Riddled with spears, clinging to his faith, King Edmund of East Anglia was beheaded on 20 November 869 at the orders of Ivar Ragnarsson ‘the Boneless.’ Or at least that is what […]
Creating a Saint – King Edmund the Martyr & the Great Viking Army
ThePostgradChronicles
The Battle of Winwæd and the Rise & Fall of Pagan Mercia
The Battle of [the] Winwæd in 655 is a little known and sparsely recorded battle, yet one of critical importance to the social, political and religious evolution of the various English and […]
Cnut the Great, the Conquest of England, and the Puzzle of London
In 1016, the young Danish prince who was to become Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, laid siege to the city of London as part of the campaign that […]
Monsters and the Monstrous in the Sagas – The Saga of Grettir the Strong
Monsters and otherworldly powers are a real danger to the Icelandic saga-hero. Many an Icelander has to deal with ghosts, with trolls, with the undead, or contest with witch’s curses. There are […]
The Battle of Auberoche: French Tactical Ignorance and an Outnumbered Victory
The power and efficacy of the longbow as a significant weapon of medieval warfare is evidenced most aptly in the infamous battles of the Hundred Years’ War; Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt being […]
The King Lives! Scandinavian Legends of Hastings and Svolder
Tradition (and most chroniclers) tell us that on 14 October 1066, the Anglo-Saxon army saw their King, Harold Godwinson, killed on the field of battle. It was a moment upon which the […]
Blood Eagles, Fatal Walks, and Hung Meat – Assessing Viking Torture
An act of torture is rarely an act of finality in feud cultures – the family of the tortured man, whether he survives or not, will rarely allow such a deed to […]
When Justice Cost an Arm & a Leg – The Mutilated Body in Medieval Anglo-Scandinavian Law
The breaking of a body is a powerful act. In the medieval world, it was a matter of life or death. A mutilated body marked out its victim for social censure and, […]
Relighting the Fire of the First Crusade: Warriors, Priests, and the Holy Lance of Antioch
From its emphatic beginnings at Clermont in 1095, to its ultimately dramatic and triumphant conclusion at Jerusalem in 1099, the First Crusade was an arduous journey of devotion, determination, survival, and some […]
Kingship in the Viking Age – Icelandic Sagas, English Kingship, & Warrior Poets
The Germanic king or lord as the dispenser of treasure, the ‘giver of rings,’ is a familiar image. The reason it is familiar is that it permeates that famous epic poem, Beowulf. […]
Crusaders on the Baltic Shore – The Livonian & Estonian Crusades (c. 1198 – 1290)
The Eastern Baltic was unlike any other region where Rome sanctioned Crusade. The Northern Crusades cannot be cast as either a purely political expansion of territorial borders, or a purely religious expansion […]
Sweyn Forkbeard, Olaf Tryggvason, and the Kingship of Norway
Dressed in armour, watching his fleet fall to his Danish rival, King Olaf I Tryggvason of Norway threw himself into the sea, sinking to his death and denying his enemies the pleasure […]
Crusaders on the Baltic Shore – The Wendish Crusade (1147 – c.1185)
In 1147 Pope Eugenius III declared a crusade against the pagans of the Eastern Baltic, the first papal call to holy war not explicitly aimed at reclaiming Christian territories from Muslim rule. […]
The Walls of Carcassonne: Power and Wealth in Defensive Architecture
Throughout the medieval world it wasn’t exactly difficult to work out who the powerful and wealthy members of society were, you just had to look for the biggest buildings. Medieval fortifications were, […]
Shrouded in Rumour – The Lost Childhood of King Æthelstan
It is frequently claimed that the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelstan was the illegitimate son of King Edward the Elder and an unnamed concubine (or even a shepherdess). This persistent rumour has become a […]
The Postgrad Chronicles 