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“It must be admitted that such things were common coin of the period. Kingdoms were often handed over to adolescents, whose absolute power fasinated them as might a game. Hardly grown out of the age in which it is fun to tear the wings from flies, they might now amuse themselves by tearing the heads from men. Too young to fear or even imagine death, they would not hesitate to distribute it around them.”
― Maurice Druon, The Iron King

“Richard knew, of course, that his was thought to be an unlucky title; only twice before had a Richard ruled England, and both met violent ends.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Sunne in Splendour

“In this martial world dominated by men, women had little place. The Church's teachings might underpin feudal morality, yet when it came to the practicalities of life, a ruthless pragmatism often came into play. Kings and noblemen married for political advantage, and women rarely had any say in how they or their wealth were to be disposed in marriage. Kings would sell off heiresses and rich widows to the highest bidder, for political or territorial advantage, and those who resisted were heavily fined.

Young girls of good birth were strictly reared, often in convents, and married off at fourteen or even earlier to suit their parents' or overlord's purposes. The betrothal of infants was not uncommon, despite the church's disapproval. It was a father's duty to bestow his daughters in marriage; if he was dead, his overlord or the King himself would act for him. Personal choice was rarely and issue.

Upon marriage, a girl's property and rights became invested in her husband, to whom she owed absolute obedience. Every husband had the right to enforce this duty in whichever way he thought fit--as Eleanor was to find out to her cost. Wife-beating was common, although the Church did at this time attempt to restrict the length of the rod that a husband might use.”
― Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

“Court life for a queen of France at that time was, however, stultifyingly routine. Eleanor found that she was expected to be no more than a decorative asset to her husband, the mother of his heirs and the arbiter of good taste and modesty.”
― Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

“Most of [her ashes] fell into the river in a long gray curtain. But some was caught by the wind and blown upward toward the blue spring sky where it swirled a moment in the air, before dissolving into sunlight.”
― Kimberly Cutter, The Maid

“There is of course a deep spiritual need which the pilgrimage seems to satisfy, particularly for those hardy enough to tackle the journey on foot.”
― Edwin Mullins, The Pilgrimage to Santiago

“Collectively they remind us that history is much more than an education process. Understanding the past is a matter of experience as well as knowledge, a striving to make spiritual, emotional, poetic, dramatic, and inspirational connections with our forebears.”
― Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

“The first key to wisdom is defined, of course, as frequent and assiduous questioning”
― Peter Abelard

“Renaissance painters saw everything from one perspective, photographically, "realistically," but medieval painters looked at a scene from several different perspectives at once. A medieval picture looked at with this in mind becomes very exciting indeed. It is as if the artist is everywhere at once: the castle is tiny as if seen from afar; the men on its battlements huge as if encountered face to face; this lake is seen from that distance and that tree from this.”
― Jeffrey Burton Russell, Medieval Civilization

“Danes bi dejal, da me je srednji vek privlačil zaradi dveh razlogov. Najprej zaradi poklicnih razlogov. Odločil sem postati zgodovinar po poklicu. Prakticiranje večine znanosti je brez dvoma stvar profesionalcev, strokovnjakov. Zgodovinska znanost ni tako ekskluzivna. Četudi gre po mojem mnenju za razpravo, ki je pomembna za naš čas, ko mediji omogočajo malone vsakomur pripovedovati ali pisati zgodovino v podobah ali v besedah, se ne bom lotil vprašanja kakovosti zgodovinske produkcije. Nikakršnega monopola ne zahteva za znanstvene zgodovinarje. Diletanti in vulganizatorji zgodovine so po svoje dopadljivi in koristni; njihova uspešnost pa kaže, kako močno potrebo občutijo današnji ljudje, da bi se udeleževali kolektivnega spomina. Želim si, da bi zgodovina ob tem, ko bo postala bolj znanstvena, lahko še zmeraj ostala umetnost. Če hočemo hraniti spomin ljudi, potrebujemo prav toliko okusa, stila in strasti kakor strogosti in metode. Zgodovino delamo z dokumenti in idejami, z viri in z domišljijo.”
― Jacques Le Goff, Pour un autre Moyen Âge: Temps, travail et culture en Occident : 18 essais

“All of a sudden, thoughts of the past flitted through Lily’s mind and scratched at her heart.”
― Lina J. Potter, Palace Intrigue

“Psychologically [the proliferation of] silent reading emboldened the reader because it placed the source of his curiosity completely under personal control.”
― Paul Saenger, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading

“Private, visual reading and private composition thus encouraged individual critical thinking and contributed ultimately to the development of skepticism and intellectual heresy.”
― Paul Saenger, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading

“The wealth of Venice and Genoa was made in trade with infidels of Syria and Egypt despite papal prohibition.”
― Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

“And why not—whatever despair we may feel concerning resurrection and reassemblage—find comic relief in the human determination to assert wholeness in the face of inevitable decay and fragmentation?”
― Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion

“As is often the case in politics, the truth was less important than public perception.”
― Lauren Johnson, Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI

“Two years later the logic of the struggle led (Pope) John XXII to excommunicate William of Ockham, the English Franciscan, known for his forceful reasoning as “the invincible doctor.�� In expounding a philosophy called “nominalism,�� Ockham opened a dangerous door to direct intuitive knowledge of the physical world. He was in a sense a spokesman for intellectual freedom, and the Pope recognized the implications by his ban. In reply to the excommunication, Ockham promptly charged John XXII with seventy errors and seven heresies.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“No one dared tell the outcome of the battle to Philip VI until his jester was thrust forward and said, "Oh, the cowardly English, the cowardly English!" and on being asked why, replied, "They did not jump overboard like our brave Frenchmen." The King evidently got the point. The fish drank so much French blood, it was said afterward, that if God had given them the power of speech they would have spoken in French.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“History is full of incremental improvements and revolutionary convulsions - often these are followed by reactionary backlashes in which rights are revoked, inequalities re-established.”
― Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past

“It's not so much that history is written by the victors, as the old saying goes, but the powerful do often have the capacity to make themselves heard and to erase the voices of others.”
― Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past

“Sometimes, when a community is comparatively homogenous and comparatively undisturbed over a long period, such a system of belief can continue, of course with development, long after material culture has progressed far beyond the level of savagery. It may then begin to turn into something more ethical, more philosophical, even more scientific; but there will be an uninterrupted continuity between this and its savage beginnings. Something like this, it would seem, happened in Egypt. That also is unlike the history of medieval thought.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image( An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature)[DISCARDED IMAGE][Paperback]

“Si Carlos hubiese casado a alguna de aquellas hijas a quienes quería tanto, no hubiese sido un suegro, sino más bien una suegra. [...] Aquel hombre que había hecho pasar a cuchillo fríamente a cinco mil prisioneros en Sajonia [...] tenía verdadero pánico a ese instante en que un yerno pudiese acudir a su casa y llevarse para siempre a una de sus hijas.”
― Rafael Ballester Escalas