Medieval News

[Patrice]

For France it's true for a short period of time: late 14th - early 15th C. but there is nothing to "solve", there are historical references (although I haven't them at hand just now). Charles V encouraged the people to learn the bow, then Charles VI (the "Mad King") discouraged it - I think that Froissart (?) wrote somewhere it was because the nobles were afraid of the commoners - then Charles VII restablished it...

[Michi]

The news yesterday: Early Anglo Saxon graveyard found
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-37940012

[Atheling]

For France it's true for a short period of time: late 14th - early 15th C. but there is nothing to "solve", there are historical references (although I haven't them at hand just now). Charles V encouraged the people to learn the bow, then Charles VI (the "Mad King") discouraged it - I think that Froissart (?) wrote somewhere it was because the nobles were afraid of the commoners - then Charles VII restablished it...

Froissart was dead and gone by the time Charles VI was on The throne. But I do see your point my friend; in some circles chivalry was a quasi-religious way of life. There was no way that the nobility (major and minor) were going to relinquish their monopoly on all things military and allow the "pleb" to take to the field in any meaningful active way. Though this did change over time and was a major factor in the French winning the HYW and pushing the English out of France. Of course, expressing a the series of conflicts as being the "Hundred Years War" would have been meaningless to many years after the conflict. They saw it as a series of conflicts. Thus change was slow.

D

[Arlequín]

Clearly they didn't consider the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, Jack Cade's Revolt of 1450, or the entire 15th Century after the death of Henry V, or the Tudor Age, as periods of instability.

The Assize of Arms/Statute of Winchester limited bow and armour ownership in England, to those possessing over £2 in land or goods. A bit like telling anyone earning over £20k today that they must have a rifle and to add kevlar if they were earning over £30k. Henry VIII required that the above folk lock their weapons away in a parish armoury, rather than keep them in their own homes.

Eventually we might see a study that moves away from the longbow myth and actually bases its premise on the fact that; English armies after the first years of the HYW were wholly composed of professionals and paid volunteers, while the French (including the knights) were fulfilling a feudal obligation.

Once France gets professional too with its mercenary companies and ultimately its compagnies d'ordonnance, it starts winning. The only blot are the Franc-Archers later in the century after twenty years of dereliction.

Once the French King stopped requiring nobles to attend the Army, they stayed on their estates thereafter. 'French Chivalry' became a very small number of adventurous nobles and a much larger number of second sons from armigerous families, who had no other way of making a living.

As for the longbow, it was Henry VII (iirc) that banned the crossbow as an acceptable 'bow' to bring to muster. The so-called 'archery laws' of Edward III mention bows that shot 'arrows, bolts and pellets', the last two being crossbows. Meanwhile in Northern France and the Low Countries, shooting guilds dedicated to the longbow exist alongside those for the crossbow, over almost the entirety of the Middle Ages. The equivalent of local golf clubs today and about as exclusive.

[Captain Blood]

Back on news...

Although this may be borderline Ancients / Medieval...

A splendid Anglo-Saxon helmet to rival Sutton Hoo

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/23/ornate-gold-helmet-from-staffordshire-hoard-recreated

[Hammers]

Back on news...

Although this may be borderline Ancients / Medieval...

A splendid Anglo-Saxon helmet to rival Sutton Hoo

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/23/ornate-gold-helmet-from-staffordshire-hoard-recreated

Nice hat!

[Captain Blood]

An update on the Staffordshire Hoard in the news...
50 gold sword pommels 
And they call it the Dark Ages...


https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/01/staffordshire-hoard-archaeologists-academic-research-gold-ornaments

[Atheling]

An update on the Staffordshire Hoard in the news...
50 gold sword pommels 
And they call it the Dark Ages...


https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/01/staffordshire-hoard-archaeologists-academic-research-gold-ornaments

Wow!

I really don't know what to add!

[Atheling]

Ob BBCiPlayer:

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b052zxhm/saints-and-sinners-britains-millennium-of-monasteries-episode-1

[TWD]

Staffordshire Horde items to be shown alongside British museum objects from the boat burial at Sutton Hoo:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-hoo/features/swords-of-kingdoms-the-staffordshire-hoard-at-sutton-hoo

It's possible that some off the Staffs horde objects were made at (or near) Sutton Hoo, hence the combined exhibition.

[LordOdo]

For the lovers of Heraldry: all the 550+ images from the 1581 edition of Le Blason des Armoiries. Contemporary handcoloured - might be useful for some!

https://metabotnik.com/projects/641/

[Vanvlak]

For the lovers of Heraldry: all the 550+ images from the 1581 edition of Le Blason des Armoiries. Contemporary handcoloured - might be useful for some!

https://metabotnik.com/projects/641/

That is rather cool.
I wonder who was the bearer of the Three Billy Goats Gruff shield - the one with three white (silver?) goat heads with red horns on a sable shield.

[Patrice]

I wonder who was the bearer of the Three Billy Goats Gruff shield - the one with three white (silver?) goat heads with red horns on a sable shield.

  Superb! Not sure who it could be - it seems this book also mentions imaginary coat-of-arms.

Goat heads do not seem rare in heraldry:
http://www.blason-armoiries.org/heraldique/b/bouc.htm

...Although the meaning of a picture of billygoat(s) in a coat-of arms could raise questions about its owner... The billygoat was a symbol of lust, for example it appears in a 16th century painting symbolising the Seven capital sins in a chapel at 6 km from my home:
https://paroisseshautecornouaille.fr/patrimoine/a-la-dcouverte-de-pllauff/

[Vanvlak]

Thanks for the links.
The Boucard arms is actually similar in design.
The chapel is splendid, as is the panel of the deadly sins.
Although I would have used a sloth for sloth

The symbolic use of the goat - and its links to devil symbolism too - would make it an interesting choice for a coat of arms.

However, I just realised they might be heraldic antelopes, rather than goats!

[frank xerox]

News From Pictland!

http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/bajrpress/tap-o-noth-new-pictish-dating-and-details-of-up-to-800-hut-platforms/

Huge new Pictish settlement uncovered in pretty much the middle of nowhere, here in the north east