This period saw the advent of new ways of cereal farming, which fed the growth of towns, markets and populations, but also fuelled wealth disparities and the rise of lords
I try not to be too pedantic when reading historical fiction set in the Middle Ages. I really do. And I resent being told that eleventh-century peasants would not treat the organs of livestock as edible. I understand that the average reader will not be expected to have advanced degrees in history. I would hope that the average reader would be expected to be, uh, not stupid.
Evidence shows that moats were not just for castles! Ongoing excavations at a medieval farm site in England have uncovered a moat and the remnants of a bridge
LJS 467 is a work in Arabic on the use of astronomical observations to predict weather changes in order to determine the best times to sow and harvest in northern Africa. It was written in North Africa, sometime in the 14th through 16th centuries.
* TW: This post contains mention of characters who died during pregnancy/childbirth and suicide.
The dawn of a new century brought with it the winds of change. Alfred and his new bride, Anna, forsook the silk trade to move to Henford-on-Bagley to pursue nectar making. The move did not bring the family luck and on her 20th birthday, Anna lost the battle to typhoid and passed. Alone, and on an abandoned farm with almost no funds, Alfred had to work hard to rebuild his home and his family. Eventually, he met the humble Celestina, who was able to give him two heirs before, in 1409, he too was taken from this life.
Going into the 1410s, our two main households - the Brookers and the Cliffords- must fight to keep their legacy alive, as there are very few eligble heirs remaining to pass on the family name. Meanwhile, the new families of Shaw and Bigod are blessed with a number of children to carry on the family name. Come 1420, will we still be able to call this the Brooker legacy?
Marriages [4]
1401 - Alfred and Celestina Brooker
1405 - Walter and Colette Clifford
1406 - Philip and Mary Brooker
1409 - Humphrey and Eva Beaufort
Births [10]
1401 - Adelaide Bigod
1403 - Petra Shaw, Leif Brooker
1406 - Adrian Bennet, Jeremiah Bigod, Dorothy Shaw, Marigold Brooker, Wymand Clifford
1407 - Sigrid Clifford
1408 - Wilkin Shaw
Deaths [15]
1400 - Edmund Brooker (Dysentery), Fulke Brooker (Influenza), Anne Brooker (Typhoid)
1401 - Emil Bennet (Pneumonia), Solomon Bigod (Dysentery)
1404 - Theobald Brooker (Malaria)
1406 - Fray Bennet (Typhoid), Ricard Shaw (Hypothermia)
1407 - Walter Clifford (Stroke), Marion Brooker (Drowned), Malota Bennet (Diptheria)
1408 - Malyna Clifford (Heart attack), Philip Brooker (Suicide), Mary Brooker (Childbirth)
1409 - Alfred Brooker (Horse injury)
* Babies that never were [9]: Aline Brooker, Erika Bennet, Florian Bennet, Edme Bigod, Osric Shaw, Pascal Shaw, Euphemia Brooker, Lothar Brooker, Orvin Brooker
Family Tree at 1410
I look at those secret worlds you call eyes,
And wonder if we might—
There's something changed,
The leaves like broken shards of stained glass windows.
— Secret Worlds, The Amazing Devil