Someone's phone just went off in the manuscript room of the British Library. The tension is palpable.

🧵The Cawood Sword is one of the rarest and best-preserved medieval swords ever discovered in Britain only the fifth example of its type to be found. Recovered from the River Ouse near Cawood Castle in the late 19th century, it remains in such remarkable condition that

🎉 We're so pleased to be shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at The British Book Awards for the third consecutive year! Thank you to our authors, partners and team members for making this possible. 🥂 Congrats to all our fellow nominees! #BritishBookAwards #Nibbies

Starting this Friday!

Starting next week: En Garde! Fencing in Late Medieval and Early Modern England medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/fenc... #HistoricalEuropeanMartialArts

For Patrons I wrote about the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whether it is possible for royals to actually face justice, and what they theoretically face it for. www.patreon.com/posts/in-mon...

This was a brilliant conference last year. Hoping that this year's iteration will be even more successful.

Starting next week! Sharpen your swords, and bring your notepads.

Great news. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Outside the Level 2 Reading Room in @bodleian.ox.ac.uk there is a wellbeing display. Here are some it's little zines that genuinely made me smile.

I heard the guy teaching this knows his stuff.

I have two short articles in the new issue of Medieval World magazine. The first, about a type of medieval tournament called pas d'armes, and the second about the commemoration of tournaments at the court of Emperor Maximilian. I'm pleased to say that the first was chosen as this month's centrefold.

Happy #IMC2026 acceptance day. I'll be sharing details of the two strands of Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat (that's right, twenty-four papers!) very soon.

This Thursday. In person or hybrid. To sign up for online attendance click forms.office.com/e/L834SBHzKX. #medievalsky #medievalwarfare #museums #materialculture

Brilliant first day at the conference. Some excellent papers, good discussion about research, and a really enjoyable keynote.

Really looking forward to this!

A reminder that there's about a week left to pitch your paper for this year's interdisciplinary Late Medieval France and Burgundy Seminar, the loveliest event of its kind, at Durham in mid-December! There's a great (and non-exclusive) theme, and it's lots of fun for ECRs and senior scholars alike!

23 September and I've been Wham'd. Only the good Wham young.

A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.

Seeing a lot of critical responses from medievalists about this BBC 1066 thing. As an early modernist, just to say that I'm happy to confirm that medieval people were indeed covered in dirt all the time and did all sound like they were in the Wurzels.

Spending this morning doing a pre-digitization check for SJC A.2.7, St John's College Library's copy of Caxton's "Game and Play of the Chess". The whole book will be available on Digital Bodleian soon!

Call for papers! This year's sessions on Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social demonstrated some excellent research and produced much brilliant discussion. Please do circulate to any interested parties. #imc2025 #imc2026

FYA early modernists: jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

The 2019 edition of Freydal is a pleasure to work with. Partially because it's so heavy that just taking it off the shelf counts as a workout.

This is the name of my alter-ego should I go out for breakfast on the weekend.

Call for papers! This year's sessions on Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social demonstrated some excellent research and produced much brilliant discussion. Please do circulate to any interested parties. #imc2025 #imc2026

Goodbye to the history department at Lancaster University, where the @socialhistsoc.bsky.social was founded 49 years ago. From tomorrow we are part of a School of Global Affairs. Next year, who knows what will be - please sign our petition against mass redundancies chng.it/PZfTFDjNcr

Come along tomorrow night to learn more about swordplay in medieval and early modern England!

In June 1513, Henry VIII launched an invasion of France, attempting to reclaim lost English lands. Today's blogpost by @rorymaclellan.bsky.social looks at three documents which shine a light on the preparations for this campaign and the supply of armour for Henry's troops. t.co/rYaeYw6Jbq

We have two new online courses from @nicmorton.bsky.social The Knights Templar 1120-1314 - medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/temp... Medieval Europe 870 - 1300 - medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/medi... Check them out! #MedievalStudies

Delighted to say that I've been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for 2025-26, and we are hiring a 1-year full-time lecturer in early medieval history to replace me. Deadline 7 August. Please get in touch with me if you have any questions about the role! jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.

'Masters of Defence: Fencers and Fencing in England, c. 1400-1600' Next Friday evening, at 7pm UK time, I’ll be talking about my research for the German Federation for Historical Fencing. You can join the talk here: (uni-trier.zoom-x.de/j/6650319538...) Meeting-ID: 665 0319 5383 Password: 4w2v9GN6

Congratulations to all three of our PhD graduands yesterday: @deaconjh.bsky.social, Samuel Bradley and @florencehrscott.bsky.social standing with Karen Watts, Alan Murray, Charley Roe, Jonathan Jarrett and Melanie Brunner #leedsmedieval #medievalsky

“I asked chatgpt” well i asked your wife. She’s leaving you, Steve; for being such a massive loser

Yesterday I celebrated the greatest professional accomplishment of my career yet; I managed to find a tie that paired with a green, orange, black, and gold outfit. I also graduated with my PhD.

#CfP: Conflict, War and Violence in the Early Modern World Exeter, 30-31 October 31, 2025. Abstracts by September 5, 2025 @earlymodernwar.bsky.social #Skystorians #EarlyModernEvents #MiseryOfCivilWar www.rensoc.org.uk/event/confli...

#CFP for ##IMCLEEDS 2026. Looking for scholars who are interested in the relationship between bodies and time. #MedievalSky #MedievalHistory #Medieval #Skystorians #AcademicSky #HistorySky #EarlyModernSky #EarlyModernHistory #EarlyModern #MaterialCulture #Bodies #WhatsHistory #IMC2026 #IMC2025

We have now published the programme for the 2025 Tudor & Stuart Ireland conference at UCD on 21-22 August. All details can be found here: tudorstuartireland.com/2025-confere...

It's my graduation ceremony on Tuesday. When I graduated with my MA from Cardiff, I decided to be photographed holding a pollaxe instead of the cheap plastic roll everyone was given to hold for a few minutes. Not only did this mean I skipped the queues, but had a security escort while on campus.

Did you know the under their new terms, if you send files via WeTransfer then you are allowing them to use those files for pretty much anything, including AI training? Be mindful of this if this is your preferred file transfer system

Missed this last week but was first on my list of recorded papers to watch. Fully recommended for anyone at the IMC and thinking about which talks to listen to in the coming weeks, especially for anyone with an interest in folk horror (obviously).

I was recently interviewed for a History.com piece about medieval and early modern tournaments. If you're outside of the UK, you can read it here: www.history.com/articles/car... #medieval #earlymodern #skystorians

Call for papers! This year's sessions on Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social demonstrated some excellent research and produced much brilliant discussion. Please do circulate to any interested parties. #imc2025 #imc2026

I summon the medievalists of @imc-leeds.bsky.social to the dance! #imc2025

A brilliant paper in itself but one which also hinted at the potential for lots of further future discoveries. Can't wait to see more of Rob's valuable work helping us to better understand historical martial cultures.

If you're staring into your morning cornflakes deciding what to do at @imc-leeds.bsky.social today, why not come to the first session of Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat? We have an excellent session on tournaments to kick off. #imc2025 #s532

The first batch of STAC 5 (Elizabethan Star Chamber proceedings) catalogue enhancements went live today. Short titles, dates, party names, document type, and county as standard. For some other really exciting additions, read on. discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C...

Happy birthday to Albrecht Dürer, seen here in these two completely identical self-portraits.

Love a good woodland walk me.