Category archives: Medieval

Medieval Swearing, “God’s Bones!” There are trends and fashions in swearing. Things that were outrageous and blasphemous in one age might raise nothing but a curious stare in the 21st century. It’s difficult today to understand why swearing by parts of God’s body would be offensive, but it was a popular way of swearing up […]

My favourite writers of medieval fiction – No1 – Ellis Peters – The Cadfael Chronicles I’ve always been a fan of historical fiction, although over the years I’ve also read a lot of science fiction. Still, I always seem to return to books set in the past, particularly the medieval period. It seems a lifetime […]

The English Medieval Penny The most widespread coin in use in medieval England was the penny. Twelve silver pennies made a shilling and there were twenty shillings to the pound. For transactions worth less than a penny it could be divided by physically clipping the coin into halves and quarters. Hence, half pennies and quarter […]

Medieval English Ale In medieval England virtually everyone would have drunk ale on a daily basis. That’s not to imply that the whole population was constantly inebriated. The fact is medieval ale was a very different drink to any modern-day beer or ale. The basic ingredients were water and malted grain fermented with yeast (beer […]

The Medieval Revenant During the middle ages a belief in souls returning from the dead was very common. A revenant was an animated corpse believed to have been revived from the dead to haunt the living. At various times the term revenant has often been used interchangeably with vampire. Numerous contemporary writers of the period […]

Medieval Anchorites In the third of the William Blackburne series of medieval adventures a spate of killings involving anchorites takes place. Many people confuse the terms anchorite and hermit. Although anchorites can be thought of as religious hermits there were some subtle differences. Most were required to take vows that tied them to one place. […]

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 […]

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 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 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 […]