Members of the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) are used to make-believe activities like sword fights in medieval courts. In Kodiak, the group also stretches the creative limits of climate and geography. At Springhill Hall on Saturday fresh cilantro and…
… Fall Renaissance Faire returns Saturday to Felicita Park, continuing Nov. 1, 7 and 8. The event brings thousands of Renaissance enthusiasts from throughout the western U.S. to enjoy period music and theater, battle pageants, arts, crafts, children’s games and…
A mysterious stone uncovered in Midlothian, Scotland, may have a connection to the Knights Templar. Discovered by Crispin Phillips in the process of repairing a wall, the stone is covered with unusual symbols and appears to date to about the 13th or 14th century. Because the ruined chapel where the stone is located was part of an abbey founded by the Templars, scholars think the carvings may relate to the Templar organization, though no one has yet been able to figure out what they mean. Find out more in the article by Claire Smith at the Scotsman, which includes some nice photos.
Templar stone? originally appeared on About.com Medieval History on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 19:10:57.
You are invited to join Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the First at the Lady of the Lakes Renaissance F
…But the Mary Rose is important not only to maritime historians. It is also what she took with her to the bottom of the Solent in 1545 that gives her a special significance. These were the possessions and tools of…
…I was at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville observing the wildlife. Bands of adults with heavy metal hair, in full armor, with gauntlets and knee-high boots seemed to have arrived straight from a Nordic den and marched past entire…
…The Alabama Renaissance Faire.. turns a little German. Rebecca Linam, the queen and a math teacher at Shoals Christian School, had been waiting to be crowned for a while. “It was something I had hoped I was going to get…
On October 25, 1415, a famous battle of the Hundred Years’ War took place between English forces led by Henry V and a much larger French army at Agincourt, France. For centuries, this battle has been examined, reexamined, dissected and reconstructed by French and English historians alike.
This week The New York Times has an article about how historians have “reassessed” the Battle of Agincourt. Though I find the comparisons drawn between medieval foreign wars and current conflicts interesting (but not surprising), I was a little bemused to learn that a group of historians “now take a skeptical view of the figures handed down by medieval chroniclers.”
What, only now?
Medieval chroniclers were notorious for inflating the numbers of participants in the battles they reported. Those numbers have always been taken by modern historians with a grain of salt, and have usually been tempered by archaeological discoveries and the data gleaned from period documentary evidence. In the case of Agincourt, it has long been known that the English representation of Henry’s forces was minimized and that of the French forces was inflated to make their victory over a larger force appear particularly remarkable. So, while the recent “reassessment” may bring us closer than ever to more accurate numbers on both sides, the fact that the disparity wasn’t nearly as great as the medieval chroniclers said doesn’t really surprise me. Does it surprise you?
The Battle of Agincourt originally appeared on About.com Medieval History on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 14:23:57.
By CitizenJ As eleven year residents of Folsom, and infrequent visitors to local Renaissance Festivals, my family decided to visit our town’s event. I found the experience a mixed bag of entertainment, enjoyment and frankly, disappointment. My wife and daughter…
…Returning vender Laura Solano, of The Herb Shop, travels with numerous Renaissance faires to give Henna tattoos. After returning to the Folsom Renaissance Faire this year, Solano explained she had some returning customers looking forward to a new tattoo. “We…
