Medieval: Viking

Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1 > .
Castle guard
https://youtu.be/BXXjmy0pYf4?t=26m20s
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffed knights. The obligation was commuted very early for a fixed money payment, a form of scutage known as "castle-guard rent", which lasted into modern times. Castle-guard was a common form of feudal tenure, almost ubiquitous, on the Isle of Wight where all manors were held from the Lord of the Isle of Wight, seated at Carisbrook Castle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle-guard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight%27s_fee
Medieval source material on the internet: Land taxes and feudal surveys
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/feudal.shtml
http://home.olemiss.edu/~tjray/medieval/feudal.htm .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzq6MC4YzCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU06Yr5ZzRc

Viking Woodsman Kit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYV4FndGF0M

Irish & Viking Medieval Weapons & Armour On Display At Gallow's Hill, Dungarvan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZqFj4HczRA

How to make fire with flint and steel - Viking Style Fire Lighting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-0Af4Ve6o

Journeys Through Time 1 - The Vikings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmwI55c1qXg

You Had to Be Strong Just to Wear the Armor as a Viking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Uw1g5MU_U

The Wilderness and Bushcraft Series - Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0sQ3n0iQgQJHffqgEGIgdZcJakZ0ae4v

Logistics in Medieval Warfare played a key role, although for a long time there was a view that there were no proper logistical system in the "Dark Ages", this has been largely debunked. Since large army operated for extended periods in enemy territory and we also have quite a paper trail in some cases. This video also covers the benefits and drawbacks of pack animals, carts and wagons. The difference between stall-feeding and grazing. The importance of militias and magnates. As well, as the basic differences to the Roman Empire and food requirements for men and beast.

▲ Warfare ➧

Ancient Warfare ➧
Anglo-Saxon vs Viking weaponry ➧
Bowmen ➧

Castles - medieval ➧
Cavalry ➧
Crossbows - medieval ➧

English Military Decline, 14th C? ➧
Medieval Warfare ➧
Siege Engines ➧
Siege Tower ➧ (11thC BCE ancient Near East, 4thC BCE Europe )

St. Brice's Day Massacre

13th November 1002: St Brice’s Day Massacre > .

11th - 14th Century History - HiPo >> .

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1002 CE - St Brice's Day Massacre ..

The St. Brice's Day massacre was the killing of Danes in the Kingdom of England on 13 November 1002, ordered by King Æthelred the Unready.

13th November 1002: St Brice’s Day Massacre - hp > .
England had been ravaged by Danish raids every year from 997 to 1001, and in 1002 the king was told that the Danish men in England "would faithlessly take his life, and then all his councillors, and possess his kingdom afterwards". In response, he "ordered slain all the Danish men who were in England".

Historians believe there was significant loss of life, though evidence is lacking on any specific estimates. Among those thought to have been killed is Gunhilde, who may have been the sister of King Sweyn I of Denmark. Her husband Pallig Tokesen, the Danish Ealdorman of Devonshire, may also have died in the massacre or, according to a different version, played a part in provoking it by his defection to join raiders ravaging the south coast.

The massacre in Oxford was justified by Æthelred in a royal charter of 1004 explaining the need to rebuild St Frideswide's Church (now Christ Church Cathedral):

For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me.

The skeletons of 34 to 38 young men, all aged 16 to 25, were found during an excavation at St John's College, Oxford in 2008. Chemical analysis carried out in 2012 by Oxford University researchers suggests that the remains are Viking; older scars on the bones provide evidence that they were professional warriors. It is thought that they were stabbed repeatedly and then brutally slaughtered. Charring on the bones is consistent with historical records of the church burning.

Historians have generally viewed the massacre as a political act which helped to provoke Sweyn's invasion of 1003. Simon Keynes in his Oxford Online DNB article on Æthelred described it as a "so-called" massacre, the reaction of a people who had been slaughtered and pillaged for a decade, directed not at the inhabitants of the Danelaw but at the mercenaries who had turned on their employers. Æthelred's biographer, Ryan Lavelle, also questions its extent, arguing that it could not have been carried out in the Danelaw, where the Danes would have been too strong, and that it was probably confined to frontier towns such as Oxford, and larger towns with small Danish communities, such as Bristol, Gloucester and London. He comments on the remarkable lack of remorse shown by Æthelred in the Oxford charter, but views the massacre not so much as a royally executed order as an exploitation of popular ethnic hatred and millenarianism. Audrey MacDonald sees it as leading on to the onslaught which eventually led to the accession of Cnut in 1016.

Mead & Vikings

"Mead" - The Drink That Fell From Favor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVRo3ucGeqU

Did the Vikings Really Drink Mead Every Day?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aunjfXyg404

Making Mead Like a Viking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6i0PdDDsjs

Hic - alcohol and drinks
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXYFDuJaCJL1HTXGjLiGjkKprEbvjpZP0

Norse

Normans - HiTi >> .

Medieval England - HiTi >> .

1. Serpent-raiders > .
2. Rollo the Walker > .
3. Ireland > .
4. The Lands of the Rus > .
5. A Song of Ice and Greenland > .
6. Wine Land > .

1 - Great Heathen Army - The Danelaw - Alfred vs. Guthrum > .
2 - The Fall of Eric Bloodaxe > .

Longships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aTzNoo-hxY

Draken - atlatli
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL64-uvJRwJ5mrCDwzpavpJb1qLmht4tFX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29mOXuVoE3o

Building of East Indiaman Götheborghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w04CpOl94Sc

Shipbuilding - wood

Viking-age smiths used the process known as riving to reduce a tree trunk to planks or to other useful articles. Rather than sawing the wood, they split it. As a result, the grain of the wood follows the piece being fabricated, creating a much stronger item than if it had been sawn. It's one of several reasons why thin-hulled Viking ships could withstand the rough seas of the North Atlantic. The process repeatedly splits the log, first into halves, then quarters, then eighths.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_woodworking_riving.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT9Qf6md-oc .

Battleship - 18th C ..

British DNA

British DNA ........

"There was not a single “Celtic” genetic group. In fact the Celtic parts of the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) are among the most different from each other genetically. For example, the Cornish are much more similar genetically to other English groups than they are to the Welsh or the Scots.

There are separate genetic groups in Cornwall and Devon, with a division almost exactly along the modern county boundary.

The majority of eastern, central and southern England is made up of a single, relatively homogeneous, genetic group with a significant DNA contribution from Anglo-Saxon migrations (10-40% of total ancestry). This settles a historical controversy in showing that the Anglo-Saxons intermarried with, rather than replaced, the existing populations.

The population in Orkney emerged as the most genetically distinct, with 25% of DNA coming from Norwegian ancestors. This shows clearly that the Norse Viking invasion (9th century) did not simply replace the indigenous Orkney population.

The Welsh appear more similar to the earliest settlers of Britain after the last ice age than do other people in the UK.

There is no obvious genetic signature of the Danish Vikings, who controlled large parts of England (“The Danelaw”) from the 9th century.

There is genetic evidence of the effect of the Landsker line – the boundary between English-speaking people in south-west Pembrokeshire (sometimes known as “Little England beyond Wales”) and the Welsh speakers in the rest of Wales, which persisted for almost a millennium."

DNA study shows Celts are not a unique genetic group - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31905764

DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans - The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/dna-deciphers-roots-of-modern-europeans.html?

BRITAIN ANGLO-SAXON GENETIC

2015, Nature FULL:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v519/n7543/full/nature14230.html
2015: http://www.heritagedaily.com/2015/03/first-fine-scale-genetic-map-british-isles/107039 2015: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/03/18/4200057.htm
2015: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/19/1690600.htm
2015: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31905764 2011: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/727/
2002: http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/7/1008.full

GENETICS ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN
"The Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes who lived in present-day Germany, northern Holland and Denmark, invaded Britain in 450 AD after the fall of the Roman empire.

They conquered England but were unable to penetrate far into the Celtic fringes of what are now Wales and Scotland. They coincidentally prompted an exodus of Britons to what is now Brittany, France.

The population of England at that time was probably around two million while the number of Anglo-Saxons was minute: the lowest estimate puts the number of migrants at less than 10,000 some 200 years after the invasion, although others put it at more than 100,000."

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/19/1690600.htm

2011: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/727/
and 2006, http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/727/1/17_-_Whence_came_the_English.pdf?DDD5+

DNA study shows Celts are not a unique genetic group - BBC News

Cloth Industry - Medieval & Tudor

Although the playlist below depicts cloth production after the 15th century, processing would be little changed since the late medieval period.

Links to specific activities demonstrated in documentary:
Sheep Shearing excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Wool sorting excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Church monopoly of wool trade excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Washing sheep excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Carding and spinning on Great (Walking) Wheel excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Weaving excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Fulling Mill excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Stretching fulled cloth on tenterhooks in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Sheep Shearing with blade shears .

Norse Crafts - Spinning, Weaving, Leather .

Spindle & Distaff .

Spinning Wheels .

Weaving .

Natural Pigments, Plant Dyes .

Links to specific activities demonstrated in documentary:
Woad excerpt in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .
Ochre excerpt 1 in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .
Ochre excerpt 2 in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .

Knitting, Nålebinding, Sprang

Knitting, Nålebinding, Sprang

Knitting is a technique of producing fabric from a strand of yarn or wool. Unlike weaving, knitting does not require a loom or other large equipment, making it a valuable technique for nomadic and non-agrarian peoples.

The oldest knitted artifacts are socks from Egypt, dating from the 11th century CE. They are a very fine gauge, done with complex colorwork and some have a short row heel, which necessitates the purl stitch. These complexities suggest that knitting is even older than the archeological record can prove.

Earlier pieces having a knitted or crocheted appearance have been shown to be made with other techniques, such as Nålebinding, a technique of making fabric by creating multiple loops with a single needle and thread, much like sewing. Some artifacts have a structure so similar to knitting, for example, 3rd-5th century CE Romano-Egyptian toe-socks, that it is thought the "Coptic stitch" of nalbinding is the forerunner to knitting.

Most histories of knitting place its origin somewhere in the Middle East, and from there it spread to Europe by Mediterranean trade routes and later to the Americas with European colonization.

Archaeological finds from medieval cities all over Europe, such as London, Newcastle, Oslo, Amsterdam, and Lübeck, as well as tax lists, prove the spread of knitted goods for everyday use from the 14th century onward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knitting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitted_fabric#History_of_knitwear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A5lebinding

Sprang 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pcDEnN3Jk
Sprang 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEfWnhMKRM
Sprang 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MmrfDV5m18
Sprang 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz429pqqdO4
Sprang 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqb2NYxXfVs
sprang braiding just one row
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc1kPywxgcc
Sprang braiding making holes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4cJYWlMUAk .

Pages

Paganism

𝕸 Anglo-Saxons to Normans

Anglo-Saxon Monarchs 410 - 927 CE

Metalworking - Viking Blacksmith Shop

Needle from Bone

Occupations - Dark Age jobs - Romans, Anglo-Saxons

Ribe Documentaries

Viking crafts

1066 Harald Hardrada

Brunanburh 937 CE

Ж Medieval Warfare Ж