Newsletter

Welcome to the March newsletter.

March (and autumn) have arrived in Australia, so I have decided to dedicate this newsletter to ‘March Medieval Mysteries’, revisiting a 2022 blog, The Mysterious Lost Palace of Woodstock.

Edward, the Black Prince was born at Woodstock Palace on 15th June 1330, as were several of his siblings. In fact, Woodstock Palace is mentioned many times throughout history as the location of numerous events of importance, yet it mysteriously no longer exists. So what happened to this famous palace and where was it located?

LINK TO BLOG - The Mysterious Lost Palace of Woodstock

As per our admission in December that we would cut back on social media this year in order to finish our book five, we do not mean to abandon our duties completely and offer a ‘look back’ on some of our older blogs. We are sure they are worthy of a second airing!

Medieval folk were generally a superstitious bunch who relied on their imagination to make sense of the myriad of phenomenon and mysteries that took place around them that they otherwise could not explain. The act of sneezing is a perfect example, as it was believed that when you sneezed you gave Satan the opportunity to enter your body. However, by verbally expressing the phrase “God bless you” you could block the path of the Devil and therefore save your soul

Omens were also a popular method of dealing with unexplainable, natural events. The following is just a small example of medieval omens -

If you met a priest or a monk on the road, you would find danger or misfortune on the journey.
If you hear a cuckoo cry five times, you have but five years to live.
Meeting a hare on the road signifies that a bad thing will happen.
Meeting a toad on the road means that a good thing will happen.
If Christmas falls on a Sunday, there will be a good winter, a windy Lent, and a dry summer, but if it falls on a Monday, the winter will be changeable, and the summer will be windy.
If thunder sounds from the east, there will be great bloodshed in the coming year.
It is unlucky to meet an ass or a raven whilst travelling.

So, next time you see a comet in the sky, or witness a solar eclipse, imagine how distressing such an event would have been for our medieval ancestors.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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Catherine A Wilson co-writes with Catherine T Wilson (no relation). Their first book, The Lily and the Lion, was based upon their true-life accidental meeting and resulting friendship. All four books in their ‘Lions and Lilies’ series have won first place prizes in the Chatelaine/Chaucer Awards in the US and IN 2018, The Traitor’s Noose won the Grand Prize Chaucer Award.