Dr Rory MacLellan

People have an amazing ability to put fiction and its messages into a box entirely separate from their beliefs, like those who complain about Star Trek suddenly 'getting political'.

13th century seal showing a hand holding a sprig of foliage. LFC Ch XXVII 15. #medievalsky

*Call for Contributors* The Medieval in Museums
@archumanities.bsky.social

Check out the full CfP via link ➡️ bit.ly/CfPMiM

Welcoming chapters/dialogues/critical-creative texts from scholars, museum professionals, creative practitioners

deadline: Mon 3 Nov (5pm GMT)

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Seal of Henry of Winchelsea, with an impression from an intaglio gem of a lobster. LFC Ch XXVI 17. #medievalsky

Spotted in the wild at Foyle's.

Yes, the museum said they would have some for sale and me to sign after the talk

Publication day! My book on the Knights Hospitaller, 'Warrior Monks: Politics and Power in Medieval Britain' is now out. Available in all good and evil bookshops: www.amazon.co.uk/Warrior-Monk...

And that the surviving medieval corpus is massive in comparison but still extremely patchy

It's the bit I find most difficult conveying to the public is how big the gaps in sources are and how much we just won't ever know

Seal showing an eagle looking at a star

A strolling eagle looking at the stars. LFC Ch XXV 12. #medievalsky

Interpreted less charitably by Thomas Astle, its former owner, who drew it as a horned devil holding a baby and two brands. Stowe MS 665, f. 86r.

Image of a charter with 'la Sale de Plum' highlighted

Leadenhall Market

Margaret Neville's seal

LFC Ch XXIII 16, a medieval charter

Grant of Margaret Neville to her son in 1315 of her London mansion called 'la Sale de Plum', the Hall of Lead. The area is still called Leadenhall today. LFC Ch XXIII 16. #medievalsky

The back of the seal of Hubert de Burgh, a key figure in the governments of John and Henry III. An ancient intaglio gem was used showing Mercury holding a caduceus, a staff entwined with serpents. LFC Ch XXIII 3.

One week until publication of my book on the Knights Hospitaller in Britain and Ireland! #medievalsky

A small grotesque in red ink with a hood and wings, sitting on a foliate border

Tiny grotesque on this 1292 charter granting the manor of Sheet near Ludlow. LFC Ch XXIII 1. #medievalsky

Rather than the title of some steamy lycanthrope romantasy...

Stephen of Werehorn. LFC Ch XXII 5. Bit concerning when googling the name to have the safe search option come up. Werehorn thankfully turned out to be the name of a village.

I'm not sure. They're not very well documented elsewhere. They weren't knightly, maybe relatively well off free peasants, not serfs. I've found quite a lot of them have seals, but they don't get talked about much in the older literature as they're quite basic, normally just a flower and a legend.

Seal of Robert of Combe, with an eagle

Seal of Emma, daughter of Bald..., with a snowflake or stylised flower

Haven't seen this before. A husband and wife stamped a different side of the same piece of wax with their seal. LFC Ch XXV 14. #medievalsky

Seal of Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainault, later 1st Latin Emperor of Constantinople following the Fourth Crusade. LFC Ch XXII 4. #medievalsky

Seal with a ship with furled sails. LFC Ch XXV 16. #medievalsky

Another great medieval name: Dudeman. LFC Ch XXV 1. #medievalsky

Britain’s oldest Jewish cemetery discovered at the Barbican A team of amateur historians found the site, which dates from Norman times, just outside London’s ancient Roman wall

@medievaljews.bsky.social and I were quoted in The Times last week about a project we've been helping on to commemorate London's medieval Jewish cemetery. A free exhibition on the site is now at St Giles Cripplegate church until 16 September. #medievalsky

www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

A dark red oval seal with a church with turrets, tiled roof, and central tower. Legend: Sigillum ecclesiae cristi.

Very early depiction of Canterbury Cathedral in this seal of the cathedral chapter, attached to a charter of 1152, but using a seal matrix possibly of the 11th century. LFC Ch XXII 2. #medievalsky

Oh I see what you mean. That makes sense. Thanks!

Also the gaps in the medieval data make a comparison difficult. The map is based off the coroner's rolls for London in that period, which only survive for September 1300 to August 1301, 1315-16, 1321-22, 1323-24, 1324-25, 1325-26, 1336-37, 1338-39, 1338-40, only 9 years in 40.

Good point. I could see it being either way. Maybe medieval London was worse because almost everyone had a knife on them for cutting food, so had easier access to weapons, while the firearms in a modern US city are less widespread but much deadlier

The London murder map does cover a forty year period, but only has data for only 9 of those 40 years. The data just doesn't survive to prove it one way or another

Followed by verses on the kings of England, very similar to those by John Lydgate with some variations on wording.

This is a list of events from the Incarnation until 1433. Interesting to see what's included and what isn't. Nothing between St Augustine coming to England and the Conquest. The suppression of the Templars is referred to as their 'death'. Nothing between 1382 and Agincourt.