How a thirteenth century knight was armed and armoured

I happened upon a recent video post from Lindybeige in which he discusses with a fellow re-enactor ar the 2023 Battle of Evesham event the arms and armour used in the thirteenth century. In terms of body armour, as their discussion indicates, this was an ‘age of transition’ from mail to plate armour, and this is reflected in the equipment that is being worn. The video has a slightly quirky beginning explaining the presenter’s misadventure at Evesham railway station, which left him with just this one video of the weekend. All things considered I think he did well to salvage what he did. The video can be seen at A 13th Century Knight's Kit

I have not managed to attend the Evesham battle re-creation but it looks appealing from the general shots in the video. It is an annual event, held, I believe, on the weekend closest to the anniversary of the 1265 battle which was fought ( in a thunderstorm ) on August 4th of that year. 

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa and the Oxford Franciscans 1224-2024

Today is the feast of Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, who was sent eight centuries ago to establish the Franciscans in Oxford. This octocentenary of the arrival of the Greyfriars in England is being marked by a series of celebratory events which began at Dover and Canterbury last Sunday. They conclude with a High Mass in the Dominican church in Oxford at 4pm on September 21st.

Bl. Agnellus dies in 1236 and his remains were preserved in the friary church until its destruction in the sixteenth century. It is possible they are still there. One suggestion is that they are in a garden adjacent to the site. Another, made by the late Fr Jerome Bertram, Cong. Orat.,who helped excavate the friary in the 1970s, is that they are under the fish counter in the Sainsbury's which now occupies part of the site…

I have posted about Bl. Agnellus in 2010 at Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, in 2011 at Bl Agnellus of Pisa, and in 2015 at Bl Agnellus of Pisa

I have posted more about the medieval Greyfriars house in Oxford in 2012 in Medieval Franciscans in Oxford and, slightly more generally along with the other friaries of the town and University, in a 2015 post Out and about Oxford with Friars

The Franciscan Capuchins established a new community at the church of St Edmund and St Frideswide together with an academic Hall of the University - now sadly closed - in 1928. The Capuchins are one of the later reformed Franciscan communities established in 1525. The return of the Conventual Franciscans, the successors of the medieval friars, to Oxford occurred in 2014 and that is is covered in Greyfriars return to Oxford

May St Francis, Bl.Agnellus, and all the Franciscan saints and beati pray for the Franciscan community and for us all.

The Templars and their pet

Military men and religious communities have a tradition of having animal pets.

Regimental mascots are a familiar sight, ranging from an Irish wolfhound, to Welsh mountain goats and to Shetland ponies, complete with an appropriate ceremonial uniform and attendant NCO. Labradors have long been associated with officers of the RAF

Chaucer’s prioress of course had her pet dog, much, no doubt, to the horror of the nunnery’s episcopal Visitor.

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Oratorians, because of the tradition of St Philip having a cat, are keen to have their community provided with a pet cat. Pushkin, at the Birmingham Oratory became an international celebrity when he was stroked by Pope Benedict on his visit. Oxford used to have Buskin as its resident mouser as well as the Rubrics - a pair of goldfish in an outside pool who were so named because they were small, red, and largely ignored.

Medievalists.net takes us in a recent post to an interesting combination with the Knights Templar in Acre before it fell in 1291. As a community of military men organised as a religious community it is perhaps no surprise that they would have a pet, but the choice is, shall we say, distinctive. A crocodile. Yes, a crocodile - admittedly one that had been de-toothed. It could perhaps give you a nasty suck. One wonders if being appointed keeper of the Crocodile was the Templar equivalent of being assigned the short straw….

The article can be seen at Did the Knights Templar Keep a Pet Crocodile? A Medieval Mystery Unveiled

The windows of Notre Dame Paris

One might well think that M.Macron the “President of the French Republic” had more than enough on his metaphorical plate at the moment with the constitutional mess he has managed to land the Fifth Republic in with his snap election. With political cannon to the right of him, and political cannon to the left of him, all trained on him as he potentially rides into the valley of political death, you would think he would avoid making any more enemies. 

However according to The Art Newspaper M. Le President of this avowedly secular state, so keen to separate State from Church, has inserted himself once more into the discussion around the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris. M. Macron has backed a proposal to replace the undamaged grisaille glass in medieval style installed by Viollet le Duc with works by modern artists…. This idea has not been well received. Anyone who has seen the Chagall window at Chichester will appreciate why. Consciously modern stained glass in a medieval building rarely works in such a setting, however skilled the modern artist.

The story is set out in the TAN article at Row over Notre-Dame’s stained glass re-ignites

More reflections on ‘Dominus Vobiscum’

Last month I wrote about, and linking to, an article on the New Liturgical Movement website about the use in the liturgy of the ‘Dominus Vobiscum’. My post can be seen at Dominus Vobiscum

The NLM has now followed this up with a lengthy quotation about the phrase from Durandus’ Rationale divinorum officiorum, which was compiled before 1286. As Gregory DiPippo says in his introduction to the article Durandus’ Rationale is the liturgical equivalent of the Summa Theolcogica. This additional commentary can be read at Durandus on the “Dominus Vobiscum”

Cardinal Müller speaking forcefully about the Synod

The Canadian based website LifeSiteNews reports on an interview given by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the CDF, about the soon to resume Synod on Synodality. His Eminence is forceful and forthright in his comments, which make his position clear. The article can be seen at Cardinal Müller suggests ‘anti-Catholic forces’ pushing pro-abortion Agenda 2030 in the Synod

The Wikipedia article about the Cardinal gives a wide ranging selection of his robust views on ecclesial matters in the current climate of the Church. I doubt I am the only one to find them reassuring. The article can be seen at Gerhard Ludwig Müller

Recruitment and composition in armies of the Wars of the Roses

The other evening I watched on YouTube two very interesting videos from Matt Easton of Scholagladiatora. He is a well known and respected re-enactor who also teaches a variety of historic combat techniques and is a prolific creator of informative videos on such matters.

The two I saw were about how armies were recruited in the time of the Wars of the Roses, and about the age of those who engaged in battle. He illustrated this latter topic with evidence from the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. As Matt himself pointed out this was a somewhat unscientific sampling, but it was nonetheless interesting and credible.The conclusion could be summed up as being that the professional soldier of the fifteenth century was not that much different in age from the professional soldier of today. Of course the men sampled were the equivalent of the officers of later military formations. The rank and file, as in modern conflicts, would be likely to be younger. Elite commanders, such as the Yorkists Duke of Gloucester at eighteen and King Edward IV’s stepson Thomas Grey at sixteen, or the Lancastrian Edward Prince of Wales at seventeen, might be younger, but their military command was because of their social rank.This does appear consistent with the evidence from the grave pit at Towton where some men had clearly had years of military experience before their fatal encounter that snowy Palm Sunday in 1461.

The two videos can be seen at How were Medieval Armies & Soldiers Recruited? and at How OLD were Medieval Knights & Soldiers in Battle? The Battle of Tewkesbury (1471)

The olfactory sense of History

The  Daily Telegraph has a quite lengthy and scholarly article by the standards of even the contemporary ‘quality’ press which originates with the latest film about King Henry VIII. The fact that whilst filming the set was sprayed with a scent designed to simulate the odours which it was thought would have accompanied the aging monarch with his infected leg ulcers and associated sickroom smells is the starting point for an examination of how sixteenth century people and their predecessors accommodated such odours. It can be read at what is actually a slightly misleadingly entitled article at Yes, Henry VIII really was that disgusting

The article challenges both the idea that everything in the period was rank and gross - a point I have made here on the blog quite a few times - and that covering malodorous airs with pleasing ones was standard practice. It also looks at the fact that people did wash regularly, and change their clothes, so as to avoid giving offence. The fear of bad air as a carrier or vector of disease was well established as health advice. As the article shows King Henry had bathrooms at his palaces, as had his predecessors for at least two centuries. Earlier still King John liked to have a warm bath each day when travelling. What was possible for the monarch might indeed not be available to many, but the use of half casks from the wine trade as baths is frequently shown in illuminated manuscripts or referred to quite far down the social scale. The fact that people did try to make themselves pleasant and presentable is clear, as in the numerous Books of Courtesy to which I alluded recently in discussing Daniel of Beccles’ poem the Book of the Civilised Man.of advice to young men from about 1200.in How to get on in Society in Angevin England

Keeping yourself clean was a way of keeping your clothes clean, and that when the range of most people’s wardrobes was far less than that of today. Ordinary fabrics ran the risk of colour loss with much washing, and washing was not practicable for luxury fabrics. 

The article makes the point that urban streets were often dirty in the period, but that was not for want of civic ordinances against nuisances left or dumped in the streets by traders and householders, and people were apparently quite vociferous in complaining such matters.

Modern bathing facilities are just that, modern. You do not have to look far back to see a society with far more limited resources. They may not have had power-showers seventy odd years ago, but it does not mean that people did not try their best with the resources available to be clean and to present themselves well. That applies for much earlier periods, and survivals of personal grooming tools, and not just combs, bears this out back to the Anglo-Saxon period.

We might well be shaken were we to encounter the aromas of the past, but we should remember their absence from our lives is a very modern thing.