Medieval Shipping – The Cog In my book “Death of the Vintner” the three bishop’s officials of the story arrive at the small harbour town of Tenby in the west of Wales by sea. The ship they travel in was known as a Cog. This type of ship first appeared in the 10th century and […]
Monthly archives: November 2018
The Population of the English Medieval City
The Population of the English Medieval City In 1377 of the thirty most populous cities and towns in England only three had a population of more than ten thousand people. These were London with forty thousand, York (see picture above) with twelve thousand and Bristol with ten and a half thousand. The others ranged in […]
Medieval Violence
Medieval Violence The middle ages in England were a pretty violent place viewed from a modern perspective. Even today statistically most crime is carried out by males on males under the age of 25. A study of coroners rolls from the 1340’s suggests a homicide rate of 120 per 100,000 of the population in Oxford. […]
Medieval Seals
Medieval Seals I’ve had a few questions about the medieval seal depicted on my upcoming book, “Death of The Official”. The image on the left depicts the impression made by William Blackburne’s seal matrix. William is an official of the bishop of Draychester and the Latin inscription reflects this. The status of the seals owner […]