This is a photograph of a well preserved Carolingian sword. It likely belonged to a warrior serving under Charlemagne or his immediate successors and was discovered in the Scheldt estuary.

These were high-quality weapons, manufactured on a near-industrial scale in specialized workshops within the Frankish Empire (notably in the Rhineland). Examples have been found as far afield as the region of Kazan (in present-day Russia), dating from the period before Charlemagne regulated, and subsequently prohibited, their sale to non-Franks under penalty of death.

Due to trade and conflicts with the Scandinavians, such swords have been recovered from the graves of various Scandinavian chieftains; this is why they are sometimes referred to as "Viking swords."

Although produced in large numbers, these swords made up only a small fraction of the weaponry used by Carolingian troops, for whom the axe and the spear remained the preferred arms.

The reason I'm asking is because for a Dungeons and Dragons setting I'm keeping on the shelf takes the form of my home state of Minnesota. I'm turning a US state into a medieval feudal monarchy. Anyway, like it's real life counterpart, the capital of the Kingdom of Minnesota is the small city of St. Paul and it's the twin city of the larger, but still small city of Minneapolis.

As you probably expect, instead of an elected governor, this Minnesota has a royal family who rule the whole thing. Real life medieval Kingdoms also had capital cities where the royal family often lived. But did places like medieval London and Paris also have more direct nobles who ran the day to day things that didn't need to be brought to royal attention? And by extension, would this St. Paul have a direct noble family who deal with this that don't need to be brought to royal attention?

From xkcd.com of course (#1078 Knights)

I’ve been thinking after I read CJ Sansom’s novel Dark Fire from the Shardlake Series (set in 1540) - the plot is around the discovery of a Greek Fire formula in a monastery, and Thomas Cromwell is basically set on getting the formula to save himself from execution. The main conflict is the fear of the damage Greek Fire could do in the hands of Henry VIII set against the need for Cromwell to come up with the goods to keep his head. Love the book but I also felt like the whole thing could be a bit far fetched? I know the novel is set in the early modern period - I could be wrong but I think Greek Fire was probably used outside of the Byzantine empire during the Medieval period, and didn’t just suddenly disappear? Surely there were people in England close to military authorities that at the very least, knew the basic compounds? And therefore, probably felt that the whole thing was probably a wasted effort given that they’d have to find raw oil or whatever? Or was it really a straight up mystery with legendary military power potential?

Hope this is the correct sub to ask this. Would it have been technically possible during the medieval era, to use a mirror system on a helmet visor, to avoid the direct slit exposing their eyes. Now i assume it would cause several problems like glass shattering at the first impact, or a metal mirror just being horrible to see accurately in, but is it something that has ever been studied or experimented back then, and if so did it have any use.
Thanks!

My drawing is ridiculus but you get the idea

Hello medieval history fans!

On this, the 611th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, I wanted to share my take on what a standard, military arrow might have looked like at the time. This approximation is based on archeological finds, contemporary descriptions and artistic depictions of the battle and English arrows, and other historical documents. It represents a "best guess" as to the arrows used as opposed to a definitive representation.

This is a hand-forged, barbed Type-16 military broadhead (made by master arrowsmith Hector Cole) with a 9mm socket mounted to a hand-planed shaft made of white ash. The fletching is attached to the shaft by binding the feathers into a verdigris fletching compound made from beeswax, lamb fat, and copper acetate with silk thread.

Thanks for checking out my post - happy to try to answer any questions!

I've been wondering about the connection between Roman law and medieval serfdom. Roman laws placed certain restrictions on agricultural workers called coloni, including restrictions on leaving the land in some circumstances.

But did medieval serfdom actually develop out of this Roman system, or are we connecting two institutions that only look similar on the surface?

How much of medieval serfdom was inherited from Roman law, and how much emerged later because of changing landownership and the growing power of landlords after the Western Roman Empire declined?

I'd be interested in what historians think about this, especially any good books or sources that discuss the connection.

So I know the Hanseatic League was basically a confederation of German merchants that wielded a lot of political and economic power. And they kept the roads and seas safe from bandits and pirates. But what I don't know is what their military and navy? Did they have an organized army and fleet or did they hire out mercenaries and privateers to protect their routes and interests?

The battle is amortised in Shakespeare play Henry V . The English won but the victories did not survive Henry V.

Hey all, i'm a social studies education major and decided to slowly work on a book finally as I've always loved writing but never long form. My passion for history mostly draws from having an authentic "model" or lens of different lifestyles across time and place.

So anyways the concept is a sheepherding boy in the marshes, family dies of plague, teams up with other orphans and runaways. Does survived and scraps eventually does "little war" for the surrounding chieftains. Making their way as they grow up and become more capable slowly across the HRE to ulbrecht then cologne till after most likely a couple books they're working as partisan raiders in bohemia during the hussite wars.

Admittedly this is a very very slow going thing that I'm doing more as a hobby because I like writing with actually publishing being a "maybe one day in a decade or something"

But I'm working on the framework and getting a deep understanding of the place and period as I love the 1400s but I've spent most of my studies focused on the ancient world due to lack of access to classes on the period.

Any ideas, resources, places to look, questions, are welcome. Mostly in the brainstorming period as I'm still writing the "calm before the storm" part where it's just the sheepherding boy and his family. The goal is for readers to gain an accurate understanding of the world of 1400s hre even if some of the feats of the main characters is far fetched it should stay in the realm of "possible"

Specifically looking at a small scale? Not armies for hire but more at the scale of bands 10-200 people type scale. How small could a group of mercenaries be and still be independently effective?

What did they do at that scale?

Thank you.

I just read Lapvona, which was brutal and I loved it. Anyone with recommendations on Medieval literature that is unrelenting and graphic? Bonus for featuring the plague.

The treaty provided France attacks England if England attacks Scotland and vice versa. It did not really protect Scotland, and Edward I invaded in 1296. The treaty is considered ended with the treaty of Edinburgh in 1560.

Probably far too niche but, please, does anyone know what happened to the TELMA website?

https://telma.irht.cnrs.fr

It seems to be offline without any guidance as to when it might return. My life would be much better with it online.

Amy guidance gratefully received, thank you.

For instance if there was like tower of london that was separated from the rest of the castle did it start on the entrence hall or where

He was the Duke of Aquataine and Gascony, count of Poitou. He was a “great deceiver of women” who wrote very funny songs about his talents, courtliness and even threesomes. He himself was married to the heiress of Toulouse who had him excommunicated by the church because of his affairs with the Viscountess Dangereuse, who was the wife of his own vassal. He once threatened a bishop with a sword before quipping: “I don’t love you enough to send you to paradise” essentially he was a Gigachad!

https://www.upworthy.com/in-the-1400s-a-woman-fought-sexism-by-imagining-a-literary-city-of-ladies-built-on-3-principles/

I need it for school.

Or if you have a picture that depicts more crusader orders with their symbols, I'd also be happy with that.

Hello everyone. Let me try to explain myself clearly.

I've wanted to write a book for a long time. I want it to have the atmosphere of the Black Death and the witch hunts (dark streets, death, and anguish).

I want to set it in a real city, but the problem as you well know, the peak of both things doesn't coincide, and I'd like it to. The conclusion I've reached is that I choose the city of Treveris aound 1380-1400, I believe that's the midpoint where the Black Death was still rampant and a witch hunt was just beginning. If you can offer a better suggestion or anything of value, I'd be very grateful. And thanks for reading.

It’s become fairly common to hear people claim that medieval warhorses were only the size of modern ponies.

For the record, this is 100% true. Medieval warhorses on average actually were the same size as, or only slightly bigger than, modern ponies. The thing is most people just don’t understand how big a pony actually is.

When most people think of ponies they think of the sad looking waist high things kids ride in circles at birthday parties. While these are technically ponies (or more often miniature ponies) a pony is defined as any horse below 14.2 hands, which is a lot taller than people think. The horse in the picture is roughly 14 hands (it’s not a scientifically precise measuring tool here, so I erred on the smaller size) so is technically within the modern pony range.

Medieval warhorses seemed to have clustered around the 14-15 hands range, with a fewer outliers pushing 16 hands in the later period. For the record, this is actually fairly consistent with warhorse sizes in all periods. Historical warhorses only rarely exceeded 16 hands (which was often considered as big as a warhorse could reasonably be before its size became a detriment) and most were closer to 14 or 15 hands, leaning larger in later periods.

For modern equestrians, quarter horses tend to be similar in size to historical war horses.

To put things in a little more perspective, a horse that stands 14.2 hands is 145 cm at the shoulder, or 4.7 feet. It can easily weigh 900lbs, or 400 kg. They are big animals, and are physically imposing in their own right.

There is obviously a lot more that can be said about historical warhorses, but I just wanted to pop in with this quick and dirty size comparison I cooked up to give people an idea of what “pony sized” actually means.

By pigeonduckthing