Thanks for the detailed description, that's a very helpful explanation of/for the phenomenon you're seeing!

An extremely interesting write-up, Sam, thank you! (I'm now wondering if the need to more sharply differentiate the two religions as they came into closer contact via the Crusades might help explain the shift towards framing them outright as pagans in the later MA? But just spitballing here...)

Ah, that will be of particular interest to my students here, thanks!

A very good point! (And not just a medieval framework either...)

Ahh, this is precisely the kind of article I was looking for, but couldn't navigate the Wiki-maze to find it! Thanks for the pointer! (Though I can't get over the first sentence: "In contrast to the views of Muhammad in Islam, the Christian views on him have been highly negative" 😂)

Thanks, it's already helpful to know about the translations! (This is so far out of my field but I'm trying to anticipate student questions and so realizing things I ought to know along the way 😅)

Question from ignorance: were any intellectuals aware in the Middle Ages that Islam and Christianity were related faiths? Obviously most people saw them as wholly distinct, but I don't know if there were any exceptions (on either side).

(PS it's your chance to grab Pentiment for like $10, do it do it do it!)

And for those interested, the Steam Medieval Fest sale has just gone live! ;)

Another one for my "involves the HRE" pile, hurray!

Oh of course, the other way to do it is to bring the kingdom with you 😂 (always love "for a few days" cases, the weirdest kind of political alliance...)

(And yes I do have this poster in my office obviously!)

Matrilineal Dynasties of Europe Buy the poster | Download as PDF | Watch a video explanation

Ooh you will appreciate this chart! (I checked, they're on there, in pink 😊) These kinds of relationships are such a great way of reexamining European political networks and political geography!

Indeed, a classic!

Oh wow, yeah, straight from father to son, that's pretty distinctive!

Yes, that kind of thing is so interesting! Really puts "kingmaking" into a new light. (Particularly good example where it's even a young widow, not the kind of person we expect to play a determinant role...)

True about Anne, does she set a record? 😂 And now I'm really wanting to start mapping these instances—are there places where it's happening more often? What about crossovers, are there epicenters? (I imagine "marry the HRE/king of the Romans + someone else" is pretty popular...)

(Call for papers) Global Histories of Hair, c.1500-2026 histoiresante.blogspot.com/2026/04/les-... #histbody

A new one to me, thanks! The fact that it's a recurring pattern is of course super interesting for thinking about how political legitimacy is bound up in all members of a dynasty, even ones who marry in.

Those were in fact the two I had in mind 😂

Congratulations to IMEMS' @tombhamilton.bsky.social, who has been awarded a @britishacademy.bsky.social Mid-Career Fellowship to work on 'The Social Roots of Religious Violence in Sixteenth-Century Paris'!🎉

Read Tom's recent article in French Historical Studies: read.dukeupress.edu/french-histo...

This has now got me wondering, how many European queens married two kings? I can think of at least two others in the 15 seconds I have for a lunch break today, but I'm sure the number's considerably higher... OK back to teaching now!

Reminder: 10 days left to submit a proposal to this special issue on Valois France! We've had lots of exciting abstracts so far, so it's shaping up to be a really interesting collection ^_^ We'd love to hear from you (or just pass this on to anyone who might be interested)!

Argh I once saw a promising EU-based alternative to Google Photos on here, but now I've forgotten the name and can't spot it on the main "European Alternatives" websites... Anyone have a service they like? :)

Fantastic, thanks, will do!

Yes, it's possibly my favorite game, and I plan on re-using it pretty much every time I run this class forever 😊

...goal of the class. Not game. Augh 😆

The game of the class isn't to teach history through video games, it's to think critically about them as vehicles for popular history, so have problems to unpick is fine (and they generally do a pretty good job)... but that doesn't undo all the right-wing stuff :/ Le sigh.

Re: Manor Lords, my main hesitation is that a lot of features don't really exist yet, so is it robust enough to be able to discuss a range of themes, such as gender, culture, religion, etc.?

Many thanks for your inputs! :)

To follow up, since I'm seeing a lot of Manor Lords and Kingdom Come recs—and indeed those are two at the top of my list of candidates—I have some questions.

Re: KCD, how bad would it be to funnel money towards a studio about whom I feel politically somewhat leery?