Medieval Europe: Did you mean...?

Europe during the most recent glacial, in which the ice sheets reached peak growth between c. 26.500 to c. 19,000 years ago. This is known as the Last Glacial Maximum. Sea levels were lower than today.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648), concluded through treaties signed at Osnabrück and Münster (May-October 1648), marked the end of two major conflicts: the Thirty...

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is the highest order of knighthood in Britain and the most exclusive with traditionally only 24 knights as full members at any one time, along with the reigning monarch and the Prince of Wales...

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via the Middle...

Batu Khan (l. 1205-1255 CE) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Golden Horde. Batu was a skilled Mongol military commander and won battles from China to Persia, although his most famous exploits involve the grand...

Poetry is the first form of literary expression in the world as evidenced by The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest piece of world literature. For over 4,000 years, people have been writing poetry to express personal, communal...

This map illustrates the major religious divisions across Europe during the 16th century, a period marked by the sweeping changes of...

The First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte (reign 1804-1814; 1815) marked the peak of French political and military dominance in Europe following the...

The first female warrior attested to historically is Queen Ahhotep I of Egypt (l. c. 1570-1530 BCE) who put down a rebellion by the Hyksos when her son, Ahmose I, was campaigning against the Nubians...

Feudalism was the system in 10th-13th century European medieval societies where a social hierarchy was established based on local administrative control and the distribution of land into units (fiefs). A landowner (lord) gave a fief...