Hey. Welcome to the beginning of my 15th century England research.
Having written Love in the Roses, I have a lot of research to share with you. It took me a LOT of effort, so I'm hoping to save you some of that by collating my findings. Each post will look at a different aspect of life back then.
I'd like to explain first, a little bit about the era...
It was a turbulent time in our history, to say the least. But let me summarise the eras:
{
Anglo-Saxon (raids
& settlement): 449 - c550 AD
{
Separate Anglo-Saxon
Kingdoms: c550 – 924
{
United Anglo-Saxon
England: 924 – 1066
{
(Danish Rule: 1016 – 1042 btw)
{
Norman Period: 1066 –
1154
{ (The Anarchy: 1135 – 1148)
{ The Plantagenets: 1154 – 1485
The period before was ‘Ancient Britain’ and the one following was ‘Early Modern Britain’ which began with the reign of The Tudors.
I actually did a few fun TikTok videos showing the highlights of the Ages. Please note, the Regency era was way after the medieval era.
The Middle Ages themselves can be
broken down into periods:
{
Early Middle Ages: 500
– 1066
{ High Middle Ages: 1066 – 1272
{ Late Middle Ages: 1272 - 1485
There is debate on this, as with
all things, but that’s roughly it.
Major Events
{
Battle of Hastings:
1066
{
The Doomsday Book:
1086
{
The First Crusade:
1095 - 1099
{
Conquest of Ireland:
began 1155
{
The Magna Carta: 1215
{
Scottish Wars of
Independence: 1296 – 135
{
Hundred Years War –
with France: 1337 – 1453
{
Bubonic Plage (The
Black Death): 1348 – 1349
{
Bubonic Plage (Round
2): 1361 – 1362
{ The Peasants Revolt: 1381
{ The Cousins War (The War of the Roses): 1455 – 1485
.png)
v
Henry VI (Lancaster): 1422-1461
v
Edward IV (York): 1461-1470
v
Henry VI (again): 1470-1471 (imprisoned &
died)
v
Edward IV (again): 1471-1483 (died)
v
Edward V (not crowned & disappeared):
Apr-Jun 1483
v Richard III (York): 1483-1485
v Henry VII (Tudor): 1485-1509
OK, so there are a lot of facts and figures here. But the point I'm trying to make is the Medieval England covers a long time, and I really wanted to clarify the dates as so many seem to get it wrong.
Fun fact; do you know the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain? It probably refers to Richard III - the last English king to die in battle. But gives the sequence of colours in the rainbow; ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).
I did just want to include a little note on languages in 15th century England too. Within England itself, it was possible to travel to different regions and not be understood. We spoke all these languages (noted in the image). East Midland (which became the standardised English) and Kentish are in bold as they feature in my book.
 |
| Thanks to Angeline Trevena for drawing this map for me! |
Due to the vast expanse of time (almost one thousand years!), there were obviously a lot of changes. I'll be exploring some of these in following blog posts.
Here are some fun final thoughts on the era:
King Arthur, if he was a real person, and there are some exciting ideas on who he really was, would've lived in the 6th century.
Robin Hood, who really wasn't real, would've been around in the 12th or 13th century.
William Shakespeare lived later on, 1564-1616. This is worth noting, as he wrote some rather nasty things about Richard III which we now know (thanks to the body found under a car park) were not entirely accurate! Good ole Elizabeth I and the Tudor propaganda, eh?
Now, Geoffrey Chaucer, of The Canterbury Tales fame, lived c.1340-1400. He is noted as the 'Father of English Literature'. He may have written the first novel, "Troilus and Criseyde". Back then, people wrote in Latin (because fancy!). But when Chaucer wrote, he chose the "lower-class" Saxon language, in Middle English (controversial!). It's pretty tricky to understand now, but give it a go.
OK, that's hopefully enough to give you some context. In the next blog post, I'll be looking into the hierarchy / societal structure.
Always in love and light,
TL
My book, Love in the Roses is available for pre-order (click here).
To protect her family, she must marry the enemy!
The fictitious tale of a
knight’s daughter, living life as it very well may have been in 1484.
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