Medieval History

In the Middle Ages, there were many powerful queens who ruled their kingdoms with strength and determination, two of the most notable examples of which were Fredegund of Neustria and Brunhild of Austrasia. Unafraid to use murder and intrigue to maintain their power, they played a significant role in shaping the political landscape of their time—but have largely been lost to history.

This resource by the Canadian Museum of Natural History explores the life and adventures of Martin Frobisher, an Elizabethan pirate hired to find the then-fabled Northwest Passage, a path across the Arctic Sea that would've allowed for quicker trade between Asia and Eastern Europe. He ventured into arctic waters at least three times, returning to England each time with either fool's gold, captive natives, or fool's gold and captive natives.

The concept and creation of monsters have been used since time immemorial to communicate social norms and the consequences of breaking them. Some so-called monsters were judged as such solely due to having features that would be considered birth defects in modern times. This in-depth article explores the human cost of creating medieval monsters, many of whom were defined by a physical appearance that deviates from the expected.

There's no line of succession for the secrets to fighting like a medieval European knight. All the primary sources of information on the art are either dead or trapped in vague manuscripts. But that doesn't mean people aren't trying to piece the martial art back together. This article explores one group's attempt to revive the world of historical European martial arts.

Examining a culture's culinary practices gives insight into its social structure, skills, and ideology. This article follows culinary archaeologist Daniel Serra as he explores the food habits and choices of Vikings. His findings have effectively ended "the myth of Vikings gnawing off the meat of the bones of wild animals," with evidence providing a clearer picture of Viking society as filled with farmers who didn't have time to hunt.

In early Iron Age Scandinavia, blacksmiths sometimes used animal or ancestral bones to imbue their creations with greater, mystical power. Unbeknownst to them, at least initially, adding bone, and therefore carbon, into iron swords actually produced a rudimentary form of steel. Early Viking swords were made out of iron collected from bogs, which meant their weapons were softer than one would want a weapon to be. This short article explains how the Vikings accidentally improved their iron weapons beyond expectation.

This article details how the mythical island of Frisland came to occupy maps for centuries. According to Nicolò Zeno, the very real island was discovered by his ancestors nearly 200 years earlier, something he learned about by accident when he stumbled upon a trove of letters that he promptly destroyed. Zeno's claim of validity, published as a novel in 1558, was assisted by his release of a map of Frisland. Though made in the style of the 16th century, Zeno said the map dated back to the 1390s. By 1580, Frisland had been claimed in the name of England.

Vikings, the medieval marauders of northern European land and seas, were actually famous for their excellent hygiene. Despite this, evidence from Viking burial grounds points to one exception: their teeth. Roughly 60% of those Vikings studied had at...

This article examines the role of Japan's female samurai throughout history, specifically the Battle of Aizu, a deadly civil conflict between traditionalists and reformers in 1868 in which one side had halberds and swords and the other had guns....

Throughout the Middle Ages, the West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai moved valuables across the Sahara and as far north as France using the Gold Road. This route enabled the trade of gold, ceramics, manuscripts, ivory, religion, and...