Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 30 August 2021

Arms and armour videos VIII: Teutonic Penguin


Another US based site on medieval armour is Teutonic Penguin. It is the creation of Samuel from Wisconsin and is, as the first part of the title implies, concerned with the life and campaigns of the Teutonic Knights. The main time frame appears to be the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. I am not sure why he self- identifies as a penguin, unless it is a reference to the black and while colours of the Order.

Although the Knights were based in Prussia and Livonia and drawn from the German speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire they also attracted visiting knights from elsewhere - in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Englishmen went out to join in a campaigning season, most notably the future King Henry IV.

Once again this is an informative and engaging set of videos. Ideal to complement reading Eric Christiansen’s The Northern Crusades - a masterly study of the topic.


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