Rare medieval skeletal remains excavated in Wales date to 13th century

The remains of a woman who died around the late 12th or early 13th century were excavated under the foundation a Welsh church that has been converted into a museum. The church was built over an older church in the 1820s.

Archaeologists found the skeleton of the woman, who they say died in her 60s, during reconstruction work on the museum. The church was St. Mary’s and now houses the Llŷn Maritime Museum in Nefyn, Gwennyd, Wales. They say it is rare to find any remains that old in North Wales 

“This lady would have lived through some exciting times in North Wales and in her later life she would have seen the unification of Gwynedd and much of mid and south Wales as well as the raise of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (the last),” the museum says.

Read More Here @ Ancient Origins

Matilda, Daughter of Henry I | History Extra

Another great article in History Extra, this time by historian Helen Castor on one of England's more enigmatic pseudo-Queens of England - Matilda, Empress and daughter of King Henry I of England (March 2012).

A little snippet for you - read more here @ History Extra:

Matilda’s story left a complex and ambiguous precedent in English politics. Women could pass on the throne to their male heirs, that much was clear, and no principle had been explicitly established to exclude them from the succession.

All that stood in the way of Matilda’s path to the throne, it transpired, was another coup exactly like the one that had made her father king. The result was civil war. Despite her sex, Matilda’s claim was not dismissed out of hand by the nobles she sought to rule. 

Matilda is a fascinating character - much has been written about her and her times, most notably, “Queen Emma & Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England” by Pauline Stafford, and “The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English” by Majorie Chibnall.

Bloody Alice of Abergavenny

A screaming wraith atop a cliff
Writhing in an orgasm of slaughter.
One-by-one seventy men
Did she depatch with an ever blunting blade of an axe.
~ Lyrics of Bloody Alice (of Abergavenny) by Mael Mordha

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland had its share of bloody moments, but perhaps none so macabre as the Battle of Baginbun Head and the legendary actions of Alice of Abergavenny. 

Image by Kid Eternity

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland commenced with the landing of Robert fitz Stephen and Maurice de Prendergast at Bannow Bay in May 1169. The second wave of Anglo-Normans, lead by Raymond le Gros, landed about the 1st of May 1170 at Baginbun south of Fethard-on-Sea on the Hook Head peninsula in Wexford. Le Gross, who had 10 men at arms and 70 archers, was joined by Hervey de Montmorency with a few more, and established a defended camp at Baginbun constructed of banks and ditches with a palisade. Le Gros and his men were attacked at Baginbun by a combined force of 3,000 Norsemen drawn from the City of Waterford and their Irish allies. Although outnumbered the Normans managed to drive off the attackers and take prisoners. Too late for (servant girl) Alice of Abergavenny whose bethrothed / lover was killed. She took an axe to the seventy prisoners the Normans had taken and sent them to their deaths, dumping their corpses over the cliff-edge. 

Le Gross remained at Baginbun until Strongbow landed near Waterford on the 23rd of August with an army of 1,200 and their combined forces took the City of Waterford on the 25th of August. 

And what of Alice - it seems she is destined to remain a mystery.

Modern Baginbun

Read More Here:

@ Time Travel Ireland Blogspot

@ English Historical Authors Blogspot

@ Medieval Warfare Magazine

@ Medieval Sourcebook - Gerald of Wales

Skeleton Of Medieval Giantess Unearthed From Polish Cemetery

Skeleton Of Medieval Giantess Unearthed From Polish Cemetery

Just outside of the Medieval church of the Ostrów Lednicki stronghold in Poland, archaeologists have unearthed the strange burial of a giantess. The woman’s skeleton showed that she reached a towering height of 7’2″ but also that her short life was full of traumatic injuries and disease.

The giantess was found in a cemetery that was once used solely by the elite of the area: dignitaries, the very wealthy, and people connected with Bolesław the Brave, the king of Poland in the early 11th century, and with the local Piast ruling dynasty. By the late 12th century, though, the cemetery saw more and more burials of commoners, with over 2,500 skeletons recovered at the site of Ostrów Lednicki Island.

But in spite of the elite nature of the cemetery, its most famous resident is a woman from a lower social class who died in her late 20s. Writing recently in the book New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care, archaeologists Magdalena Matczak and Tomasz Kozłowski detail the intriguing skeleton and the odd nature of the grave.

Read more here >>> Forbes dot com