Thrilled to have been elected as an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society! Thank you very much to the council! @royalhistsoc.org

🏰 Uncover the secrets of medieval fencing—no sword required. Just log in and learn! medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/fenc... #HEMA #MedievalMartialArts

It is with great excitement that I'll be starting in a new role as a Collections Development Assistant at Lincolnshire Archives from June! :D Can't wait to get stuck in!

We’ve been told our content needs to be more informative so here you go

Katy Bennett @katybennett.bsky.social reviews 'Lordship and the Decentralized State in Late Medieval Europe', ed. Erika Graham-Goering @jeanneologist.bsky.social, Jim van der Meulen and Frederik Buylaert @academic.oup.com @britishacademy.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

⚔️ Did Beowulf contain echoes of the apocalypse? A new article explores how the poem reflects Christian ideas about the end times—and uncertainty about the future. 👉 Read more: www.medievalists.net/2026/04/medi... #Beowulf

Anyone with the Avignon papacy on their syllabus can feel particularly vindicated today

Amazing news! www.scotsman.com/heritage-and...

Really pleased to share my (open access!) article on immigration control in early modern England, feat. rights-bearing subjects, rightsless migrants, and experiments in immigration control

If you were interested in a short, fun, engagement with research and collections across our museum group, what format would you prefer that to take? - A blog? - A short video (2-3 mins?) - A c5mins bitesize podcast? - Something else? It would be really useful to hear from you!

Isaac Newton discovering Pink Floyd (1660)

Dame Sarah Mullally enthroned as first female Archbishop of Canterbury in historic ceremony

On advance access: "Lordship in the Later Middle Ages: A Round Table Discussion" Ft: Frederik Buylaert, Sandro Carocci, Thijs Lambrecht, Christian D Liddy, Alice Rio Tristan W Sharp, Alice Taylor, Chris Wickham #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England. I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Please share! EHR is hosting a free one-day symposium at St John's College, Oxford, on Friday 17 April, 10-6, on the theme 'When there are no sources'. Further details and how to sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/when-there...

🚨FIXED TERM ARCHIVE JOB KLAXON🚨 We are looking for an experienced archivist to develop and implement a scoping project to re-catalogue and make available the York Archdiocesan Archive (6 months full time, or 12 months part time). Full details at the link: jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/proj...

I completely forgot I made this... a big list of English judicial records, 1500 to 1800, published and often online!

My new Strange Horizons essay is up! With a deliberately provocative title! WHY ALL SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS ARE HISTORIANS Yes, *all* And, no, it isn't just for the reason you think... I've been working toward this one for a while, very excited to share it!

Check it out, we're planning a special issue of @frenchhistory.bsky.social for the 700th anniversary of the advent of the Valois dynasty! Details and timeline at the link below, but don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions 😊

genAI - or ecocide-plagiarism-harassment-psychosis-surveillance-radioactive waste machines, are creating massive problems for libraries like @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. It's one more way these companies steal from human beings in order to make something that poisons knowledge. Don't use genAI. 1/

Dear everyone, As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included. A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.

The slate of Carrio (Asturias), c. 900, which contained a charm against storms: discussed in a just-published article on early medieval storm makers, by Juan Antonio Jiménez Sánchez. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Monday (9th March) is the next closing date for applications to join the Society as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member. Applications are welcome at any time, with future deadlines on 11 May & 27 July. Further details of Fellowship / Membership bit.ly/4rM2H9h #Skystorians 1/2

This morning, us in Sheffield’s East Asian Studies (and at least one other area) hear the outcomes from the sham “review” conducted by management, and likely how many jobs are at risk. The review promised openness, transparency and engagement with stakeholders. It delivered none of those things.

To be fair, I've seen worse. #ExtremeCataloguing

I try not to complain too much about the bleakness of postdoctoral life but having to have the 'thesis monograph' underway to be considered for a starting postdoc position versus needing a starting postdoc position to have the security to commit to writing the thesis monograph is such a catch-22.

Reading people. Body language. Knowing how to connect with people totally unlike you and with different backgrounds and beliefs. Defusing tense situations. Gaining trust. High endurance, pain tolerance, and work ethic. Reaction time. Prioritizing order of execution. Anticipating people’s needs. Tons

I’m so excited for you guys to read my new book

Applications are open for the Addison Wheeler Fellowship at Durham's Institute of Advanced Studies, a 36-month postdoctoral position – please get in touch with a potential department mentor asap if you're interested! www.dur.ac.uk/research/ins...

It's set to be a gloomy day tomorrow, so how about some medieval loyalties instead! We have a very promising selection of 20-minute papers and 5-minute presentations, with a general discussion for all to join at the end. Bring a hot drink and join us online 1.30-4.30pm GMT! (zoom link at request)

The 3rd Medieval Loyalty Research Workshop is taking place tomorrow, 1.30pm-4.30pm on Zoom - please get in touch with myself or @mediev-el.bsky.social for the Zoom link and see here for more details of the programme: medievalloyalty.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2026/01/06/t...

From the current issue: “Plague Correspondence, Trust, and Mistrust in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon” by Abigail Agresta (George Washington University) doi.org/10.1093/past...

Our first RHS lecture of 2026 is '"Alike in Appearance but not in Scope": Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe', with Prof Charles West (Edinburgh) bit.ly/49GlmMR 6pm, Friday 6 February. In-person booking is now full but registration to attend this event online remains open #Skystorians

Delighted to bring you the programme for the third Medieval Loyalty Workshop, online on 24th January, under the command of the terrific @katybennett.bsky.social and @mediev-el.bsky.social All are very welcome! Details here: medievalloyalty.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2026/01/06/t...

We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social 'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

The research group 'Loyalty in the Medieval World' is looking for papers for our online workshop on the 24 January 2026! Proposals can be on any topic relating to loyalty during the Middle Ages, abstracts due by 17 December to be sent to myself and @katybennett.bsky.social via email!

This month is UK Disability History Month. You can learn more about the history of disability in the UK and Ireland through the Bibliography of British and Irish History's (BBIH) free reading list, which includes more than 450 recent publications in the history of disability buff.ly/OK5HSbu

Attention creative medievalists! Eleanor Barraclough & I are co-editing a special issue of Public Humanities entitled CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW! See the cfp for details: essays of 2,000-3,000 words due 1 May 2026. (Amazing artwork by @hellomizk.bsky.social). 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Really pleased to have my short article out with @epoch-history.bsky.social on the experience of disability during the Hundred Years' War! The rest of the issue is a fantastic read and it was lovely to work with the editors and @joshcoulthard.bsky.social. www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the-exp...

A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database. An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️

Also just released in @epoch-history.bsky.social Issue 22 are @mediev-el.bsky.social’s article on disability during the Hundred Years War and her companion tutorial on working with pardon letters. It was a pleasure to edit El’s work for publication! www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the-exp...

Enjoying the little postcards this year, can't wait for #IMC2026 next summer for more medieval loyalties! :)

Really looking forward to this in a couple weeks time! Pardon my unfunny title...

Parents, please check your kids’ candy this Halloween. I’ve just found an ancient metal whistle with the inscription “QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT" inside a Snickers bar. I blew it and heard a note of infinite distance, and now I’m haunted by a figure in pale, fluttering draperies. Be safe.

It was a real pleasure to read @lauracforster.bsky.social's fine new essay on "Befriending the Dead" in @historyworkshop.org.uk this morning. It contains deep wellsprings of optimism. academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

Boo!

Performatively reading in the cafe, but wearing white gloves so I'm still venerating the Book As Object, with a t-shirt saying "I know archivists don't wear gloves" so people know the gloves are performative.

So. Your landlord wants his eels, but you didn't catch enough. Will he take money? Sometimes! In 1250 there was a property in Lenchwick that paid the cook of Evesham 40 sticks of eels (1000 fish) yearly. If there weren't enough eels the cook accepted 1.5 pence per stick instead. 🗃️🧪

Enjoying the two guys on this year's Bake Off who look like they could be rival chieftains in Iron Age Gaul