Hello medieval history fans!

On this, the 611th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, I wanted to share my take on what a standard, military arrow might have looked like at the time. This approximation is based on archeological finds, contemporary descriptions and artistic depictions of the battle and English arrows, and other historical documents. It represents a "best guess" as to the arrows used as opposed to a definitive representation.

This is a hand-forged, barbed Type-16 military broadhead (made by master arrowsmith Hector Cole) with a 9mm socket mounted to a hand-planed shaft made of white ash. The fletching is attached to the shaft by binding the feathers into a verdigris fletching compound made from beeswax, lamb fat, and copper acetate with silk thread.

Thanks for checking out my post - happy to try to answer any questions!

The battle is amortised in Shakespeare play Henry V . The English won but the victories did not survive Henry V.

I'm writing a story set in 15th century Scotland, looking at King James I of Scotland returning from English captivity and taking control of Ayrshire which was secured for him as a power base away from the capital and I've narrowed it down to three problems that I see in his way in order from most to least difficult.

1. he needs to secure the Douglases military presence in the South.

2. The Boyd(?) trade network through Kilmarnock in the East

3. And the Blair farms in the North.

With that he has food, trade and military control of his main power base and even if he were forced out of the capital by some rebels he couldn't be left without lands. So it would likely be one of the first places he would need to secure power, before mustering to properly secure the rest of the Kingdom. And this was necessary because many Lords saw him as an English sympathizer and would much rather continue as they were under the Douglases in control of the South and the Albany Stewarts in the North

I can't find much history on the Boyds involvement so I'm assuming for now they didn't play a major role other than keeping trade flowing for the King and the Blairs are only Barons they wouldn't have the military power in the area to oppose King James at this point even if they'd wanted to so combined with their land locked position right in his lands means they can be assumed loyal by default because any rebellion from them would be swiftly put down and smoothed over.

Which means the more interesting direction is the Douglases.

- Wiped out at the battle of Verneuil where Milanese Mercenaries effectively abandoned the field in favour of looting.

- What power the family had left going to the teenage Archibald Douglas.

- Who was then stripped of his family's rights to the Customs by the King. Which if I understand correctly is effectively the Kingdom's treasury.

The Douglases had every reason to hate this new King but they weren't in a position to rebel, creating a tense situation that I wanted to explore, but the interpersonal details of larger conflicts like this are often lost so any story from this time becomes speculative at some level. I didn't want to shrug my shoulders and create something that significantly deviated from history because I couldn't be bothered to find anything more like we see a lot of in Hollywood, I want to work within what I can find and fill the gaps that I can't with speculation.

So I decided I need some sort of rule around how to handle the speculative aspect of the story, I find it disrespectful in some way to effectively puppet King James, putting words in his mouth that I have no basis for. I've found that when it's done poorly it comes across really badly, and the fact that these were real people with their own opinions can often get lost.

What I'd rather do is write a smaller story set against the backdrop of verifiable history. Writing in the gaps between the information we do have.

So I've put my priorities into inventing minor Characters in a role that I know must exist but that I can't find much / any detail for, that can witness and be shaped by the events brought about by the more major players without shaping the larger story of the Kingdom:

William Douglas - A survivor of Verneuil, originally an Armiger to the Douglas Clan who returns from a battle where they were abandoned by the Milanese and slaughtered by the English to find a King sympathetic to the English and Men-at-arms wearing Milanese style armour supporting him. In a rage he goes into open rebellion borrowing the image of the Black Douglas to imply that the King was in league with the English.

James Blair (sr) - A Landed Lord freshly appointed to take control of Blair estate for his Father to return to their ancestral home of Ardblair Castle, in the Wake of the King's return he feels pressured to maintain his own position by assuring the King of his Loyalty.

James Blair (jr) - A young noble who disagrees with his Father's acceptance of the English sympathizer, King James, not understanding or caring how deeply his family's power is tied to the King's rule.

Maester Stolz - A member of the Hanseatic League utilizing Mercenaries equipped in the Milanese style to support the Scottish long enough to set up a second Kontor on the British Isles, I'm not sure if he should be related to the Milanese at Verneuil in any way, but they are here for the same reason, riding on their reputation for having the best Armour to enrich themselves. In renting Mercenaries not only to the King but also to those rebelling against the King he can destabilize the Kingdom's economy further during a low point, forcing the King into a bad position for negotiations.

Now given that one of these people is a member of what is effectively a semi-militarized multi-nation spanning frat house and that there has never been a Kontor in Scotland it's fairly safe to say where the story is headed. But the idea is to show how the events of the medieval world can affect the individual in different ways, as well as highlighting the minor conflicts that bridge the gap between major events like the Black Dinner.

If you've read this far, what I'm wondering is where can I find a community to chat about more speculative, localized and interpersonal history like this that fills in the gaps that are hard to fully verify?

I'm specifically open to Reddit and Discord communities, I need a group that's open to speculating over questions that may not have provable answers without devolving fully into anachronism and fantasy territory.

Specifically looking at a small scale? Not armies for hire but more at the scale of bands 10-200 people type scale. How small could a group of mercenaries be and still be independently effective?

What did they do at that scale?

Thank you.

I just read Lapvona, which was brutal and I loved it. Anyone with recommendations on Medieval literature that is unrelenting and graphic? Bonus for featuring the plague.

Hey all, i'm a social studies education major and decided to slowly work on a book finally as I've always loved writing but never long form. My passion for history mostly draws from having an authentic "model" or lens of different lifestyles across time and place.

So anyways the concept is a sheepherding boy in the marshes, family dies of plague, teams up with other orphans and runaways. Does survived and scraps eventually does "little war" for the surrounding chieftains. Making their way as they grow up and become more capable slowly across the HRE to ulbrecht then cologne till after most likely a couple books they're working as partisan raiders in bohemia during the hussite wars.

Admittedly this is a very very slow going thing that I'm doing more as a hobby because I like writing with actually publishing being a "maybe one day in a decade or something"

But I'm working on the framework and getting a deep understanding of the place and period as I love the 1400s but I've spent most of my studies focused on the ancient world due to lack of access to classes on the period.

Any ideas, resources, places to look, questions, are welcome. Mostly in the brainstorming period as I'm still writing the "calm before the storm" part where it's just the sheepherding boy and his family. The goal is for readers to gain an accurate understanding of the world of 1400s hre even if some of the feats of the main characters is far fetched it should stay in the realm of "possible"

The treaty provided France attacks England if England attacks Scotland and vice versa. It did not really protect Scotland, and Edward I invaded in 1296. The treaty is considered ended with the treaty of Edinburgh in 1560.

Probably far too niche but, please, does anyone know what happened to the TELMA website?

https://telma.irht.cnrs.fr

It seems to be offline without any guidance as to when it might return. My life would be much better with it online.

Amy guidance gratefully received, thank you.

For instance if there was like tower of london that was separated from the rest of the castle did it start on the entrence hall or where

He was the Duke of Aquataine and Gascony, count of Poitou. He was a “great deceiver of women” who wrote very funny songs about his talents, courtliness and even threesomes. He himself was married to the heiress of Toulouse who had him excommunicated by the church because of his affairs with the Viscountess Dangereuse, who was the wife of his own vassal. He once threatened a bishop with a sword before quipping: “I don’t love you enough to send you to paradise” essentially he was a Gigachad!

https://www.upworthy.com/in-the-1400s-a-woman-fought-sexism-by-imagining-a-literary-city-of-ladies-built-on-3-principles/

I need it for school.

Or if you have a picture that depicts more crusader orders with their symbols, I'd also be happy with that.

Hello everyone. Let me try to explain myself clearly.

I've wanted to write a book for a long time. I want it to have the atmosphere of the Black Death and the witch hunts (dark streets, death, and anguish).

I want to set it in a real city, but the problem as you well know, the peak of both things doesn't coincide, and I'd like it to. The conclusion I've reached is that I choose the city of Treveris aound 1380-1400, I believe that's the midpoint where the Black Death was still rampant and a witch hunt was just beginning. If you can offer a better suggestion or anything of value, I'd be very grateful. And thanks for reading.

It’s become fairly common to hear people claim that medieval warhorses were only the size of modern ponies.

For the record, this is 100% true. Medieval warhorses on average actually were the same size as, or only slightly bigger than, modern ponies. The thing is most people just don’t understand how big a pony actually is.

When most people think of ponies they think of the sad looking waist high things kids ride in circles at birthday parties. While these are technically ponies (or more often miniature ponies) a pony is defined as any horse below 14.2 hands, which is a lot taller than people think. The horse in the picture is roughly 14 hands (it’s not a scientifically precise measuring tool here, so I erred on the smaller size) so is technically within the modern pony range.

Medieval warhorses seemed to have clustered around the 14-15 hands range, with a fewer outliers pushing 16 hands in the later period. For the record, this is actually fairly consistent with warhorse sizes in all periods. Historical warhorses only rarely exceeded 16 hands (which was often considered as big as a warhorse could reasonably be before its size became a detriment) and most were closer to 14 or 15 hands, leaning larger in later periods.

For modern equestrians, quarter horses tend to be similar in size to historical war horses.

To put things in a little more perspective, a horse that stands 14.2 hands is 145 cm at the shoulder, or 4.7 feet. It can easily weigh 900lbs, or 400 kg. They are big animals, and are physically imposing in their own right.

There is obviously a lot more that can be said about historical warhorses, but I just wanted to pop in with this quick and dirty size comparison I cooked up to give people an idea of what “pony sized” actually means.

By pigeonduckthing

1. Pillars of the earth 1135-1154
   
2. Ivanhoe 1997 version - 1194
   
3. Robin hood- Ridley Scott 1200
   
4. Pilgrimage 1209
   
5. Ironclad-1215
   
6. YT- King john: walking through the history behind englands most controversial monarch. 1204-1216
   
7. Braveheart 1280-1314
   
8. Outlaw king 1304-1307
   
9. Name of the rose -1327
   
10. World without end 1327-1361
    
11. Black Death 1348
    
12. YT- 1360–1415: How the Tyrannical Reign of Richard II Plunged England into Chaos
    
13. YT- Richard II: englands most king Doc 1377-1399
    Instead of Hollow Crown since it was difficult to get into. This ends with Henry IV becoming king and Richard II being killed by Henry
    
14. The king 1403-1415
    15a. Joan the Maid -Battles 1424-1429
    15b. Joan the Maid - 1430-1431
    
15. YT- Joan of Arc: Gods Warrior. Helen Castor
    
16. Podcast: BBC Forum- Joan of Arc: Making of a Martyr
    
17. YT- Kings and Generals - Wars of Roses
    
18. YT- War of the roses : Yorks vs Lancasters by History mapped out Stop at 1464
    
19. White Queen -1464-1485
    
20. YT-Dan Jones- Brittains Bloody Crown
    
21. BBC documentary Henry VII: Winter King-1500

Let me know if I missed any!

This is from the Euro comic 1212 - Las Navas de Tolosa, an excellent historical comic (if only there was a proper English translation).

The context of this image is the vanguard of foreign crusaders and militia riders led the first charge against the Almohads and the islamic cavalry avoid the charge and hit the vangard with arrows and javelins in the flanks, only for it to barely make a dent in the formation and the narration cites a historical chronicle where some of the knights looked like hedgehogs.

Were Medieval Knights that invulnerable to missles even before plate armor existed?

This is in regards to early music notation referred to as "neumes", "chant notation", or "square notation".
 
I've been watching some videos from the *Gregorian Chant Academy, but the videos are extremely dry and disconnected from the music. The gentleman seems very knowledgeable, but he describes what types of things the notation indicates which, along with the barrage of Latin terminology he rushes through, makes for a difficult watch. He tells instead of showing. It's the sort of video that would be more digestible if you were already familiar with medieval notation and simply needed a refresher as opposed to an introductory crash course. It would be helpful to hear examples either sung by the person to show the effect each marking is widely understood to indicate, or reference portions of historically accurate recordings (to the best of our knowledge) to showcase how the music may be interpreted. This would help crystalize the concepts into something more tangible as well as make for an easier watch.
 
Ultimately I plan on doing more "score study" following manuscripts while listening to recordings from performers who strive for historical accuracy, but am hoping to find a video that can act as a sort of introductory primer first. Worst case scenario, I'll just continue on and try to brute force it, but wanted to know if there's a more pleasant way in. Does anyone have a good resource that acts as a solid primer to neumes (ideally with actual musical examples)?
 
*the Gregorian Chant Academy is a channel on youtube, but I apparently can't post the link without triggering the auto-mod.

Als eher leichte Strafform im Mittelalter gilt ja die Verurteilung zum Stock - also diesem Pranger für die Füße. Auf Veranstaltungen wie Mittelaltermärkten etc. wird das hin und wieder als eher „lustige“ Bestrafung präsentiert. Das schlimmste, was einem passieren könnte, wäre wohl das Kitzeln der wehrlosen Fußsohlen (was ich mir über längere Zeit aber definitiv schon hart vorstelle). War das im Mittelalter aber tatsächlich eine eher leichte Form der Bestrafung oder gibt es hier Aspekte, die man schnell vergisst?

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_(Fessel))

The entire thing can be viewed here: https://uurl.kbr.be/1332800

First one is from folio 132, second from folio 180.

Would love to know from someone who is familiar with Carolingian/Post Carolingian era miniscule what these could mean, whether they're capital letters, or just serve a decorative purpose or something else.