Life in the Middle Ages

 These days most people do not see a horse on most days.  Riding lessons are for the well-to-do (or for actors appearing costume dramas).  B...

There were a lot of wars in the Middle Ages.  (The same thing of course could be said about the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.)  They...

Today is Memorial Day, when we remember those who are no longer with us, and honor veterans.  These days, with an all-volunteer army, vetera...

To a modern American, the Crusades were something very long ago and far away.  For those in the Middle East today, they are an ongoing issue...

In the popular imagination, medieval knights rode enormous horses, like modern draft horses (such as Clydesdales or Percherons).  But this i...

As I noted in an earlier post , when knights first appeared in the eleventh century, they were essentially henchmen on horseback.  But durin...

Knights, like castles , first appeared right around the year 1000 in western Europe (they were not found in England until after the 1066 Nor...