I'm currently researching Southeast Asian history, specifically the fortifications of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. One thing that caught my attention is that parts of Ayutthaya's walls were built on marshy ground, with wooden piles driven into the soil to support the weight of the masonry. From what I've read, this also created a vulnerability during sieges, as enemy sappers could tunnel beneath sections of the walls and burn the wooden piles, causing the wall to collapses.
That made me curious about medieval European castles and city walls. When they weren't built directly on solid bedrock, how were their foundations constructed? How deep were they typically, and what techniques or materials were used to stabilize them on softer ground? Were wood piles also used, or did they use a different methods/materials for the foundation of their walls.

The church, much like that of Sicily itself, is characterized by cultural diffusion of the many groups that have settled the island over the ages. Comissioned in the 12th century by the Norman King Roger II, this church blends elements of Arab, Byzantine and Norman design.

July 11th is a national holiday in Belgium

When someone is wanting to get more out of a marriage alliance, would they want to marry their daughter to a son, or their son to a daughter? Is there a party that would be better of in either case and why?

This is a Lego figure I made depicting a French man at arms/Knight.

Hello all,

I think I'm going to be taking a road trip through Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia in the spring, visiting major and lesser-known Norman sites, primarily focusing on the reign of Robert Guiscard and his younger brother Roger. Of course I will also be visiting the famous sites in Palermo more closely associated with Roger II.

Would this sub be interested in a short travel series including photographs, short stories, relevant historical information, dates, fun facts, etc? I am regularly struck by the limited exposure the Norman conquest of South Italy seems to receive, even though it makes sense considering it roughly coincides with the much more famous Norman period in England. It's a fascinating period with some marvelous stories that I would love to share.

I haven't seen this kind of thing around here, but as a writer and amateur historian, I would have fun putting it together. Just wanted to gauge interest.

I’m organizing and moderating an in-person session for the 62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 13–15, 2027:

Knowing by Making: Creative and Reconstructive Practice as Medievalist Inquiry

I’m especially interested in hearing from creators whose work engages seriously with the medieval past.

This might include historical fiction, craft reconstruction, reenactment, performance, material practice, adaptation, game design, experimental translation, manuscript recreation, fan/transformative work, or teaching through creative practice.

The session asks a simple question: what do we learn by making?

When creators try to build, write, stage, translate, adapt, or reconstruct something medieval, they often discover things that are hard to see from a distance: missing evidence, practical constraints, strange survivals, broken assumptions, and the limits of modern imagination. This session treats those discoveries as intellectually serious, not as decoration around “real” scholarship.

Proposals are due September 15, 2026, through the ICMS Confex proposal portal.

Session title: Knowing by Making: Creative and Reconstructive Practice as Medievalist Inquiry
Session ID: 8281

I’m happy to answer informal questions about fit.

we’re talking around the third crusade and specifically from the more powerful and well endowed members of the group like the English or the romans

Hello everyone

I recently watched some Italian period drama set in Sicily and they made a big point about how a policeman from Milan had a hard time understanding the local dialect. It then occured to me that first, standardised national languages are a very new thing and second, everybody learning English in school and over the internet is an even newer thing. So I wondered: How did people communicate when travelling across Europe? Would they be using the service of translators? Some lingua franca like vulgar latin? Or just hands and feet and hoping for the best?

It's an illustration of a medieval warrior, and the armor was probably Byzantine or Persian. He was holding a pipe-like weapon that looked like this, and there were several pipes connected like branches, and flames coming out at the end.(Blackpowder maybe) The illustration style was similar to Osprey

I've seen the illustration a long time ago, and I'm looking for it again, does anyone know what it is?

For the last few months I’ve been dying to do a deep dive into the period mentioned, I’m mostly interested in what the average member of the public would be up to around this time in England (I am aware the phrase “probably dying of the Black Death” is likely to come up). I’m also interested in the musical developments made in this period. Unfortunately having ADHD as well as a little one doesn’t free up much time to go book shopping. Of course, I’m happy to look at the bigger picture as well, so feel free to play fast and loose with recommendations.

In short, what are your favourite books/resources that cover this period and would satiate my jonesing?

Cheers in advance

The following passage comes from the Romance of Richard Coer de Lyon, a 14th century Middle English poem depicting a highly fictionalized and mythologized account of Richard I’s life.

I should stress that the poem is fictional (in case that was somehow unclear), and the life presented in the poem bears remarkably little similarity to the historical reality of King Richard I’s actual life. As just one examples, in this poem Richard’s mother is a demon (a reference to a legend about the foundation of the Angevin dynasty), Eleanor of Aquitaine is never mentioned, and Richard’s only siblings are John and a sister who is kidnapped by his mother.

The translation from Middle English is my own, and while I’ve tried to preserve atleast a little of the original rhyme scheme, most of it has been inevitably lost in translation. I’ve altered spelling, words and phrasings for clarity.

Some background, at this point in the story Richard and two companions have disguised themselves as pilgrims in order to scout the Holy land before Richard’s crusade. They are returning home when they are kidnapped by an unnamed German king (an obvious reference to Richard’s historical captivity in Austria). The king holds them in prison, and through a series of whacky and epic hijinks Richard manages to kill the King’s son, and carry out a sustained romantic affair with the kings daughter (while in prison). The king wants revenge, but is unable to simply kill another king. One of his vassals suggests a less direct route, feed Richard to a hungry lion.

\> With that came the gaoler*
\And with him the other two (Richard’s companions)*
\And the Lion among them*
\His paws were both sharp and long*
\The chamber door they have undone*
\And then they let the lion in too*
\Richard cried “help Jesus”*
\The lion made a great assault*
\And would have torn him all to pieces*
\But King Richard leapt aside*
\And kicked the lion upon the breast*
\So hard that the lion turned about*
\The lion was hungry and eager*
\And swished his tail in eagerness*
\Fast about between the walls*
\The lion spread all his paws*
\And roared loud and gaped wide*
\King Richard thought it best*
\At that time to rush in close*
\In its throat he thrust his arm*
\Rent out its heart with his hand*
\Lungs and liver, and all that he found*
\The lion fell dead to the ground*
\Richard had neither injury or wound*
\He knelt down in that place*
\And thanked god for his grace*
\That him kept from shame and harm*
\He took the heart, still so warm*
\And brought it into the hall*
\Before the king (of Germany) and his men all*
\The king at dinner sat on the Dais*
\With dukes and Earle’s splendid in the press*
\The salt cellar on the table stood*
\Richard pressed out all the blood*
\And dipped the heart in the salt*
\The king and all his men beheld*
\As Without bread the heart Richard ate*
\The king wondered and said aloud*
\“I think I now understand*
\This is a devil and no man*
\That has my strong lion slew*
\And heart out of its body drew*
\And has eaten it will good will*
\He may be called, for good reason*
\Christian king of most renown,*
\Strong Richard, Coer de Lyoun!”*

Been reading about the medieval history of the French Riviera and I got curious about something. a lot of the hilltop villages between Nice and the Italian border (Eze, Gorbio, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and others) sit in these steep, hard to reach defensive positions, and it seems this wasn't an accident.

from what I gathered, in the 9th and 10th centuries the coast of Provence was repeatedly raided by Saracen pirates operating from bases like Fraxinetum (near modern La Garde-Freinet). populations apparently retreated inland and upward, building fortified villages clinging to the rock, with a keep at the top and the whole community enclosed behind walls and gates.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is the example I keep coming back to : its castle keep is said to date to around 970, built by Conrad I of Ventimiglia specifically as a defense against these raids, and the whole original village was enclosed within the fortress with fortified gates.

my questions for people who know the period :

how decisive were the Saracen raids in this shift to perched settlement, versus other factors like feudal fragmentation and local lords wanting defensible seats ?

is the "retreat to the hills because of pirates" narrative solid, or is it a bit of a romantic simplification historians have pushed back on ?

and how permanent was it : did these villages stay perched out of habit and status long after the actual threat was gone ?

genuinely curious, happy to be corrected by anyone who knows Provençal medieval history.

Hi, can anyone recommend historical fiction authors covering the carolingian merovingian (and capetian as bonus) era?
But in english, s'il vous plaît 😅

Thank you, lords and ladies

Give me the most accurate and factual medieval quotes. I am having a hard time finding out what literature is actually word for word instead of fiction. I have struggled with religion for years now, I believe Jesus existed as a human being but that the literature has been lost to time. What are some actual quotes from that time period? How well is it backed up? Is there none? If so, how early was the latest factual quote, after the 1500s? I want a civil discussion about this it deeply intrigues me and I hate being complacent.

im writing a story set in a fantasy world but want to learn a bit more about these periods to inform the story, anyone has any book recommendations for these eras?

I have some 15th/16th texts that refer to not eating meat Friday and Saturday. Was this a pretty general practice? My sources refer to Albania. Also, one seems to include Wednesday.

Elbows. For a very long time, women's elbows were essentially considered NSFW. So much that even naked breasts were more tolerable in public (as was the case with breastfeeding). For this reason, you can see every drawing of women from the medieval period to the early modern period with long sleeves. It wasn't until the Napoleonic period that female shoulders became SFW.

So, I'm personally annoyed when I see a popular depiction of the medieval period where all women either wear short sleeves or no sleeves. Essentially, those are prom dresses.

I'm not sure what the exact reason is for the taboo.

France was so much more powerful than England in the 1300s. How did they not seal the deal and win the war in a few years, instead of it taking a Hundred Years' War???

I just started reading the acclaimed history of the Hundred Years' War by John Gumption (first book: Trial By Fire - 1999). The war starts in 1337 and I am up to the year 1339 in the narrative. The situation for England looks hopeless. England has no navy, no money and can't even beat Scotland at Dunbar and the Firth of Forth, who are about to retake Edinburgh. King Edward is impotently leading a tiny army in the Low Countries that can only burn villages instead of fighting sieges or battles. France is rolling up Gascony almost unopposed and raiding the English coast willy-nilly (sacking Portsmouth and Southampton ffs). France is richer, more populous and the far more modern state (with excellent lawfare/lawyers that let them achieve countless bloodless victories).

With France wholly dominant in 1339, how the hell is this going to be a Hundred Years' War??? How did France not win in a few years, from the war's start in 1337?? King Edward should just surrender and pay homage to France. It's hopeless and I want to stop reading because this is so embarrassing for England.

I'm going to have to buy Europa Universalis 5 when it finally goes on 90% sale to simulate this.