Medieval History

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

National Archaeology Week aims to put the spotlight on British archaeology and involve the public in discovering the past. There are more than 400 events planned, including workshops, exhibitions, lectures and family fun days.



The event is run by the Council for British Archaeology and will cover the full spectrum of UK history. The CBA website features a programme of events for the week with a search facility to highlight events by region.



Activities of interests to medievalists include fieldwork at a medieval settlement in the Mendip Hills, an opportunity to create medieval gargoyles from clay in Brighton and a talk on the early Anglo-Saxons in Loughborough.



Most events need to be pre-booked and there is free entry to many of the activities.



Details: The Council for British Archaeology, tel 01904 671417

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

The process was very informal in the mid-twelfth century and anyone could in theory draw up and display a coat of arms.



But, as the use of heraldry became more widespread, most authorities felt it necessary to put some restrictions on who was entitled to hold a coat of arms and what colours and symbols could be used.



Certain designs became very popular and there were instances of almost identical coats of arms existing at the same time. Some animals and symbols were more popular than others; anything which seemed regal, such as a lion or a fleur de llys was widely used.



A coat of arms could be used extensively; sometimes featuring in a family’s home, for example over the fireplace or on a flag and could even feature in a pane of stained glass or on a tomb.



Many people today claim a coat of arms as belonging to their family. However, a coat of arms strictly only belongs to the person it was created for. Having the same surname as that person isn’t enough to claim ownership. Nevertheless, the coat of arms remains to many a coveted symbol of status and importance.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

However, it is clear that the plague wiped out around forty percent of the population of Europe, with higher death rates in many areas.



What made the Black Death so frightening for medieval people is the fact that there was no cure and no one fully understood how the disease spread. A sense of helplessness must have been acute. News travelled fast, even in the Middle Ages and most communities were very aware of what was heading their way.



Travellers who visited areas affected by the plague were questioned by people hoping to find some clue as to how the disease might be avoided. Once the plague was close, visitors were not welcome. Some settlements banned strangers , others went through cleansing rituals, shunning anything which an outsider might have handled.



As usual in any disaster, there were those who were quick to profit from the misfortunes of others. Pedlars of ‘cures’ and religious relics were able to feed off the fears of the population and sell their wares at high prices. Even some clergy members demanded higher prices for hearing confessions and giving Masses during a time of desperation.



The disease usually left an area in a matter of months, but its effect on those who survived could be dramatic. Although most people who caught the plague died of it, some did survive, but often in a weakened state. There were also the mental effects on those who had seen dozens of their friends and family perish in a matter of days. They might have inherited huge tracts of land but would struggle to farm their estate with few left to work for them. Ordinary people gained more property and better working conditions, but at a huge physical and mental cost. The Black Death left the landscape changed forever.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Medical practitioners were often mistrusted and people instead created their own medicines using the materials around them. Recipes for coughs and cold medicines, painkillers and potions to relieve stomach disorders were passed down through the generations and adapted as necessary.



The services of a doctor were out of the price range of ordinary people, but most communities had healers and midwives who would offer their skills to the local population. These people who usually be self-taught and would often take goods rather than money as payment for their services.



There was a fear of hospitals in the middle ages, spread through tales of people who had gone in to be cured and didn’t come out alive. It would seem that sometimes a person was safer to treat themselves at home, but this was due to issues of hygiene and cleanliness in hospitals rather than any fault in the work of physicians and surgeons.



People in the middle ages didn’t understand how diseases were spread and so little attempt was made to ensure cleanliness in hospitals. An ill person would be more prone to infection and would be surrounded by other infected people, meaning they would be likely to contract extra illnesses whilst in the hospital.



To our modern eyes, many of the medical theories of the middle ages seem primitive and superstitious. But most of the basic functions of the human body were already understood and ambitious surgical procedures could be carried out, sometimes with success. In the medieval world, when life could seem so dangerous and unpredictable, prayer and plant remedies must have seemed to have been some form of control and comfort for those affected by illnesses they didn’t understand.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

The idea of a king riding into battle at the head of his troops is very characteristic of the Middles Ages. Edward I was a ruler who spent the whole of his reign trying to prove his power over his subjects.



The regions of Wales and Scotland were the places that Edward found the most troublesome. These were areas far from the king’s seat of power in London and they were mostly made up of untamed countryside where rebels could plot undisturbed.



Edward was a determined monarch, with a fierce belief that all his subjects should accept his rule. The ring of castles he built across North Wales, as part of his defense system must have seemed hated symbols of English dominance to those who lived in the area. Just one castle cost more to build than a person would earn in a lifetime of hard work. The castles dominated the district, placed at points of high visibility, towering over the humbler dwellings around them.



But despite their massive bulk and their superior defenses, the castles were still very vulnerable, a point which was brought home to Edward I when he became trapped at Conwy during flooding. A monarch and his soldiers could only do so much. The forces of nature and the determination of local rebels were often more than a match for them.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Hilda of Whitby is a sixth century abbess who left her position as the niece of one of England’s kings, to live her life as a nun. The contrast between life at the royal court, with every comfort provided, and living a religious life of prayer and sacrifice must have been marked.



Yet, in entering a monastery, Hilda wasn’t giving up her privileged position, she was actually further extending the influence of her family. From the start, she was given a position of leadership and within a few years of entering monastic life, she was running a double monastery of monks and nuns.



Hilda’s advice was sought by important people from around the country and her influence was far-reaching. She certainly wasn’t locked away from real life; her monastery at Whitby employed dozens of lay-workers and owned large tracts of land in the surrounding countryside. She was a major employer and a figure of influence.



The fact that Hilda was mentioned by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People means that she was seen as an important figure in medieval life. Aside from queens and princesses, we know so little about the lives of medieval women. Hilda’s life may not have been typical of the lot of ordinary women in the Middle Ages, but she does demonstrate that it was possible for women to hold power and influence during medieval times.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Yet, somehow, the marriage worked. The ten year old girl and the fifteen year old boy were kept apart after their wedding, as was the custom in arranged marriages where pre-teens were involved. As the daughter of Ferdinand III, King of Castile, Eleanor understood only too well what royal life involved.



There are so many opinions about the character of Edward I and he has been vilified as a man intent on proving his superiority over the Welsh and Scots during his reign. Yet, whatever his attitude to the people he considered his enemies, Edward was devoted to Eleanor.



Queen Eleanor followed her husband devotedly, throughout his reign. She accompanied him on journeys which would not have been considered safe for a medieval woman. Edward and Eleanor were actually on crusade when they heard that Edward’s father Henry III was dead and Edward was king. The couple’s first surviving son was born in a makeshift dwelling outside the building site where Caernarfon castle was under construction.



The circumstances of Eleanor’s death followed the pattern which her married life had taken. King Edward had been called to Scotland following the death of Margaret, heiress of Scotland. Eleanor followed at a slower pace, perhaps indicating that she was already in the grip of the illness which was to claim her life.



Following Eleanor’s death, the king appears to have been a man consumed by grief. A replica of one of the Eleanor crosses stands today in one of London’s busiest streets. A world so different to the one Edward and Eleanor knew, but their memory still lives on in the city.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Nowadays, we’re used to having access to a variety of foods all year round. Most people in the western world have access to fresh and frozen food from around the world that our medieval ancestors could only dream of. Starvation and malnutrition were real possibilities for many ordinary people in medieval society.

A bad harvest didn’t just mean the crops had failed, it meant facing months of existing on whatever food could be foraged from the fields and forests. It was difficult to preserve food in an age before refrigeration and so stock-piling food in case of bad times was almost impossible. And whatever the economic situation, a family still had to pay its rents and tithes or face eviction.

Medieval people were very much ruled by the weather and the changing seasons and temperatures. The long summer days must have seemed such a blessing, after months of evenings lit only by candles or rushlights. The joy of a good harvest would have been intense; not only was there plenty for everyone to eat for the coming year, there was also the chance of extra money from selling on surplus goods at market or to a travelling merchant. Medieval records show that a good harvest, where yields were up at least 15% to a normal year, came only once every two decades. A person would be lucky to see a record-breaking harvest three times in their life.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Archery had mixed fortunes during the medieval period with laws sometimes banning the use of bows and arrows and at other times, dictating that it should be practised. From one point of view, a bow and arrows was seen as a dangerous weapon, which in the wrong hands, could cause death and injury, either by accident or design.



At other times, medieval authorities valued the potential of an army of skilled archers who could be drawn from the ranks of ordinary men. Many castles and villages had their own butts, where anyone could practise their aim and compete against others. This was usually just a fun sport, but had the serious purpose of developing the archery skills which may some day be needed in battle. A man who had practised archery from childhood could be a formidable enemy on the battlefield.



As with the Viking warriors, most archers would use whatever armor and weapons they possessed when fighting. Armed and uniformed forces did exist, but many soldiers had to pay for and provide their own equipment.

Posted by Rachel Bellerby

Working only from official records, it would seem that women played no part in medieval trade. But here, as in so many other aspects of medieval life, women played a part in the trade of their family or husband but usually received no recognition.

Business records for the middle ages record women buying and selling, producing goods and carrying out business transactions alongside men. However, it was rare for a woman to be permitted to register as a guild member. There are occasions where a widow is recorded as a ‘femme sole’, or female trader, normally a guild was male only.

However, many businesses could not have operated without a woman helping in the background. A medieval trader would depend on his wife’s help in order to run his business and children were also involved in the work of a family’s trade. An unmarried teenage girl would be expected to work as hard as the rest of the family.

A young girl did not usually follow an official apprenticeship, but would learn the family’s trade as she grew up in a working household. Even in the countryside, women and children were involved in farm work, such as helping with the harvest and planting crops.

It could be hard to earn a living in medieval Europe and every hand was needed. Women may not have been officially recognised in a guild, but their contribution to medieval trade was invaluable.