Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century, first coined the term “Middle Age” (”medium ævum”) to designate the period between the Classical and the enlightened Renaissance revival of classical ideas, philosophies, aesthetics. In English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic, the plural form of the term, Middle Ages, is used, however, other European languages use the singular form (Italian medioevo, French le moyen âge, German das Mittelalter.) The popular word we use commonly today, “medieval”, is a contraction of the Latin medium ævum or “middle epoch”. Enlightenment thinkers used it as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages would come to be viewed as a Dark Age during which many of the advances and achievements of the Greeks and Romans would be eclipsed by warfare and the gradual disintegration of institutions and culture that the Europeans had inherited from the Classical era.
The beginning of the Medieval period is introduced with the fall of the Roman Empire, when in 476 C.E., the emperor was driven from his throne by barbarian invaders. The dissolution of the once expansive and powerful Roman Empire allowed for the formation of tiny kingdoms throughout Europe vying for territory. There was great instability as a result of such fragmentation and ongoing invasions and infighting bewteen tribes such as the Vikings, Visigoths, and Gauls, as well as the Moors began to change the nature of European life. 
A lack of centralized political power in the greater region gave the Catholic Church tremendous power and civilian life - in terms of cultural growth, education, literacy, political involvement, and commerce - was in many ways truncated by an era of conflict and unenlightened dogma. With lawlessness and warfare widespread, community became focused around small powers, nobles or kings, who established control of land and created feudal systems by which to garner work from the peasant-class in exchange for access to land and protection from marauding tribes.
Though the modern archaeological record dates Glastonbury Abbey to the early seventh century, that has not stopped it from holding a place in many a set of much older mythologies. To some it is the resting place of the Holy Grail, shepherded to England by Joseph of Arimathia following the Crucifixion. To others it is a conduit of Earth’s natural power and lynchpin of the supposed Ley Line network crisscrossing the English countryside. But to most, the now ruined abbey will forever be known as the final resting place of Albion’s “Once and Future King,” the legendary Arthur Pendragon.
Located in the west of England, the earliest recorded account, dating from 1090 AD, attribute the abbey at Glastonbury to St. David, patron saint of Wales. However, half a century later, early medieval historian and Glastonbury monk, William of Malmesbury, erroneously dated its foundations to the era immediately following Christ’s death – a thread later picked up on by French Romantics in subsequent centuries and one that would indelibly link England’s own inborn Arthurian tropes with the ever-evolving Grail lore of the continent.
From there, the myth of Arthur took on a life of its own. According to legend, Arthur was interred at a mystical island known as Avalon, following his death at the Battle of Camlann. This detail, in particular, led dozens of legend trippers to identify Glastonbury and Avalon as one and the same; a nearby river is to this day still known as the River Cam and, in its earliest incarnation, the Abbey had been surrounded by a vast walled-in moat and/or bog, resulting in the eerie appearance of an inland island rising out the countryside.
Whether that anecdotal evidence supported such claims or not, in the era following Malmesbury’s death, the resident monks of Glastonbury decided to capitalize on the Arthurian myth’s prominent place in the English psyche. In 1190, they claimed to have discovered the mortal remains of Arthur and his ill-fated queen, Guinevere; the bodies were supposedly identified by means a leaden cross baring the convenient inscription of “Here lies renowned King Arthur in the island of Avalon.” Though the bodies and cross – if they ever existed to begin with – have not been located since, history does record that they were reburied in the floor beneath Glastonbury’s High Altar in 1278 before a cadre of true believers, including King Edward I. As expected, the Abbey’s tourism trade boomed thereafter.
Later monarchs, however, did not behold the abbey at Glastonbury with the sort same reverence as their predecessors. Following Henry VIII’s schism with the Church in 1536, he dissolved all of England’s Catholic churches and monasteries; Glastonbury’s abbot was subsequently drawn and quartered, while the abbey itself was dismantled brick by brick and its stone used to expand the homes of local loyalist nobles.
| Though only the bases of the abbey’s once towering walls and columns remain atop the gigantic conical mound that is Glastonbury Tor today, Glastonbury itself is still a destination for travelers of all stripes; a site several miles away was chosen to host the United Kingdom’s largest annual concert, the Glastonbury Festival, due to the spiritual, mythical and mystical connotations the Abbey still holds for the British populace – much the same as it did for their fathers, and fathers before them, over the past thousand years. |
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Tags: 1090 AD, 1190 AD, 1278, 1536, Arthur Pendragon, Battle of Camlann, crucifixion of Christ, Deluxe Excalibur Sword with scabbard, English History, European History, French Romantics, Glastonbury Abbey, Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury High Altar, Grail lore, Guenevere Pewter Sculpture, Here lies renowned King Arthur in the island of Avalon, Historical Excalibur Sword, Holy Grail, Joseph of Arimathia, king arthur, King Arthur Pewter Sculpture, King Edward I, King Henry VIII, legend of King Arthur, legend of the Holy Grail, Ley Line network, Medieval History, Medieval Myth, Medieval Store, myth of King Arthur, Once and Future King, Queen Guinevere, the Isle of Avalon, The schism, William of Malmesbury
As Western Europe entered the late Medieval period, between 1000 and 1300 C.E., shoe manufacture had matured to the extent that shoe craft guilds were created to cater to demand. Also, production of shoes entered a phase of mass scale during this period, where not only bespoke products were available to consumers but also those shoes produced en masse. Entering the second millenium, shoes were typically made from leather hide stitched together and shaped by lasts and were often characterized by broad tips that reached ankle-high, without ornamentation.
The evolution then went towards a more round-heeled and a more developed interior to the shoe– with the use of the welt, which was sewn between the leather upper and the sole of the shoe. This would have improved the sizing and comfort of the shoe, although distinction between right and left side shoes were not made yet.
In terms of ornamentation or peculiarities in shoe design, in the 12th century there emerged a trend for long-toed, pointed shoes which some historians attribute to the Crusades and exposure to eastern styles of dress. In the 14th century this trend re-asserted itself with greater influence in Europe and it became a mark of the nobility to wear pointed shoes, or poulaines, with their attire. They were characterized by a wide front-part that narrowed to meet the heel of the shoe, while the pointed tips would extend to between 10% and even 50% of the shoe length, ostensibly the length of the point implying one’s status.
Dentures and false teeth are a common part of our world. We have all heard the myths about them such as George Washington having wooden dentures and many of us have relatives with false teeth. The Etruscans of northern Italy produced dentures using human and animal teeth as early as 700 BC. The teeth decayed rapidly but were easy to make and were used often until the middle of the 19th century.
Early European dentures from the 15th century were made of bone or ivory. Often human teeth were used either from recently deceased or poor people who sold their teeth for money. These dentures were not comfortable and were attached to any remaining teeth by threads of silk or metal. Wealthy persons had dentures made of silver, gold, or mother of pearl. Keeping the false teeth in the mouth became difficult as the number of real teeth decreased and those that had full dentures had to remove them to eat.
Claudius Ash manufactured top quality porcelain dentures and affixed them to 18-carat gold plates in 1820. Plaster was used to make molds of the mouth which made dentures a better fit and the use of Vulcanite (hardened rubber) became common in the 1850s. It was cheap and flexible which made it easy to work with and Ash’s company was a prime manufacturer of dental quality Vulcanized rubber.
The history of costume in religious ceremonies and as worn by religious figures, such as priests or shamans or other spiritual leaders, has shown interest in, if not relevance of, distinguishing religious leaders from the greater population and endowing him/her with a certain authority. By virtue of marking distinction, ceremonial costume not only makes others aware of a spiritual figure’s role but can be appreciated to confirm to the wearer his own mission and responsibility to his respective belief-system.
Examples of costume in religion are available from every culture. In the western religions, we are most familiar, perhaps, with the dress of the Jewish rabbi or the Catholic priest or Christian minister, as well as the Muslim imam. The history of Jewish religious dress is more extensive and references to specific garments worn by the Jewish High Priest are even found in the Book of Exodus. According to Rabbinical study, each garment worn by the priest was meant to atone for a particular sin committed by the Children of Israel. The symbolism of different attributes of the garments is rich and has lasted through the Rabbinical tradition of millenia. Similarly, the early Catholic Church defined the ceremonial costume that is retained by Catholic clergy today. 
When fashions began to change in Europe and the simple tunic evolved into more gender-defined garments, with alterations in hemline and waist definition, the clergy held on to the tunic-robe form and in this manner classified themselves apart from the general population. The sacred vestments of the church would evolve to show distinctions in color (green, white, red, violet, and occasionally gold) but over time would essentially remain integral as a tradition. During the period of the religious reforms and the particular religious fervor at the turn of the first millenium, marked by the Crusades and religious pilgrimages, monasticism redefined itself through the establishment of the new mendicant orders. These ascetic orders, such as the Dominicans and the Franciscans, took vows of poverty and relied on the charity of the general populace. They also distinguished themselves in their garments, both from other Church figures and from greater society. Franciscans wore rough brown wool robes with ropes as belts and Dominicans wore white and black robes. Interestingly, the mendicant orders and the institutional church figures both had the intention of catering to the spiritual interests of the population though they did so from very different vantage points, as is apparent through the costumes they inhabited.
