From the Archives: Daughters of Chivalry

I’m getting closer to having enough bandwidth to write new posts, honest.  In the meantime, here’s one of my favorites from 2019.   In Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Princesses of King Edward Longshanks, historian Kelcey Wilson-Lee tells the stories of the five daughters of Edward I of England and his first wife, Eleanor of…

Read More

From the Archives: An Islamic Map for a Christian King

When we last left Sicily,  the Roman Republic had taken Siracusa, which became the capital of Roman government in Sicily. The Romans held Sicily for 300 some years. The island was subsequently occupied by the Byzantine empire in 535 CE, Arabs from North Africa in 965 and the Normans in 1060. * Under the Normans,…

Read More

Road Trip Through History: 871 +/-2

In 2001, an Icelandic construction crew was excavating a basement for a new hotel in the historic district of Reykjavik when they made a major archaeological discovery which included not only the oldest relics of human habitation in the area, which date from before the “official” settlement day of 871CE, plus or minus a year…

Read More