Cluny Abbey: Did you mean...?

Henry III of England ruled from 1216 to 1272 CE. The son of the unpopular King John of England (r. 1199-1216 CE), Henry was immediately faced with the ongoing Barons' War which had been fuelled by discontent over John's rule and his failure...

Fraumünster Church (“Women's church” in German) is a former Benedictine abbey situated in the heart of Zürich, Switzerland that was founded in the mid-9th century CE by Louis the German and his daughters, Hildegard and Bertha. Flourishing...

By the end of 1066 CE William the Conqueror had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings, subdued the south-east of England and been crowned King William I in Westminster Abbey but there remained rebellion in the air throughout 1067...

By early 1070 CE William I (r. 1066-1087 CE) had almost completed the Norman conquest of England. There remained threats from the border regions with Wales and Scotland but the north of England had finally be subdued by the ruthless harrying...

An aerial tour of Chepstow Castle in Wales. The castle was first built c. 1067 CE by Earl William FitzOsbern, and then extended from c. 1190 CE by Sir William Marshal (c. 1146-1219 CE).

Monasteries were an ever-present feature of the Medieval landscape and perhaps more than half were devoted solely to women. The rules and lifestyle within a nunnery were very similar to those in a male monastery. Nuns took vows of chastity...

The monastic orders of the Middle Ages developed from the desire to live a spiritual life without the distractions of the world. Men and women who took religious vows were seeking a purity of experience they found lacking as lay people. Their...

Illuminated manuscripts are, as their name suggests, hand-made books illumined by gold and silver ink. They were produced in Western Europe between c. 500 and c. 1600 CE and their subject matter is usually Christian scripture, practice, and...

Wine has been made for over 7,000 years, and effervescent wine for just as long since sealing wine before the fermentation is complete will naturally produce it. True sparkling wine, though, a wine that is clear from cloudy impurities, was...

Lutetia Parisiorum was the capital of the Parisii, a tribe in ancient Gaul. The Parisii were a tribe on the Middle Seine, and Lutetia ("place near a swamp") was one of their main settlements. It was on the south bank of the river. In 53 BCE...