The Rise and Sudden Fall of the Last Norman Ruler of Sicily
Empress Constance of Sicily’s rise and mysterious death form one of early medieval Europe’s most…
Odo of Bayeux: The Ambitious Warrior Bishop
Odo of Bayeux, born around 1035, was a unique and larger-than-life character of the 11th…
From Longships to Law Codes: The Viking Impact on Britain’s Destiny
The Vikings left an indelible mark on Britain, transforming its lands, peoples, and institutions in…
Secrets of the Harem: The Poisoned Brides
The world of Abbasid princesses and marriage politics was a dizzying maze of intrigue, ambition,…
Sweyn II Estridsson: The Warrior King who Fathered 5 Kings
The medieval history of Denmark is marked by a series of formidable monarchs. Among these,…
An Admiral’s Betrayal and the Loss of Sicily
The history of the Mediterranean is a history of waves – of people, empires, and…
Three Brothers, One Crown: A Royal Spanish Bloodbath
Alfonso VI of León and Castile (1040–1109) is remembered as one of medieval Spain’s most…
From Tribes to Kingdom: The Dramatic Founding of Serbia
The emergence of Serbia as a defined political and cultural entity in the early medieval…
What If: England Had Won the Hundred Years War
If England had won, not lost, the Hundred Years’ War, the trajectory of English, French,…
The Rise of the Mahdi
In 1121 CE, far to the western edge of the Islamic world, a new flame…
The Tsar Who Made Byzantium Tremble
Tsar Simeon the Great, ruler of Bulgaria from 893 to 927, was a figure of…
England Before England: How the Tribal Hidage Reveals a Fractured Past
The Tribal Hidage is a compelling relic of dark age England: a mysterious, fragmentary window into the…
Aragon and Castile: Uneasy Neighbors
Introduction: Iberia in the 11th–12th Century The Iberian Peninsula in the early twelfth century was…
The Battle of Anzen: An Emperor Saved By the Rain
On July 22, 838, the rolling plains of Dazimon (in modern-day Turkey) saw one of…
From Frontier Kingdom to an Empire Across Asia
Rising from semi-nomadic Turkish military origins in the late 10th century, the Ghaznavids managed within…
