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Just History Posts is a blog dedicated to exploring all aspects of history. From stunning castles, to royal weddings, reindeer on submarines, and medieval marginalia, you will find something to interest you.
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Latest Posts
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The study of ideas of magic and witchcraft in the medieval and early modern period has always been of some general interest to me, with popular cases such as at Salem being in the general historical knowledge of most people. Since my Masters dissertation topic focused on witchcraft in the English royalty (Queen Joan of…
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I recently received a request for some Dutch history, and I am always happy to oblige. In all honesty, I know fairly little about Dutch history on its own, with most of what I do know being how the country was used by the French, English, and Spanish for their own gains. One person who…
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As this blog post has been delayed because I took a trip to Rome, I thought it only fair I return to writing with a Rome-themed post, and as the Colosseum is so emblematic of Rome and the Roman Empire, I thought it fitting. The Colosseum fits my theme of “Ancient Wonders” as although it…
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You may or may not be aware of the recent article in The Guardian reviewing the new historical television drama, Jamestown. This article has garnered a lot of criticism in the historical world, and for good reason. If you don’t want to read the article, then the main summary points are this: Now, after I…
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If you asked the average person on the street who “discovered” America (we’ll put aside the racist and Eurocentric issues this raises for another time) most people would probably tell you it was Christopher Columbus. In 1492, Columbus undertook his first voyage Westwards, under the theory that he would reach Asia – contrary to popular…
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It is a fairly common belief that the legend of elves was created by JRR Tolkien amongst other now popular mythical creatures that he created. However, Tolkien simply popularised the creatures, and legends of elves have existed for centuries as a distinct legend from fairies (although the two legends often get conflated). The English word…
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As my blog has been up and running for just over 6 months now, I thought I would return to the topic of my Masters dissertation: fifteenth-century English royal witches. My first post here was about Eleanor Cobham, the aunt-by-marriage of Henry VI who in 1441 was scandalously tried for using witchcraft, with her accomplices…
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“There is no honour amongst thieves” is one of those English sayings that no one really knows where it comes from, but that everybody can rehearse. The concept is that thieves (and “baddies” in general) are awful human beings, and if they can steal from/murder/cheat you, then there is nothing stopping them from doing it…
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We tend to have a juxtaposed view of the ancient past: that people were simultaneously less advanced than us, with archaic views on women, people of different races, and little technology, but also great forefathers in maths, science, democracy, and capable of creating wondrous feats of engineering that even today we’re not quite sure how…
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