Medieval Europe: Did you mean...?

Christmas was one of the highlights of the medieval calendar, not only for the rich but also for the peasantry. For the longest holiday of the year, typically the full twelve days of Christmas, people stopped work, homes were decorated and...

Medievalists retain misconceptions and myths about Oriental Christians. Indeed, the fact that the Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity is an afterthought for many. During the Middle Ages, Christians from different creeds and confessions...

Throughout history, epidemics and pandemics of plague and other diseases have caused widespread panic and social disorder even, in some instances, when the people of one region were aware of a pervasive infection elsewhere. In the case of...

The Scientific Revolution in Europe, roughly 1500 to 1700, was a profound intellectual and cultural transformation that forever altered humanity's understanding of the natural world. The period witnessed a seismic shift from medieval beliefs...

A map illustrating the dynamic borders in Europe following the Congress of Vienna (held between September 1814 and June 1815) aiming to balance power between the nations victorious over Napoleon: Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria, and...

An 1876 oil on canvas, The Pont de l'Europe, by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. Caillebotte uses the strong diagonal of the railway bridge to draw the viewer's eye down the street, following the dog. Such industrial...

The word 'plague', in defining a lethal epidemic, was coined by the physician Galen (l. 130-210 CE) who lived through the Antonine Plague (165 - c. 180/190 CE) but the disease was recorded long before in relating the affliction of the Plague...

Map showing some of the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) trade routes that existed in North-West Europe during this time. Among the places depicted are such major trading centres are Hededy, Ribe, Birka and Kaupang from Viking Scandinavia; York...

An English medieval castle, if a large one, could have a household staff of at least 50 people, which included all manner of specialised and skilled workers such as cooks, grooms, carpenters, masons, falconers, and musicians, as well as a...

A map illustrating the flourishing English trade with Europe during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603). Following the abolishment of the Hanseatic merchants' Baltic monopoly, access to a new commodities market in Amsterdam...