Muriel of Lincoln
Medieval England and Angevin Empire, Saxon England, Women in History Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval England and Angevin Empire, Saxon England, Women in History Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Muriel of Lincoln

Nicola de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against a French siege and saved England, and everyone remembers her name.

Almost no one remembers her grandmother.

Muriel of Lincoln didn't lead armies or defy kings in any spectacular fashion, but without her calculated survival and strategic positioning, there would be no Nicola, no legend, no castle defense that changed the course of English history.

This is the story of the invisible foundation upon which greatness was built.

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Why the Plantenet Angevins Ruled Half of Europe
Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Why the Plantenet Angevins Ruled Half of Europe

When most people think of medieval kings, we generally think of one monarch, one kingdom, and then the people below him.. But Henry II of England—first of the Angevin kings—was no ordinary ruler. By the 1170s, he commanded more territory than any other monarch in Christendom, stretching from the wild hills of Northumberland to the sunlit vineyards of Aquitaine. He was king in only England—he was the Norman and Aquitainian duke, the count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. But is was all his dominion, and it was so vast that chroniclers called it an “empire,” though it was stitched together by marriage, inheritance, and sheer force of will.

So how did a French count’s son come to rule half of Europe?

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Bloodbath at the Lionheart’s Coronation
Medieval Jews, Medieval England and Angevin Empire, Faith Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval Jews, Medieval England and Angevin Empire, Faith Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Bloodbath at the Lionheart’s Coronation

We remember Richard the Lionheart as a crusader king, a warrior who fought Saladin, and whose name resounded across Christendom. But for England’s Jews, his reign began in fire and betrayal.

Benedict of York’s story embodies that betrayal. Beaten at the doors of Westminster Hall, baptised by a friend who meant him no harm, denied even a grave among his people, his fate symbolises the peril of being both essential and despised in medieval England.

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The Battle of Fornham: When a Countess Rode to War and Changed Medieval England Forever
Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce

The Battle of Fornham: When a Countess Rode to War and Changed Medieval England Forever

In the mist-shrouded dawn of October 17, 1173, near the quiet Suffolk village of Fornham St. Genevieve, history was about to witness something remarkable. Not just another medieval battle between king and rebels, but the extraordinary tale of a countess who donned armor, took up lance and shield, and rode into battle alongside her husband against the Crown itself.

This is the story of Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester – a woman whose courage would echo through the centuries, and whose fall into a muddy ditch would become one of the most memorable moments of medieval English warfare.

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What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?
Medieval Jews, Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce Medieval Jews, Medieval England and Angevin Empire Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?

In twelfth-century England, Jewish communities lived in a world of many languages: Hebrew for prayer and scholarship, Anglo-Norman French for daily life and business, early Yiddish among German-origin Jews, and Middle English among their neighbours. Here’s how that multilingual world shaped the Jewish characters in Lady of the Castle.

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