site of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Bearing the emblem of the Swiss family von Bubenberg, the Israel Antiquities Authority...
Eel depicted in a medieval manuscript. Source: Public domain

Eels Were Used to Pay the Rent in the Middle Ages!

Before coinage became common, people in medieval England would pay their rent using an array of everyday items. Amongst these was the remarkably unattractive, and underappreciated, wormlike eel! Few...
A Scold’s Bridle used in Medieval Poland. Source: Fotokon / Adobe Stock

Scold’s Bridles: 12 Torturous and Humiliating Shame Masks of the Middle Ages (In Pics)

There was no end to medieval creativity when it came to torture , punishment and humiliation! The ‘scold’s bridle’ or ‘mask of shame’ was a concept developed in medieval Europe to punish people,...
Did Pope Gregory IV really start a war on cats in the 13th century? Source: SlothAstronaut / Adobe Stock

The Cat-Quisition: Pope Gregory IX Started a War on— Wait for It—Cats

Anyone with a thing against cats may get some satisfaction from a weird history “fact” circulating on the internet. Used as widespread clickbait, a frequently repeated story claims that in the 13th...
Reconstructed face of a medieval woman from the 14th century, who was buried at Whithorn Priory, Galloway, Scotland.	Source: Dr Chris Rynn / University of Dundee

The Medieval Faces of Whithorn Priory’s Cold Case Project Revealed

A three-dimensional likeness of a young woman buried at Galloway, Scotland’s Whithorn Priory, laid to rest at one of Scotland’s earliest Christian sites centuries ago, is about to be revealed. The...
Archaeologists excavating a complicated triple burial at England’s Oakington Cambridgeshire site, which was used in the recent Nature study to determine the true impact of Anglo-Saxon migration on medieval eastern and southern England. Source: Nature

Anglo-Saxon Migration Created a ‘European’ Medieval England

The history of the British Isles is marked by several phases of migration and multiple periods of monumental change, including invasions by the Romans, Vikings and the Normans, and mass migration by...
Medieval alchemists believed they could create a mini artificial human. Source: lidiia / Adobe Stock

Medieval Scientists Tried to Make Little People with Semen, Blood, and an Animal Womb

The question of how to create life does not just go back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, when the eponymous character used forbidden science to create life. Medieval scientists tried for centuries to...
Dyfed Archaeological Trust diggers standing in front of the boxes of artifacts found at what is thought to be the medieval friary site in Haverfordwest, Wales. Source: Dyfed Archaeological Trust

Unexplained Remains of Children Found Near Welsh Medieval Friary Site

A dig to find the location of a 600-year-old medieval friary in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, has resulted in the macabre discovery of countless human remains. So far, nearly 100 skeletons have been...
Image illustrating the divorce by combat rules, from a fencing manual composed in 1459 by Hans Talhoffer. Source: Public Domain

Medieval Divorce by Combat: Guaranteeing ‘til Death do us Part’

Divorce is a subject that has provided endless material for drama and comedy writers through the ages, from Euripides to Shakespeare to today’s New York Times bestseller list. When Kenneth Hodges, a...
A grotesque image of an ogre shooting an arrow into another creature’s rear from the Rutland Psalter, c. 1260. (British Library Royal MS 62925, f. 87v.)

20 Bizarre, Crude and Downright Weird Sketches in Medieval Manuscripts

Many medieval manuscripts are works of art with devotional passages written in careful calligraphy, accompanied by vivid illustrations and ornate, decorative borders. But equally captivating is the...
Folding chair from circa 600 AD grave unearthed in Central Franconia, Germany. Source: Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege

Ancient Folding Chair Found in Bavarian Grave Only Second Such Find Ever

Comfort in the afterlife was apparently a medieval concern. Gravesites can reveal aspects of past cultures and values, and are therefore a rich source for archaeologists and historians. An iron...
Remains of 17 People Were Ashkenazi Jews, Victims of Medieval Antisemitism

Remains of 17 People Were Ashkenazi Jews, Victims of Medieval Antisemitism

Ashkenazi Jews, who migrated into Holy Roman Empire territories around the 1st millennium AD, also settled in parts of England but how they were treated is less understood. Now, genome analysis of...
Medieval alehouses were often a community gathering space.  Source: Eco-Pim studio / Adobe Stock

East Yorkshire Site Yields a Possible Medieval Alehouse or Hostel

At a site in East Yorkshire, an archaeological dig has been in progress for three weeks to uncover the secrets of a medieval village. Now, archaeologists believe they have discovered a centuries-old...
The Medical Alchemist vt. The Uroscopy by Franz Christoph Janneck (1703–1761), (Science History Institute)

Medieval Physicians Used to Taste Patients’ Urine for Diagnosing Medical Conditions

The examination of urine (‘uroscopy’) as a method of medical diagnosis can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, but during the Middle Ages the examination of urine samples by physicians became...
Medieval medicine manuscript with drawings of urine flasks, illustrating the different colors of a patient's urine, with their ailments described alongside, 15th century. Source: © University of Cambridge

Curious Cures: Cambridge to Publish Astonishing Medieval Medical Manuscripts

The Cambridge University Library has just launched an ambitious new initiative that will result in the public release of an extensive collection of manuscripts from medieval times. The Curious Cures...
Augustinian friars found to be full of parasites being excavated by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Source: Cambridge Archaeological Unit

“Night Soil” Riddled Medieval Monks with Unholy-Trinity Of Worms

Archaeologists in England have found medieval holy men were “riddled with worms.” What did they expect to find in a group of people who consumed their own feces? Every once in a while, a group of...
Ceramic vessels recovered from medieval burgher kitchen. Source: František Kolář / National Heritage Institute

Exceptionally Preserved Medieval Kitchen Excavated in Czech Republic

Archaeologists in the Czech Republic recently made an unusual and exciting discovery that dates back many centuries. While digging up a medieval house in the historic center of Nový Jičín in the...
Three different images of the recently discovered souterrain underground tunnel system north-northeast of Dublin, Ireland. The middle image was the discovery of the roof in a cauliflower field. Source: Joe Thompson / Dublin Gazette

Bold Explorer Enters Underground Souterrain Tunnels Exposed By Farmer

An amateur explorer has released a video of himself exploring a hitherto lost underground “souterrain” chamber. But the journey he filmed inside this strange place is not for the claustrophobic among...
Left, King Boleslaw, Right; the sword from the Boleshaw era found in Poland.  Source: Left; CC BY-SA 3.0 / Right; Joanna Klimek-Szymanowicz Wójt Gminy Lewin Kłodzki / The First News

1,000-year-old Polish Boleslaw Sword Reveals Glorious Knighthood Era

A 1,000-year-old “Boleslaw sword” (i.e., from the glorious reign of Boleslaw the Brave; lived 967-1025 AD) dated to the beginning of the 11th century and believed to have belonged to a knight working...
This almost perfect medieval lion pendant found by the HS2 archaeological project. Source: HS2

Royal Medieval Lion Pendant Released To Spur On the Ladies at Wembley

A crowd of almost 88000 filled the stands to watch the finals of the Women’s Euro 22 soccer championship on Sunday, July 31 at Wembley stadium, most cheering madly for the English team. The...
An illustration of a torture horse of the Spanish Donkey or Wooden Horse variety. (Public domain)

The Spanish Donkey: Medieval History’s Most Horrific Torture Method

Throughout history, two things have remained constant. First, the intermingling of cultures has produced countless local variations of original ideas, be it cuisine, or language, or fashion. Second,...
Depiction of a knight vs snail battle from Brunetto Latini's Li Livres dou Tresor from circa 1315 to 1325. Source: British Library

Medieval Manuscripts Are Full of Knights Fighting Snails

The next time you’re looking through an illuminated manuscript, keep an eye out for images of medieval knights fighting off snails. Of all the villains in the world, these may not have been the first...

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