https://3kp00h-60.myshopify.com/collections/all

I have these late roman models from Victrix, who are typically quite accurate with equipment. However, I can't seem to find anything on these muscle-shaped chest-plates some of the guys are wearing. I'm no expert on the romans, but I was under the impression that these fell out of fashion long before the 5th century. In the painted examples on the site, one of them is painted a silverish color (probably steel), and the other like leather. Is there any basis for this?

Edit: oops, the images didn't load for some reason. Here's a link to the minis https://www.victrixlimited.com/en-us/products/late-roman-armoured-infantry

I remember, while looking at the history of the Greek or Byzantine Rite Church of Southern Italy in the time of the 11th-15th centuries, I came across what was either an Italian or Greek language journal which featured a fascinating image of a Byzantine fresco depicting a man in what seemingly looked like a Western European styled jacket with a bright four squared red and white checkered pattern. Unfortunately, I have since been unable to find this fresco, but it has started to make me wonder, to what extent in the lands under notable Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox influences (particularly focusing on Southeastern Europe, and to a lesser extent the Ukrainian-Belarusian lands) do we see depictions of Western European style clothing and armors? I am fascinated by this topic, as it plays a part into some of my own studies of East-West European relations in the later High to Late Middle Ages. Thank you for reading, and take care.

Would they ever make one piece of the pattern a different color that the rest? Would they used colored thread on a garment to say sew the neckline, or smock an apron? I'm trying to make some historical yet colorful garments.

Hello r/MedievalHistory, I’m looking for information on the relationship between the rise of the Medieval European University/college and the rise of the book industry PRE-printing press (approx 1050-1450 AD).

I’m curious about how universities/colleges acquired books and what role books and/or libraries played in the popularity/marketability (and ultimately, profitability) of one university/college vs another. Example: Would a major selling point of University A (over University B or C) be a larger library/collection of books? Did wealthy patrons supporting respective colleges/universities spend money on acquiring books for their schools in the hope of increasing the school’s marketability? How did increased enrollment in a college/university benefit wealthy benefactors? Interested in PRE-printing press university + book industry because of how expensive handmade books were…seems like a MAJOR investment that needed to be made up front and was curious how return on investment worked.

Thanks!!

Preferably art made close to their life time (ie no late medieval reactions to early medieval).

Edit: I'm mainly looking for surviving writings about someone's opinion of a piece of art that they saw.

Like, was it considered inappropriate? I know that a lot of married couples grew fond of each other so they wouldn't mind sharing a bedroom

One thing I love in history is the Great Power alignments, the balance of power, and analyzing nation-states or other more archaic polities based on multiple factors, including military and economic dominance, cultural contributions, and more analytical aspects such as population size, contributions to science, innovations, etc—

If you’re familiar with the classic 18th & 19th Century model—Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, Russia—then you probably know, it’s a pretty high standard for “great power” but there is some nuance. Britain’s great power-ness” is not the same as Russia’s and so on.

So I thought it would be fun (for me, maybe you lol) to do a century by century list from the Fall of Rome (superpower?) to the 17th Century, an era I myself believe is the end of the “Long Middle Age.”

I was going to leave out China, because—whether it’s the Han, Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming, or Qing—China when unified is by its very nature, a perennial great power, even a superpower, but it’s relatively removed and distant. I’ll just include the dynasty during centuries where they were truly preeminent. I’ll be including many Asian states, however, a fair amount of Islamic and Steppe societies, because more often than not these states were interacting with the European great powers of the day.

I’ll arrange them in order of how I view them on the power scale in their respective time frames.

—————

5th Century

Hunnic Empire

Roman Empire

Gupta Empire

Persia

6th Century

Byzantine Empire

Persia

Gokturk Empire

Ostrogothic Kingdom

7th Century

Rashidun Caliphate

Tang

Byzantine Empire

Avar Khaganate

Visigothic Kingdom

8th Century

Tang

Umayyad Caliphate

Carolingian Empire

Byzantine Empire

Khazar Khaganate

9th Century

Abbasid Caliphate

Byzantine Empire

Carolingian Empire

Khazar Khaganate

Vikings*

10th Century

Byzantine Empire

Abbasid Caliphate

Holy Roman Empire

Kievan Rus

First Bulgarian Empire

11th Century

Great Seljuk Empire

Song

Holy Roman Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Normans*

12th Century

Jin

Holy Roman Empire

Song

Mongols*

Byzantine Empire

England

Ayyubids

Cuman-Kipchak Confederacy*

13th Century

Mongol Empire / Yuan

Holy Roman Empire

Delhi Sultanate

Mamluk Sultanate

France

Hungary

England

14th Century

Yuan

Timurid Empire

Delhi Sultanate

England

France

Hungary

15th Century

Ming

Ottoman Empire

Golden Horde

Spain

France

Hungary

Poland-Lithuania

England & Burgundy*

16th Century

Ottoman Empire

Ming

Spain

France

Poland-Lithuania

Russia

Persia

17th Century

France

Ottoman Empire

Mughal Empire

Qing

Sweden

Poland-Lithuania

England & Dutch Republic*

—————

—————

The asterisks can mean a couple of things.

In the case of nomadic, or disjointed, but conquering peoples, I have to include them even if in some cases a proper state was not yet, or ever, formalized. Also in the case of England I think when paired with a small but feisty continental ally England could count as a great power at certain points, even if until 1707 and the Writ of Union, they really weren’t on paper.

If you disagree or have any reflections on my rankings please feel free to chime in

Thank you in advance for considering this question 🙏

I got in a (somewhat heated) discussion yesterday about whether or not there would/could have been a guard or guards watching a medieval European castle courtyard at night (in the 1300-late 1400s).

EDIT: This would be in a castle where a king was living/staying.

One of us thinks that there would only have been guards higher up, looking out at the surroundings, to detect possible attacks/intruders.

The other thinks there would have been guards in the courtyard as well, to do things like prevent theft of anything in/near the courtyard, catch people who might be breaking curfew, and generally make sure nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

So I guess my question is double. Would/could there have been guards in the courtyard? And the secondary one is, if so, what would they have been watching for?

I searched r/MedievalHistory and found these threads, but no info about guards in/not in the courtyard, unfortunately:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MedievalHistory/comments/1cnoetf/guards_and_servants_in_medieval_castles_western/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/MedievalHistory/comments/m86z7l/what_would_retirement_look_like_for_an_aging/ (good info, just not about the courtyard)

And r/AskHistorians had some questions about guards, but nothing about the courtyard specifically:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ocf1va/do_castlepalace_guards_stand_around_all_day_was/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/scc0tj/how_accurate_is_the_trope_that_therere/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cxu62n/did_generally_medieval_guards_get_breaks_from/

I was watching youtuber Spectrum's video where he ranks the French kings. Number #5 is Charles VII. Spectrum list Charles's many achievements and then said those accomplishments are amazing because "he achieved this all the while by clearly not having a personality predisposed towards being a leader. Charles had to gradually grow into one."

That really interested me. I was wondering if you can think of any other Medieval monarchs who also fit that description.

I'm Brazilian and whenever I studied about medieval times, I only studied European history (even events outside of Europe, such as in North Africa, the Levant and Egypt, the focus was on the European kingdoms and leaders. I have read a bit about feudal Japan and such, but it made me curious. Does the term medieval refer to a certain period of human history or just to a period in European history? Like, is Aztec history medieval history?

I feel like movies and stories really do a good job at making the past not feel real lol like we're watching some alien civilisation imitate being human. What are some stories that remind you that we were the same back then as we are now?

So mine is possibly untrue, I heard it from my brother so long ago I don't remember his source. But when the Queen of Poland was marrying the Grand Duke of Lithuania the Duke would talk up his "size." Because there was no easy way to get information around accurately at the time gossip basically worked as a game of telephone, so by the time news spread back to Poland, his reported size had gotten so large it became a medical concern for her, so they actually sent a medical examiner to Vilnius to check up on that, and his final report stated, "Don't worry your excellence, not only will he not hurt you, but it's actually smaller than average!"

Again don't have a source for that one but I've always liked that story because it shows humans have always been doing the same shit throughout history lol. Also if anyone recognises this story and could say, "Oh that was Wladislaus III" or something please let me know. Or if inverse if you recognise it as a joke or fake story please let me know too because I'd like to not spread misinformation on the internet lol

But yeah what stories do you guys like because it just reminds you we've always been up to the same thing?

Hello everyone,

I'm a wedding officiant and I'm working with a couple who love Medieval history. They would love to include "a medieval prayer," which is something I'm having difficulty locating. I've been able to find plenty of books and Jstor articles about medieval weddings but I can't quite find what would be have been said or what order anything would have been. I'm predominately an interfaith minister, so I know the blessing for a Latin Catholic mass, and can find some from the 1662 book of common prayer, but those don't quite fit the bill.

Does anyone happen to know of some prayers that would have been said before, say, 14th century?

To keep my research narrow, I've been looking at England and France, but any country would do.

Thanks so much!

Hi Everyone.

I recently became the mod on an abandoned sub r/womeneuropeanhistory and the sub could really do with some cross postings of content on women's history.

Royalty, crime , peasants . Anything as long as its to do with european women.

For purists who think a women's history sub isn't needed, maybe you are right but some people think women get obscured. So have a look.

Many thanks for reading.

Were the church clergymen of the nobles court the people who maintained the noble’s family tree and genealogy paperwork? Were they also the ones that created the paperwork for the casus belli for their liege to use?

Looking for an MA on the study of kings ranging anything from Alfred the Great to Henry VIII. Mostly interested in the Plantagenet kings but can't find an MA program dedicated for the most part to the study of kingship and their reigns. Looking at the UK mostly but wide open. Thank you!

I'm in the process of writing a book set in a 15th century Greek/Bulgarian kingdom (fictional world) and I am trying to create some unique clothing descriptions for the nobles in the story (primarily using Italian fashion styles). However, I'm finding some difficulty in making them look interesting.

My question, for any experts in this subreddit, is what colours should I be using? Did there tend to be particular trends in colour as well as style, so that everyone was wearing doublets of blue for a few years before yellow came into fashion? Or would it be reasonable for nobles to dress in the colours of their heraldry? Otherwise, if anyone can recommend certain patterns or combinations of colours that might be in use at such a time throughout Europe, I'd be grateful. Fashion isn't exactly my expertise, so I'm probably writing something that would look hideous in real life.

Thanks!

Bonamy - ᛒᚩᚾᚪᛗᛁ

I know it isnt a word but was hoping someone could help me out if im on the right track.

1300s England

Was their a difference between getting a noble title through marriage or by birth right?

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I will use John of Gaunt and his marriage with Blanche of Lancaster as the template.

The bulk of John's wealth was from his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, who had later had become the sole heiress of her father.

John, by having children with the heiress Blanche. He secured the lancaster inheritance to be under his control for the rest of his life. Is that right?

His and Blanche heir was their son Henry Bolingbroke. He would inherit his father's earldom and the entire Lanacaster inheritance through his mother. It was his birth right, he was the grandson of Henry of Grosmont.

=======------========

So was John of gaunt "status" as the Duke of Lancaster" different from what Henry Bolingbroke status "would" have been as the Duke of Lancaster?

John got it by marriage, his son would get it by birthright.

Would Henry have any more rights then his father had over the Lancaster inheritance? For being the biologial child and heir to Blanche of Lancaster? While John had only been her husband.

I need help finding a building (or rather a church with specific carving on a column capital of a fish sucking a woman’s breast.

Here is what I know:

• The church is smallish in size, probably only a few pews. The church has medieval features, most importantly a column capital that has a carving of a fish sucking on a woman's breast.

• The church is probably somewhere in the Netherlands or Belgium. The town in which it's located has cobblestone and is either small or mid size.

I’ve tried asking ChatGpt to no avail.