Medieval History Blog

For Pilgrims and Strangers I needed to send characters on Crusade, but which crusade should I choose? After much research, I decided upon the Third Crusade as the most credible crusade for my English characters and so the story is set in the 1190s. There were a multitude of reasons why a baron would take the Cross and in part three of a series of blogs, I'll explore some of the less likely motivations.

Out of Favour Barons

Barons, whether lay or ecclesiastical, lived in the temporal world...

Pilgrims and Strangers, is set in the 1190s purely because characters in the novel go on crusade in 1190 (aka the Third Crusade). But why this crusade and not others? My research shows this to be the most credible crusade to send my English characters on. In part two of a series of blogs, I'll explore why the political climate had to be right for the English to consider going on crusade up to the 1220s.

Because they usually intended returning, any baron or king who wished to take a crusading...

In Pilgrims and Strangers, a character goes on crusade in 1190 (aka the Third Crusade). But why this crusade and not others? My research shows this to be the most credible crusade to send my English character on. In a series of blogs, I'll explore the English participation in the Crusades up to 1230.

So, when did the English take part in the Crusades?

The participation of the English baronage in crusading to the East varied during the period 1096 and 1241. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles report in...

In Pilgrims and Strangers, I have a leprous character and so I needed to research the disease of leprosy to discover how people might have reacted to him and what my character's life would have been like as a leper.

During my research I became aware of how little human nature changes. Parallels in the attitudes towards the medieval leper and HIV and AIDS sufferers are apparent. In the 1980s, when AIDS first came to light, little was known about the disease especially by the general population....