Medieval Myths

***I would like to apologize for both the delay and the shortness of this post. I am having technical difficulties that render writing almost impossible. I will continue to post as often as possible, but the reality is I need to replace my laptop, and that will happen Spring 2022 at the earliest. I apologize…

Ludlow Castle

18th century painting by Samuel Scott

15th Century Wales and Ireland

Let’s dive into the countries technically ruled by the Kings of England, but are doing their absolute hardest not to be: Ireland and Wales. As we briefly touched on in the last article, Edmund and Jasper Tudor were fighting rebellions in Wales, so let’s start there! Wales, if you remember, had been suffering greatly due…

John Thorton

King Lucius and two unknown Kings by John Thorton

15th Century England

At the end of the 14th century, England recently noted the rise of Henry IV through conquest against Richard II. Henry’s reign, where we begin today in the 15th century, began by addressing the people of England in his coronation speech, one of the first times since the Normand conquest. His father had been John…

14th Century Ireland & Wales

There are two more countries from the British Isles we cannot forget to talk about: Ireland and Wales. Ireland at this point is fighting tooth and nail to maintain its independence and has been since the Anglo-Norman invasion led by Henry II of England in 1171. The attempts to hold Ireland failed. In 1210 King…

Pilgrimage Badge: Shrine of St. Tomas Becket

The photo above is one example of a pilgrim’s badge from the Shrine of Saint Thomas Becket created around 1400. Badges were souvenirs pilgrims could purchase to remember their journey. There are many types of pilgrims in many religions, but the Shrine of St. Thomas was one of Christendom’s most popular and sought after. Badges…

14th Century England Part 2

The second half of the century is dominated by Edward III and his infamous children. Edward was married to Philippa of Hainault and together they had five sons to live to adulthood (three that died in infancy), and four daughters to do the same (one died in infancy).  His daughters were: Isabella of England, Countess…

14th Century England Part 1

There are four major royal families when we think of England’s monarchies that could summarize almost all their history: Windsor, Stuart, Tudor, and Plantagenet. The 14th century is the age of Plantagenet and the drama they begin in this century, becomes their downfall in the succeeding. Despite being thought of as a backwater country with…