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"Introduction: Here on our first slide, we have John reluctantly ratifying the Magna Carta. He is surrounded by his barons and senior clergymen, and they are all gathered at Runnymede meadow, neutral ground between Windsor Castle and the lands of his barons. But on this image, which dates from centuries after the Magna Carta there is a small historical inaccuracy…King John is holding a quill signing the Magna Carta in this image, when in fact he engrossed the Magna Carta with his seal…Little thing like that may not seem particularly important, but its indicative of how the Magna Carta passed into mythology."

"Introduction: Between the mid-11th and late-15th centuries, an historically specific configuration of material and ideational factors gave rise to a constellation of religious wars that have come to be known as "the crusades". This constellation included Church-organized wars in the Holy Land, Iberia and along the Baltic frontier as well as within Latin Christendom itself.[1] The Crusades to the Holy Land were "wars of liberation" initially launched by the Church to restore Jerusalem to Christian rule. Following the First Crusade and the establishment of the crusader principalities (the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem - collectively known as Outremer), these expeditions were conducted primarily to defend the Holy Places against Muslim attempts at reconquest or, following its loss in 1187 and again in 1244, to recover Jerusalem for Latin Christendom. While authorized by, and fought on behalf of, the Church these wars were prosecuted by princes, nobles and knights from every corner of Latin Christendom as well as by so-called "para-crusaders" (milites ad terminum), and members of military orders such as the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights.[2] They were fought primarily against a range of Muslim powers, although the Fourth Crusade ended up being waged largely against adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite. Although the idea of launching additional expeditions to liberate Jerusalem persisted for a considerable time, the Crusades to the Holy Land effectively came to an end with the fall of the last Christian stronghold in Palestine - Acre - in 1291.[3]"

"An entry in the Inventory of the Bayeux cathedral treasury records that in 1476 the church owned the following: Item une tente tres longue et estroicte de telle a broderie d'ymages et escripteaulx, faisans representation du Conquest d'Angleterre,"

"Legends states the young Duke Robert I of Normandy was on the walkway of his castle at Falaise looking down at the river and discovered a beautiful young girl washing clothes. He asked to see her and she became his mistress. She would become the mother of William the Conqueror."

"Introduction: This essay is concerned not with the formation of all European states of the first millenium A.D., but to highlight and then briefly explore a recurring pattern of historical development on the fringes of the great empires of the era. In the Germanic world beyond the frontiers of the Roman state in the first half of the period, and later in the Slavic world bordering the Carolingian and Ottonian states in the second, there emerged, over time, even more substantial political entities. This paper will compare the processes of development in each case, to establish that they were indeed parallel, and then concentrate upon causation. Wht should history have repeated itself in this way?"

take a second look at the Bayeaux Tapestry, and the many little details.

"If you've found yourself on Medievalists.net, chances are you already have a deep and (hopefully) abiding love for the Middle Ages, as I do. Maybe, though, you're just at the beginning of this love affair with the past, or you know someone who is, and you're looking for a place to get a good overview of the period before you dive right in. In that case, here are a few books which will give you a foothold on the Middle Ages as you begin your journey."

"Tests on descendants of last Plantagenet king point to 'false paternity event' and reveal he may have been blue-eyed blond"

"We got a kick out of this recent io9 post fact-checking 10 misconceptions about the Middle Ages. Drawing on a particularly awesome r/AskHistorians thread, the post untangles popular myths about the "Dark Ages," including that peasants were all the same (NOT), and that women never pursued a trade (FAKE). As manuscripts curators who spend our days studying the visual evidence of the Middle Ages (and our nights watching fantasy shows), we'd like to offer yet more visual ammo to debunk four of our favorite myths."

links to text of English Common Law documents

"This legacy of an artist monk living in Northumbria in the early eighth century is a precious testament to the tenacity of Christian belief during one of the most turbulent periods of British history. Costly in time and materials, superb in design, the manuscript is among our greatest artistic and religious treasures. It was made and used at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a major religious community that housed the shrine of St Cuthbert, who died in 687."

"Edward II was born on 25 April 1284 as the youngest child of Edward I and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, and succeeded his father as king of England at the age of twenty-three on 7 July 1307.  On 25 January 1308 at Boulogne in northern France, Edward married Isabella, only surviving daughter of the reigning king of France, Philip IV, and the late Joan I, queen of Navarre in her own right.  Isabella was only twelve at the time of her wedding, born probably in the second half of 1295.  The couple's betrothal had been arranged all the way back in June 1299, when Edward was fifteen and Isabella probably only three."

"The Battle for Antioch in the First Crusade (1097-98) according to Peter Tudebode by DRM_PETER posted on NOVEMBER 21, 2013 Peter Tudebode was a Poitevin priest who was part of the First Crusade, perhaps with forces of the count of Toulouse. He wrote his account, the Historia de Hieroslymitano Itinere, by at least 1111, which was after many of the other important accounts of the First Crusade were written. Tudebode offers some new insights into the First Crusade, including a description of the death of one of his brother's during the siege of Antioch. The following section begins with the Crusader army approaching the city of Antioch."

"The Presentation of the Franks in Selected Muslim Sources from the Crusades of the 12th Century  By Niall G. F. Christie Submitted for the Degree of M.Litt. in the University of St. Andrews (September, 1996)"

"The remains of a noblewoman buried at the Convent of the Jacobins in the northwestern French city of Rennes in 1656 have been found in exceptional condition. Discovered in March of 2014, the remains have been quietly studied by a multidisciplinary team who are now revealing the results of their investigations."

"In 1187, thirty-three years after al-Idrisi drew his World Map, and forty-two years after the Second Crusaders returned, a Third Crusade set off for the Holy Land. By that time the soldiers from the Second Crusade were sixty-year-old men or older."