Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Medieval World: Culture & Conflict picks up where its sister magazines – Ancient Warfare and Ancient History – leave off. The publication features the rich history and material culture of the Middle Ages – broadly conceived geographically and temporally – expanding on the contents of the popular Medieval Warfare magazine. Through well-researched and lavishly illustrated articles, this accessible publication brings to light cultural activities in local and global contexts, historical figures and events, as well as political, religious, economic, and artistic facets of the Middle Ages..

Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Editorial

MARGINALIA

TENOCHTITLAN • Founded in 1325, Tenochtitlan was one of the great cities of medieval Mesoamerica. It expanded its presence in the region relentlessly for nearly two centuries, becoming a powerhouse of trade, agriculture, and military dominance. Its technical sophistication made it one of the medieval world's largest, best-organised cities.

“BRANDISHING A SPEAR!” • On the eve of the feast of St. Margaret, 1333, a monk warned an army of impending doom. The image of Christ Crucified had appeared to him in a vision, he claimed, coming against the advancing Scots and “brandishing a spear!” To the holy man, the warning was clear: turn back or meet your end. But not even a vision of the Saviour armed could compel the Caledonians to stray from their chosen path. They were out of time.

THE BATTLE OF LAKE PEIPUS • The Battle of Lake Peipus saw the defeat of a Catholic army led by the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights by an alliance of the lordships of Novgorod and Vladimir under Aleksandr Nevsky. The battle stopped the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Knights’ Ordenstaat but it became far more significant some 700 years later, as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia faced each other over the same ground.

AN AGE OF EMPIRES • It is the nature of empires to rise and fall, and the medieval world was no different. Between the sixth and sixteenth centuries — across Africa, Asia, and Europe — superpowers emerged, conquered, and declined. Some of them are well-known but rarely thought of as empires, others are all but forgotten.

BEFORE THE FIRST VIKINGS • The Viking Age is bookended by an attack and defeat: a smouldering monastery in 793 and a shattered Norwegian army in 1066. But the people we call the ‘Vikings’ would not have recognised these turning points and would have likely placed themselves within a much older world: inheritors of both Roman and post-Roman legacies.

THE ‘STATE OF THE SEA’ • No city is as famous for its relationship with water than Venice. From its mysterious early origins to its current UNESCO heritage status, the lagoon has been a vital source for food, trade, conquest, and identity. For around 800 years, the water was the foundation for Venice's maritime empire, or Stato da Màr.

A FORGOTTEN POWER • From the Atlantic to Central Asia and Iberia to Yemen, the Umayyad Caliphate was one of the most powerful empires of the medieval period for almost a century, a sophisticated and centralised state that is now almost forgotten — or dismissed as a decadent interregnum. But there's more to the story.

TEMPLES OF POWER • In late medieval India, the Hindu rulers of Vijayanagara used sacred architecture as centres of worship, commerce, culture, and royal power to build an empire that covered much of South Asia. The surviving temples offer a window onto one of medieval India's greatest states.

HERO OR VILLAIN? • Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI and the queen of France, is traditionally considered as one of the many villains of her era but modern reassessments suggest she might be better seen as hero, protecting the common people from rapacious nobles. Where does the truth lie?

CONTINUING TRADITION • In...