Middle Ages: Definition and Timeline (Video)

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Knights Duelling On Foot In A Tournament 19th CenturyKnights duelling on foot in a tournament, 19th century. Plate 1 from The History of the Nations by Vincenzo Gazzotto, Vincenzo. Artist G Lago. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

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Middle Ages

People use the phrase “Middle Ages” to describe Europe between the fall of Rome in 476 CE and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century.

Who Were the Knights Templar? After Christian armies captured Jerusalem from Muslim control in 1099 during the Crusades, groups of pilgrims from across Western Europe started visiting the Holy Land. Many of them, however, were robbed and killed as they crossed through Muslim-controlled territories during their journey. Around 1118, a French knight named Hugues de […]

Hundred Years’ War

The name the Hundred Years’ War has been used by historians since the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the long conflict that pitted the kings and kingdoms of France and England against each other from 1337 to 1453. Two factors lay at the origin of the conflict: first, the status of the duchy […]

Pandemics That Changed History

In the realm of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst case scenario. When an epidemic spreads beyond a country’s borders, that’s when the disease officially becomes a pandemic. Communicable diseases existed during humankind’s hunter-gatherer days, but the shift to agrarian life 10,000 years ago created communities that made epidemics more possible. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, […]

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6 Surprising Discoveries From Medieval Times

The Middle Ages have yielded a series of amazing archaeological discoveries, from medieval swords to buried castle remains to evidence of zombie fears.

An ancient fresco of the Danza Macabra (Dance of the Death) and Trionfo della Morte (Triumph of the Death)

7 Mysterious Mass Illnesses That Defied Explanation

From a dancing plague to a laughing epidemic, the symptoms were clear—but the culprit was not.

Eight Knights Who Changed History

Well-trained, heavily-armored knights represented a triumph of military might during the Middle Ages.

Print depicting a doctor practising bloodletting on a patient. (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

A Brief History of Bloodletting

Find out more about this ancient treatment’s long history.

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Holy Grail

How did the real history of the Knights Templar become intertwined with the mysterious object known as the Holy Grail? Historian Dan Jones traces the medieval origins of the myth linking the cup of Christ to Crusader knights.