Monthly archives: March 2020

The English Medieval Penny The most widespread coin in use in medieval England was the penny. Twelve silver pennies made a shilling and there were twenty shillings to the pound. For transactions worth less than a penny it could be divided by physically clipping the coin into halves and quarters. Hence, half pennies and quarter […]

Medieval English Ale In medieval England virtually everyone would have drunk ale on a daily basis. That’s not to imply that the whole population was constantly inebriated. The fact is medieval ale was a very different drink to any modern-day beer or ale. The basic ingredients were water and malted grain fermented with yeast (beer […]

The Medieval Revenant During the middle ages a belief in souls returning from the dead was very common. A revenant was an animated corpse believed to have been revived from the dead to haunt the living. At various times the term revenant has often been used interchangeably with vampire. Numerous contemporary writers of the period […]