Gilles de Laval, Sire de Rais, companion of Joan of Arc, Marshal of France. By Éloi Firmin Féron (1802–1876) • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS “Beast of extermination”, “terrifying vampire” who “killed with pleasure” and “enjoyed death even more than pain”, according to Jules Michelet. The most artistic and th
King Arthurs knights, gathered around the Round Table to celebrate Pentecost, have a vision of the Holy Grail. Manuscript of Lancelot in prose. National Library of France • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS “B get back the leader » and « Bretaigne la grant :these territories with very uncertain borders among me
Statue of Byrhtnoth in Maldon, the site of the battle where this Anglo-Saxon leader fought the Vikings in 991 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The word viking is either a common noun:a Viking (which is written with or without an initial capital letter), or an adjective:[a boat] viking. It first appeared in F
View of the Crozon peninsula, in Brittany • ISTOCKPHOTO The migration, at the beginning of the High Middle Ages, of island Bretons (now Great Britain) to the Armorican peninsula, giving it the name of Brittany, is one of the essential moments in its history. Although this transmarine movement is
A polar bear, by Nicolas Maréchal • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Favila, second king of Asturias, died in 739 under the claws of a brown bear (Ursus arctos ) in the heights of Cangas de Onís, according to the Chronicle of Albelda and that of Alfonso III. A popular Spanish saying, inspired by this episode,
The Decameron, by John William Waterhouse. 1916. Lady Lever Art Gallery, UK. • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / LADY LEVER ART GAL Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), known in French as Boccace, is considered one of the creators of the Italian language. If Dante invented it by choosing poetry above all, Boccacci
View of the choir of the Sainte-Chapelle, built in Paris to house the relics collected by Saint Louis in the 13th century • ISTOCK Relics are the remains (from the Latin reliqua ) bodies of Christ or saints. This is not only their remains, but also everything they owned or objects they came into
Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, July 15, 1099. In this painting by Émile Signol, Godfrey Bouillon gives thanks to God in the presence of Peter the Hermit after the capture of the city. 1847. Palace of Versailles. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS The vast popular movement that resulted in the capture of
Godfrey of Bouillon as a Christian valiant, on a fresco (1416-1424) in the baronial hall of the Château de la Manta, Saluzzo. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS I will not wear a crown of gold where Christ wore a crown of thorns. On July 22, 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon had just refused the title of King of Jerusa
The Crusades Room in the Palace of Versailles is part of the museum dedicated to all the glories of France, desired by King Louis-Philippe and opened in 1843. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS The Crusades have long been, since the Middle Ages in fact, as much an object of history as of memory. With increased
Jerusalem today, with the Old City in the foreground. • ISTOCKPHOTO At the end of the Xth century, what the Muslims had called al-Quds (the Holy) fell into the hands of the Fatimids of Egypt, who established a Shiite caliphate there. Caliph al-Hakim came to power in 996 and exercised it with fa
Like any honorable young girl, Joan of Arc knew how to spin, but no one has ever seen her write or read or use a prayer book. • LIST Whether or not Jeanne knew how to read and write is still an open question today. 19th century historians century leaned in general for the ignorance of the Maid.
Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1879 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The painter, himself from Lorrain, depicted the moment of divine revelation in the garden of Jeannes parents, in Domrémy. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS History is the daughter of space as of time. And the medieval space is ne
Wedding banquet. Illumination from Histoire dOlivier de Castille et dArtus dAlgarbe by Philippe Camus, 1440, Department of Manuscripts, National Library of France • WIKIPEDIA In the Middle Ages, banquets were an essential moment in the life of high society. They were plentiful, popular, luxuriou
Imaginary portrait of François Villon, made between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Lithograph by Ludwig Rullmann • WIKIMEDIA François de Montcorbier, known as François Villon, was born in Paris in 1431 and disappeared from our sources after 1463. As a universi
Fragment of the Liber linteus bearing an inscription in Etruscan language and coming from the mummy of Zagreb • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In 1847 or 1848, the secretary of the royal chancellery in Vienna, a Croat named Mihael Baric, bought a mummy in Egypt. It is then customary for travelers to buy anci
Fragmentary portrait of the elderly Sesostris III. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS When Sesostris III ascended the throne around 1878-1872 BC. J.-C., the pharaohs of the XIIth dynasty (c. 1991-1784 BC) failed to recapture the imposing grandeur of the Old Kingdom. They st
Detail of a bas-relief from Trajans Column, Rome. 2nd century AD. AD • ISTOCKPHOTO Contrary to what his name seems to indicate, the centurion did not command 100 men, but a staff of between 60 and 100 soldiers – more often 60 than 100, moreover. This number is enough to make him not a non-commis
Remains of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct, near Rome (park of the aqueducts). • ISTOCKPHOTO Barbarians or bacilli? Invasions or viruses? Or both ? In other words, would climate change and pandemics have precipitated the fall of Rome? Drought, flood, smallpox and bubonic plague would be the names of i
• STOCKPHOTO “There are two liquors very agreeable to the human body, the wine within, the oil without. These liquids, products of two trees, are excellent; but oil is a necessary object. This assertion by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History was right:olive oil was an essential product in the
Engraving depicting the arrival of Bougainville in Tahiti in April 1768 • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, youngest son of a notary from Châtelet in Paris, was already 27 years old when he boarded a long-distance ship for the first time. Indeed, he is making his first crossing of
If we talk about the sieges that Julius Caesar experienced, Alesia will immediately come to mind, where he defeated the Gallic leader Vercingetorix after a month and a half of fighting and after having himself been besieged, when an enemy army unexpectedly appeared in the rear. He precisely he would
An important part of the teaching given concerns the knowledge that will be essential to us:the life and customs of the peoples or tribes among whom we will live and act, geography and history of the countries where we are likely to be sent, particular traits of the various populations, studied from
Its called Scientific Renaissance the period of development of science during the 15th and 16th centuries. This time was based on rationalism, humanism and the knowledge of Classical Antiquity that changed peoples mentality. Vitruvian Man (1490) by Leonardo da Vinci. Iconic illustration of Renaiss