30 June 1559 King Fatally Injured in Joust!

30 June 1559 – King Henri II of France is seriously injured in a jousting match against Gabriel de Montgomery.

On 30 June 1559, at a tournament held at the Place des Vosges in Paris, King Henry was mortally wounded by the lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. The lance pierced his eye and, despite the efforts of royal surgeon Ambroise Paré, he died on 10 July 1559.

Get a ghoulish reminder with the art print DEATH OF HENRI II - Art Print - Medium - 28x35cm from Mary Evans Picture Library.
Did women fight in the Crusades? Elisabeth did! Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

29 June 1509 King's Mum Dead at 66

29 June 1509 – Death of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII of England (b. 1443)

Read The Red Queen (The Cousin's War) by Philippa Gregory.

Did women fight in the Crusades? Elisabeth did! Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

28 June 1519 Charles Pick for New H.R.E.

28 June 1519 – Charles V elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Spanish influence on the Holy Roman Empire features in Dorothy Dunnett's The Disorderly Knights: Third in the legendary Lymond Chronicles.
Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

27 June 1462 Happy Birthday, Louis!

27 June 1462 – Bitth of King Louis XII of France (d. 1515)

Check out Prof. Frederic J. Baumgartner 's Louis XII.

Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

26 June 1284 Piper Named in Kidnapping of Youths

26 June 1284 – The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 youths out of Hamelin, Germany

Enoy the tale in Robert browning's The Pied Piper Of Hamlin.
Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

25 June 635 First Tang Emperor Dies

25 June 635 – Death of Emperor Gaozu, first emperor of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (b. 566)

Learn more in Mark Edward Lewis's China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty (History of Imperial China).

Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

24 June 1535 Münster Experiment Fails

24 June 1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.

Who were they?  Read The Anabaptist Story: An Introduction to Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism by William Roscoe Estep.

Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

23 June 1314 Victory for the Bruce!

23 June 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn, south of Stirling, begins. The battle concluded the next day with a decisive victory for Robert the Bruce and the Scots.

Excerpt from The Bluebells of Scotland by Laura Vosika:

The Scots gathered, five thousand, for Mass, on the morning of the battle. They formed their lines with the trees and Stirling Castle behind them, facing the narrow stretch of the Bannock Burn over which the English must flow. The Bruce walked among them, marked as separate only by the thin band of gold circling his auburn hair and the suffering of leadership stamped on his face. "We are hopelessly outnumbered!" His voice rang like a clarion. "Any man who wishes to turn now and go to the aid and protection of his family may do so without consequence! 'Twill be held against no man, should he choose to walk away now!"

His voice carried clear and far.

The men heard.

The men held their ground.


* * *


The priests came before the Highlanders and lowlanders. The Scots fell to their knees as one, imploring Heaven for assistance and strength. From Coxet Hill, they peered down, eager and fearful, to see the production.

Edward of England, across the battlefield, watched the Scots fall, five thousand as a man, to their knees, and cried out, booming his line across the field: "They crave mercy!"

Edward's commanders, more experienced and less arrogant, saw what he did not: the Scots were preparing to attack. "It is of heaven, and not your highness," replied Sir deUmfraville, "for on that field they will be victorious or die."

"So be it, then!" Edward raised his mail-clad arm, tall and strong against the blue summer sky. Trumpets shot up in a straight row. Banners fluttered down from their lengths. Their sound rose, clear and golden across the battlefield, summoning England's chivalry to war. The English, surprised at the early hour, scrambled awake, bleary-eyed after a miserable night attempting to sleep in the soggy carse, and scurried for their armor.

Across the field, the blind old Abbot of Inchaffray, with bare feet and head, shuffled along the ranks of kneeling Scots, crucifix in hand. The bard from Clan Campbell held his hand, confessed his sins, and received absolution, breathing deeply of long-sought peace.

Edward of England paused his troops, staring across at the small band of Scots under the trees. His people thought him less a man than his father, did they? Today would change that.

His knights waited, brilliantly draped warhorses snorting and pawing, men in their matching liveries equally restless, hungry for blood and land. They had marched a long way in the summer heat over many days. But they were eager. Barons and earls clamored to get at the few Scots, to win easy glory and perhaps a fiefdom.

The Scottish skirmish line pulled back into the trees. The English clambered across the stream, leading their men into the narrow space of the boggy carse, between the Pelstream and the Bannock Burns, and up the rise.

One solitary figure remained, facing the might of England. He rode a pony, his back straight, with only the lightest armor, in full view of the English troops. Sunlight flashed off his copper hair. An arrow might fell him at any moment. His open defiance of fear and the Sassenach gave his men courage.

"It's the Bruce," went up the whispers of the Scots at the front.


* * *


Shawn strained to see, clutching his knife and sword. Bruce's crown flashed in the sun. Across the field, a knight rose in his stirrups, kicked his mighty warhorse, lowered his lance, and charged like dark thunder.

Bruce turned, almost casually, toward the powerful destrier. Behind him, his troops drew in breath. Tension snaked through the air like summer lightning. He held steady, making no move to flee, as the rider barreled closer. At the last moment, he twitched his bridle. The pony skipped nimbly to one side. Bruce rose in his stirrups. His ax arced up and smashed back down on the man's head. The blade drove through the metal helmet, cleaving the unfortunate knight's head in two.

A mighty roar thundered up and down the Scottish ranks. The ground shook with the stamping of feet. Shawn's ears and insides shook with the sound of it, and he realized a mighty bellow was erupting from deep in his own body.


* * *


The hapless English knight, Henry de Bohun, fell to the ground almost directly before Niall. One of Bruce's generals burst from the trees, remonstrating, "Bethink you, sire! The fate of all Scotland rests upon you!"

"I haif broken the haft of my guid battle-ax," declared Bruce, inspecting the damaged weapon, and expressing his only regret.

The Scots, audience and soldiers, cheered at his answer, and screamed battle cries, and Niall shouted with the rest, raising his fist and shaking it at the English. The roar echoed in his ears. He stared at the men around him, seeing their mouths closed, their eyes fixed like steel on the battlefield. The roaring sounded all around him. He closed his eyes, and opened them again. He heard his name shouted, and knew not whether it was Allene or Amy.


* * *


English trumpets screamed through the blood. Hairs rose on Shawn's arms. Sweat trickled down his chest and back, inside his padded gambeson. England's pennants snapped in the breeze, among the thousands gathered across the carse. His leg wept in pain from the wolf's claws. Back home, he'd be recuperating. Here, every man was needed. Old men with sunken cheeks and long gray beards, and fresh-faced pubescent boys, jaws firm, stood among the strong men of Robert's army.

His heart raced. He glanced back at Coxet Hill. His pulse pounded in his throat. He didn't want to be recuperating. The stitches would hold. They had to! His damp hand slipped on his sword. He wanted to be here, with these men and boys, between the English and Allene. Thrust, parry. He squinted against the sun, at the troops facing him, calculating how many he could kill before they felled him. Feint. He'd be grateful for three or four. The sun flashed in his eyes, bouncing off armor. The English charged. Jab. His heart pulsed furiously in his throat. He felt sick. He wanted to run. He squared his own jaw, awaiting orders.

The English sped, horses frothing and snorting in the summer heat, to the slaughter. Trumpets screamed; war drums pounded. The earth shook as huge Flemish chargers pounded toward him, with faceless visored riders gripping their backs. He braced his legs against the small earthquake, standing firm. Lances dropped, aimed at him. His legs screamed to run; he held fast, breathing hard, grateful now for Bruce's murder holes and caltrops.

They felled the magnificent, deadly beasts, one after another piercing hooves on caltrops. Proud war horses stumbled into the camouflaged, spike-laced pits, or tumbled over horses felled before them. They crashed to their knees, with trumpets still screaming and war drums still pounding, and knights in heavy armor toppled helplessly from their backs, slapping at long tabards that tripped them as they clambered to their feet. Wounded horses screamed, reared, bolted, collapsed. Confusion spread among the English.

They charged again, and found that Wallace's immovable schiltrons had become aggressive, mobile fighting units. They advanced, prickly, impenetrable circles of spears allowing no entrance; slow and steady, unstoppable and deadly, grinding down England's nobility. Dust rose, an eerie haze around skewered stallions and unhorsed knights, from which rose cries of men and screams of horses.

Shawn surged with the Scots, slashing and hacking at downed knights. And the schiltrons marched on, step by bloody step. The English hurled lances and swords, furious and futile. The schiltrons marched on, step by heartless step, a slow moving glacier, grinding everything in their paths.

Did women fight in the Crusades?  Elisabeth did!  Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne available thourhg Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com.

22 June 1429 It Was In His Stars

22 June 1429 – Death of Ghiyath al-Kashi, Persian astronomer and mathematician (b. 1380)
In his own words: The Planetary Equatorium of Jamshid Ghiyath Al-Din Al-Kashi (D. 1429). Edition of the Anonymous Persian Manuscript in Garrett Collection at Princeton University Being a Description of Two Computing Instruments the Plate of Heavens & Plate of Conjuctions.  You might also want to pick up  The History of Astronomy by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest .

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21 June 524 Burgundians 1, Franks 0 at Vézeronce

21 June 524 – Godomar, King of the Burgundians, defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.

Why not festoon your wall with the grandest hat of all with this Art.com poster, Helmet, from Vezeronce Giclee Poster Print, 18x24.

Did women fight in the Crusades? Elisabeth did! Read Beloved Pilgrimby Nan Hawthorne, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.com

20 June 1214 Oxonian Inception

20 June 1214 – The University of Oxford receives its charter.

Find out much more in G. R. Evans 'a The University of Oxford: A New History.

Greetings to attendees of the Historical Novel Society Fourth Anneal North American Conference in San Diego from Today in Medieval History!

19 June 1312 Royal Boyfriend Beheaded

19 June 1312 - Piers Gaveston, the Gascon lover of King Edward II of England, is executed at Blacklow Hill.

Read about it in The Confession of Piers Gaveston by Brandy Purdy.

Greetings to attendees of the Historical Novel Society Fourth Anneal North American Conference in San Diego from Today in Medieval History!

18 June 1178 Canterbury Monks See Advent of Lunar Wiggle

18 June 1178 – Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the moon's distance (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.

Get to know the environment where this observation occured in Stephen C. McCluskey's Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe.

Greetings to attendees of the Historical Novel Society Fourth Anneal North American Conference in San Diego from Today in Medieval History!

17 June 1462 Vlad Fails to Impale

17 June 1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.

Show your solidarity with got vlad? Men's Tee Shirt 3XL-Navy from 99 Volts.

Greetings to attendees of the Historical Novel Society Fourth Anneal North American Conference in San Diego from Today in Medieval History!