The Knightly Newsletter is no longer in production, but you can now get The Medieval History Newsletter instead. Subscription instructions at the end of this document are no longer valid, so please sign up at our current sign-up page.

Below is an archived copy of The Knightly Newsletter. Known outdated links have been removed, but the text remains. Please keep in mind that the information contained herein is several years old and may no longer apply; some links may lead to features that are no longer active.

 

 

The Newsletter for the Medieval History Site at About.com Vol. II, No.24 December 30, 1999   •Through-the-Centuries •Unsubscribe Difficulties •Today in Medieval History •Feast of Fools

 

Our Latest Feature

The Through-the-Centuries Quiz

How much do you know about the past two thousand years?

  

 

Drawing Winner

Our second random drawing has a winner, and much to my embarassment I forgot to mention her name in our last issue as I had promised. I hope Diana Cosby will forgive me, and will enjoy the book she chooses with her Borders.com Gift Certificate!

Notice

We suffered some difficulties with our Newsletter tool over the past few weeks. If you tried to unsubscribe and could not, please try again by visiting our standard subscription page and following the simple instructions there.

This page can be reached by clicking the "Newsletter" link in the navigational menu on any page of the site (and can also be reached from the bottom of every email issue of the newsletter).

Please be sure to enter the email address with which you subscribed. If your email is forwarded to another address, entering the ultimate address will not work; only the original address can be unsubscribed from our system.

If this tool does not work for you, please contact me and I will see what we can do to unsubscribe you.

Thank you for your patience!

 

 

Return

Those of you who have been visiting the site for as much as two years may remember the feature I began and was forced to discontinue due to changes in my non-Medieval life. Well, for the past 8 months or so I've been working to free up my schedule and revamp my "This Date" feature. Now, just in time for the new millennium, it's back!

Find out what happened TODAY in Medieval History by clicking the link on the front page or at the bottom of many pages of our site, or find another date, and find out more about our This Date in Medieval History project.

Looking Forward

With this issue, we come to the end of Volume II of the Knightly Newsletter. I would like to thank all 13,000+ subscribers for joining me in cyberspace! It has been a very rewarding experience, and I hope you continue to enjoy it as much as I.

In Volume III, the Medieval Minutia will be discontinued, but you'll receive highlights from the coming week in Medieval History, instead. As always, if there is anything happening in the news that relates to the Middle Ages in any way, I'll include whatever information I can find about it on the web. You'll also continue to receive interesting board topics and chat news.

Recent difficulties with the antiquated phone lines in my neighborhood have dashed the hopes I had of bringing you this newsletter with precise regularity. So you can continue to expect an edition every 10 to 15 days. With any luck, I'll manage to surprise you occasionally with more frequent issues. As before, you'll hear from me whenever a significant change is made to the site.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to email me! I look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

Medieval Minutia

Every year during the middle ages, throughout Europe and particularly in France, the Feast of Fools was celebrated on or about January 1st. A wild festival where strict Christian morals were abandoned and ridiculous rites were practiced, the Feast included absurd traditions such as choosing a young boy as "pope" or "bishop" and relegating the highest local church officials to the status of servants for the day. Many ridiculous ceremonies were performed and people generally cut loose.

The Catholic Church tried repeatedly to ban the Feast of Fools, but its popularity and the emotional and psychological outlet it provided kept it flourishing into the sixteenth century, even under the threat of penalties imposed by the Council of Basle. The Feast most likely had its origins in the Roman Saturnalia.

Source: The Encyclopedia Britannica Online

  

 

Site Update

The page of links for Africa has been broken into three separate pages. You can find the index in our main directory page.

Our page of net links for Iberia has been removed from the Europe subdirectory and turned into a subdirectory of its own. You can find it from our main net link index.

There were so many good links for Michelangelo that I've given him a page of links all his own. You can find him through Notable Individuals or through Art & Artists.

 

 

Medieval History Mini-Quiz

What do you know about Christian Jubilee years? Test your knowledge at our mini-quiz.

Elsewhere at About.com

They're glamorous and intriguing, and their scandals and lifestyles have been the stuff of gossip and dreams for centuries. They're Royalty. Guide Stuart MacWatt has everything you need to know about those born to the Purple, past and present, in the Royalty site at About.com.

 

  

Quote of the Knight Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Shakespeare, Sonnet LX

 

Thank you for reading this edition of the Knightly Newsletter and for visiting the Medieval History site. Have a safe and happy new year, century, and millennium!

Melissa Snell
Your Medieval History Guide at About.com

 

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The Knightly Newsletter is copyrighted © 1999 by Melissa Snell and About.com. All graphics used on this page were created by your guide.

Check out issue II.23 of the Knightly Newsletter.
Visit our index of previous issues.

 

 

 

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