Medieval Warfare Magazine

Editor-in-chief: Jasper Oorthuys Editor: Alice Isabella Sullivan Image research: Lauren van Zoonen Design & media: Christy Beall Artwork advisers: Robert W. Jones (Advanced Studies in England, Franklin and Marshall College), Robert C. Woosnam-Savage

Charles IV of Bohemia (1316–1378, r. 1346-1378) was King of the Romans and of Bohemia, as well as Holy Roman Emperor. Born Wenceslaus to parents connected with the notable Luxembourg and Přemyslid dynasties, he took on the name Charles to honor his F

Viking Age teeth from Sweden bear witness to surprisingly advanced dentistry. The study, carried out at the University of Gothenburg, examined 3,293 teeth from 171 individuals among the population of Varnhem in Västergötland, Sweden. In 2005 uncovere

Researchers in Poland have discovered new details about a nearly complete medieval chess set. By obtaining DNA from pieces of the Sandomierz chess set, they could determine what animals were used to make them. Discovered in 1962 during an archaeologi

In April 2015, looters sacked an ancient cave burial at a site called Urd Ulaan Uneet high within the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. When police apprehended the criminals, they uncovered, among other artifacts, an elegantly carved saddle made f

Coded letters penned by Mary Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned in England by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I have been uncovered by a team of international codebreakers. The contents of the letters were believed to have been lost for centuries. Th

A detail from the wall painting in the Chapel of Our Lady from Karlštejn Castle, showing Charles IV placing a relic of the True Cross (i.e. the cross on which Christ was crucified) into the large gold and gemencrusted Bohemian Reliquary Cross. The pa

As the thirteenth century drew to a close, Northeast Asia looked very different than it had for the previous millennium. The Mongols had exploded across the region in shocking fashion, altering the geo-political landscape in a way that sent ripples w

In 1592, with Hideyoshi Toyotomi having unified Japan into a single, centrally run state, plans were underway for a new invasion. This time, from Japan to the Korean Peninsula. Tsushima Island would once again find itself in the way. Hideyoshi's init

When Basil II destroyed and absorbed the Bulgarian empire in 1014, the victory earned him the title of the ‘Bulgar Slayer.’ Almost two hundred years later, the ruler of a restored Bulgaria dubbed himself the ‘Roman slayer’ in revenge. It was a title

The Crown Jewels of Bohemia – the coronation regalia of Bohemian monarchs – are preserved in a special chamber in Saint Vitus Cathedral. Modeled on the coronation regalia of the Holy Roman Emperors, equally lavish and symbolically meaningful, the Cro

The rule of Charles IV could be characterized as a ‘golden age’ of medieval Bohemian historiography. The importance of the past and its instrumentalisation in the context of regal and dynastic representation were key aspects of his ruling style. Ther

The proficiency of Latin among medieval writers varied widely. But the writers who could write the kind of Latin that Cicero or Augustine wrote had been trained to imitate ancient writers. Christian monks copied pagan poets because those poets were f

After coming to the end of any great work of the imagination it is hard not to ask, “What now?” One option is to become just as obsessed with how the book or movie or piece of music was made. Tom Shippey has already written a history of Tolkien's Lor

Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade By John France ISBN: 978-0521589871 Cambridge University Press, 1997 $37.99 (paperback) www.cambridge.org The First Crusade was a military undertaking greater than any of its participants h

Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347–1437 Edited by Barbara Drake Boehm and Jirí Fajt Yale University Press, 2005 ISBN: 978-0300111385 Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV and his Legend of St Wenceslas Edited by Balázs Nagy Central European University