Medieval
Three of the most celebrated medieval English victories are: Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. All three took place during the Hundred Years War between England and France.
Crecy: 1346. Poitiers: 1356, and Agincourt: 1415.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest women of her time was the wife of two kings and the mother of two kings. In 1137 she married Louis the V11 of France. She traveled with him on the Second Crusade. In 1152, the marriage was annulled. That same year she married Henry the 11 of England.
Her son Richard by Henry became Richard the First of England also called Richard the Lionheart. He led the Third Crusade.
A younger son, John, became John the First, also called John Lackland. A brutal and despised monarch, he reluctantly signed the Magna Carta in June of 1215.
Pigs could be a real danger
In medieval times, pigs were kept as meat animals, often in a type of extensive husbandry that included foraging in forests and on common grounds. People thus had much more contact with live pigs than we do today – this could be dangerous, and even deadly.
There were multiple accounts of pigs eating children. From the 13th century, lawsuits could in theory be filed against the porcine perpetrators – this usually resulted in a death sentence for the pig. Such lawsuits were rare in England but were more common in France, especially in the region around Paris.
Not everyone was Christian, or white
There were Jews and Muslims in medieval Europe, and there were also practitioners of other religions, such as Paganism. The percentage of followers of each religion in each region varied according to history and culture. Paganism was for a long time common in the north, for instance, and Islam in the Iberian peninsula.
Race wasn’t defined according to modern terms, so ‘white’ and ‘black’ were far less important than one’s religion: a black bishop from north Africa was considered more civilised and of far higher rank than a white slave from eastern Europe, for example. People were more likely to be discriminated against according to religion than skin colour, with Cathars, Jews and known heretics among those who suffered greatly.
