Monthly archives: September 2026

Abraham of Bristol and the Price of Being Jewish in Medieval England The story of Abraham of Bristol is one of the most harrowing possible glimpses into what life was like for medieval England’s Jewish community, living precariously at the pleasure of the king’s “protection” which might well be extorted at need. In 1210, King […]

Serfs vs. Peasants: Medieval Rural Class Explained “Serf” and “peasant” are terms that appeared to be interchangeable in numerous fictional contexts, which would have greatly surprised the people living in medieval England, as the difference between the two was significant. First of all, the wealthier serfs could be classified among the better-off peasants, as a […]

Golf and Tennis Were Banned to Save Archery Several sports that have become international institutions and staples were actually banned numerous times from play in England and Scotland, not due to any moral objection but because the kings needed all men able to practice with longbows. Longbow archery was an incredibly useful military ability in […]

How English Lost (and Regained) Its Status The English language almost completely lost its status as a prestigious and powerful language after the year 1066. The process of returning to the position of a language fit for governance and intellectual exchange took about two centuries and is reflected in the current version of the language […]

How Many People Actually Went to Medieval Church? How many people actually turned up to a medieval English parish church on an ordinary Sunday? It’s a genuinely hard question to answer with real precision, but the surviving fragments of evidence — confession fees, communion headcounts, offering-day totals — provide a surprisingly vivid, if patchy, sense […]

What They Wore and What They Ate What people wore and ate is where medieval fiction most often gets it wrong: they all look like they’ve just come off the Renaissance fair’s main street, and everyone eats with a knife, fork, and spoon. Let’s fix both mistakes. Clothing was, first and foremost, a class marker: […]

Why Villeinage Declined Villeinage – the bondage of serfs to the land and their lord – is not easily extinguished. It is convenient to imagine that its passing was instantaneous and terminated abruptly with the ravages of the Black Death. In reality, villeinage was steadily undermined well before 1348 and persisted for another 150 years. […]

Bread, Milk and Cheese on a Peasant’s Table Bread, milk and cheese formed the genuine backbone of a peasant’s diet, and each came with its own set of small, practical problems that a resourceful cook had to solve, day in and day out, with almost no margin for waste. Grain had to be ground into […]

The Real Robin Hood(s) Robin Hood, as most people picture him, is a largely 19th- and 20th-century invention layered onto a much older, considerably stranger medieval legend — and the earliest genuine evidence points not to one heroic outlaw at all, but to dozens of real criminals who simply adopted his name as their own. […]

Medieval Paris: A Case Study Paris is the single best worked example of a “subject town” — genuinely split in its governance between the crown, the bishop, and the university, each pulling in a slightly different direction, and it’s worth a dedicated look on its own merits. The city sat on the Seine roughly 280 […]