It's been a while since I wrote a history blog post - so long in fact that I wouldn't be surprised if, reading this now, you had no idea I did them at all (since you most likely came from Twitter and my account is much bigger now than it was when I did history… Continue reading So I Bought An Old Coin
Category: History
The World Doesn’t Always Move Forward
In 1964, a king brought together a committee of experts. Their task, he told them, was to draft a constitution worthy of a modern country. Though democracy was a relatively foreign concept to this country, they planned to inch towards it. The experts, most of them educated in foreign lands, set about their work. The… Continue reading The World Doesn’t Always Move Forward
Why Did The Queen Speak To Parliament?
A new parliament started yesterday, so I thought I'd talk about parliamentary beginnings, endings, and the history of how this complicated system came about. Yesterday was the Queen's Speech, which takes place every year in the spring. It's usually a day of great pageantry and ceremony, though because of the coronavirus, today's speech is going… Continue reading Why Did The Queen Speak To Parliament?
How Medieval Guilds Worked
Guilds are a staple feature of fantasy fiction, especially video games. Players enjoy rising through the ranks by doing missions for the guild, eventually becoming guildmaster. But how did they work in real life? St George's Guildhall, King's Lynn, built around 1428. Funnily enough, fantasy gets some stuff right here. They usually use the terms… Continue reading How Medieval Guilds Worked
Inspiration: How Medieval Towns Worked
A lot of fantasy writers draw inspiration from medieval Europe - or what they think is medieval Europe. This means kings with absolute authority, dirty peasants, shifty merchants, grubby towns and - besides a handful of inept town guards who seem to work directly for the king or local lord - a total lack of… Continue reading Inspiration: How Medieval Towns Worked
Was Brutus Really An Evil Traitor?
Today is the Ides of March; the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. He'd been called to a meeting of the senate, and when he arrived, they assassinated him. While over sixty people were involved, they were organised by one man: Marcus Junius Brutus. Caesar was said to have muttered the now-famous line, et tu, Brute?… Continue reading Was Brutus Really An Evil Traitor?
The Italian Winemakers Who Once Controlled England’s Money
This was a bit of a rabbithole I fell into while researching for my latest 'What Happened 700 Years Ago' column. It's a fascinating story, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It's the 1270s. London is starting to grow: it will soon become the financial hub of northern Europe, but… Continue reading The Italian Winemakers Who Once Controlled England’s Money
King Harald of Norway and the Globalised Medieval World
I'm part-way through reading The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. The primary argument is that the Middle East and Central Asia played a much bigger and more important role in antiquity and medieval times than we generally realise in the west, and I've enjoyed it so far - especially his coverage of the period between… Continue reading King Harald of Norway and the Globalised Medieval World
Pennsylvania and the President
Over the last week, all eyes have been on Pennsylvania. The most likely swing state in the US general election, it's now the place the Trump campaign are targeting most heavily with their litigation blunderbuss. One place has particularly drawn their ire: Philadelphia. As Trump said, "a lot of bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad… Continue reading Pennsylvania and the President
Everyday Law for a Medieval Peasant
If someone asked you how Medieval society was organised, you'd probably tell them it was a feudal system. And you wouldn't be wrong. At its heart, feudalism was a system of relationships where people exchanged labour or service (especially military service) in return for land. This was the stuff that the nobles were mostly preoccupied… Continue reading Everyday Law for a Medieval Peasant
Dewi Hargreaves 