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“In their reckless lust they forget their sex” – LGBT history in the Middle Ages
by Tim Wingard – @Physiololgus Tim is a graduate of the University of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies. His research interests include issues of historical sexuality, the latin bestiary, and medieval travel writing. There is a tendency in popular histories and in the teaching of the subject at school to assume that the Middle Ages were an inherently heterosexual…
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From ‘liquid flesh’ to chocolate – a brief history of Easter Eggs
by Elly Barnett – @eleanorrbarnett Elly is an MPhil student in Early Modern History. Her current research focusses on the links between food and the English Reformation. For most of us, the long Easter weekend was filled with family, drink, and an excessive amount of chocolate. Of course, Easter Sunday is the principal Christian feast in the…
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Crying Wolf in the early middle ages?
By Robert Evans @R_AH_Evans The chronicles and histories of the early middle ages have a reputation for describing somewhat unusual events. In his history of contemporary events, for example, Prudentius, bishop of Troyes (d.861) describes how, in 846 ‘Wolves attacked and devoured with complete audacity the inhabitants of the western part of Gaul. Indeed, in some…
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The Late Medieval Christmas Feast
By Eleanor Russell This article forms part of Doing History in Public’s Christmas series, which this year looks into patterns of consumption at Christmastide. Like today, the most spectacular and anticipated part of the medieval Christmas was not the Mass, then mandatory, but Christmas feast, an event which offered not only an opportunity to celebrate…
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Is Trump the new King Henry II?
By David Runciman The testimony of Former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee was a highly anticipated moment of political drama. There were many stand-out moments. But as a medievalist, it was particularly interesting to hear Comey and one of his interlocutors compare President Trump to King Henry II of England. So…
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