Just History Posts

I am so excited to reveal the cover for my fourth book, Richard II: King, Culture and the Court of Venus! This book has been many years in the making, and I’ve given brief, periodic mentions of it before, so I am pleased to be able to finally give you the full run-down. All of […]

As I’m getting back into the groove with blogging after my book hand in, I thought I’d turn back to one of my favourite series, A Brief Moment of History. I was listening to a podcast recently which was talking about famous cons, and the story of the world’s smallest skyscraper was recounted. Fascinated by […]

After a busy few months finishing off my fourth book (more on that later this year!) I am excited to finally be back to writing on Just History Posts. And we start the year with a great interview from a perspective we haven’t yet heard on the blog, that of a filmmaker. Leon Mitchell is […]

King John is one of England’s most infamous kings. His reputation at the time of his death and afterwards was so disastrous that in the 800 years after his death, no other English king has taken the name John. King John is known for many things: his unusual ascent to the throne, the Magna Carta, his reputation as king, but perhaps most importantly to archaeologists and treasure hunters alike is t…

Hello and welcome back to our “An Interview With” series! Today it is my pleasure to have author and historian of the Second World War, Victoria Panton Bacon, on as our guest, in a timely post for Remembrance Day. Today also sees the release of Victoria’s first children’s book, Their Second World War. Victoria is a ‘People Person’, and loves to write, particularly about the Second World War – her…

Today I’m pleased to be hosting a guest post looking at the origins of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. This is a topic that comes up quite a lot on this blog, as it’s right in my era of expertise, so I’m happy to hear from Talia. Talia is a 19-year-old self-taught future historian focused on Medieval England and the Crusades. She’s the founder of the History with Talia Substack…

Today we have a really interesting guest post lined up for you. I’m happy to introduce Catherine Williams, a graduate student in Early Modern Studies, who will be telling us all about White women in the Early Modern American South. These women held unique positions of power and authority through their scarcity and through the slaves that they owned and managed. Over to you, Catherine! Allow me to…

Fashion is fashionable. It is ever-changing, inspired by culture, religion, and society, and every century has had its own “craze” where people go to extremes that are sometimes criticised by contemporaries, and sometimes by those looking back and wondering “what were they thinking?”. But one trend of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries was that for electric fashion: literally infus…

It’s been a little while since I’ve written about a castle, despite the plethora of incredible castles in England where I live, let alone ones further afield. Last month I visited Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to pick this series back up! Pontefract Castle was one of the most important in the country throughout the medieval period, up until its destruct…

Today we have a wonderful guest post by jeweller Samuel Mee, giving us a fascinating tour through some key pieces of jewellery from history. It’s a real great snippet into just how important jewellery could be, and how much we can glean about certain times in the past from the jewellery which was fashionable. Samuel Mee is the founder of The Antique Ring Boutique and a member of Lapada. He has se…

Today we return to an old favourite series of mine, looking at the history of mythical creatures. In recent years, the unicorn has experienced a true revival, representing both LGBTQ+ communities and becoming a fan favourite of young children. But the unicorn was just as popular in medieval Europe, appearing countless times in artwork and heraldry. So where did the idea of this creature come from…

Ask anyone on the street when they think the worst year in human history was, and I’m sure there’d be quite a variety of answers offered. Years during the World Wars; when the Black Death swept Europe; or even more recent events like during the Covid pandemic. War and disease are probably the most significant influencing factors. But one historian (Michael McCormick, to be precise), has one you a…

Many of us are aware of the Reformation, and how it completely changed the landscape of Europe across the 16th century and beyond. But not so many are aware of the Catholic Church’s response to the Reformation, and how it tried to reform the Church and lure people back to Catholicism, whilst re-asserting its identity in the face of Protestant branches. I’ve always found this period of time so fas…

Today I am pleased to be hosting a guest post written by Darryl King. Darryl is the founder of Jester Planet, a site that is dedicated to being a comprehensive guide to jesters throughout history. Writing under the pen name D.E. King, he is also the author of the In All Jest series. The epic […]

Today, I’m really excited to be writing a book review of the upcoming Lionessheart by historian Catherine Hanley. The topic of the book is the exact type of history I love to read (and write!) and so I couldn’t wait to dive in and share my thoughts with you all. NB, I was sent a […]

Surviving historical artefacts are so interesting to write about because there are so many strands of history they can illuminate for us. It could be teaching us about artwork and design popular in another time period, it can show us the skill of craftsmen from centuries or millennia ago, and in the case of the […]

With the start of a new year, and time to reflect over the winter break, I’ve made some decisions about the blog and its future that I thought were worth putting in a blog post. If you follow my newsletter, then you’ll know that in my last post before Christmas I recounted that 2024 was […]

When tracing the lives of women who lived millennia ago, extracting the real history from the subsequent myth and legend can be difficult. This is certainly the case with Trưng Trắc and her sister, Trưng Nhị, two Vietnamese noblewomen who lived in the first century AD. The sisters led a heroic revolt against the Chinese, […]

I am pleased to host another fantastic interview, with author Emily Murdoch Perkins. Emily Murdoch Perkins is an historian and author with a varied career to date: from medieval manuscripts to researching documentaries to marketing, and now, historical non-fiction. She lives with her supportive husband, eats more cheese than is good for her, and is […]

I am really excited to finally reveal the details of my next book! Coming October 2024 (November 2024 for my US followers) is my third history book, Women in the Middle Ages: Illuminating the World of Peasants, Nuns, and Queens. I cannot wait for this beautiful book to be out in the world! Something of […]