It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
The use of airborne leaflet propaganda during times of conflict was first seen in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, when the defenders of Paris dropped leaflets over the besieging German troops from a hot air balloon, proclaiming their defiance. However, hot air balloons and the like were slow and unwieldy, and it wasn't until the First …
Francia was the largest and most sophisticated kingdom in early medieval Europe, lasting from the 5th to 9th centuries. At it greatest extent, Francia was twice as large as modern France, stretching from the Pyrenees to Bavaria, from Rome to Saxony. It was huge and unwieldy. Given this, how was a Frankish king supposed to …
In August 1328, a priest in Derbyshire was beaten up and his church robbed by a gang of armed thugs. Perhaps that sounds unsurprising; it fits well into the popular view of medieval lawlessness, vigilante justice and endemic violence. However, this particular incident wasn't random violence perpetrated by drunken idiots, but a calculated act carried …
Continue reading The 14th-century Mafia? Folville, Coterel & Co