Five key events that helped to shape the Medieval Period (Part I)

By Chris Livemore

In an earlier blog I clearly established, with well-documented evidence and equal measures of relief, that I am categorically not from the olden days (hooray) - this is despite my daughters ongoing insistence (she's not going to do well at Christmas this year). The medieval period ended five hundred years ago. I was not there. I was not even close to being there. That is well-evidenced.

Jack the Good Knight, however, absolutely was.

Initially, Jack lived somewhere in the high medieval period, roughly 1000 to 1300 AD, a world of castles, mean hearted knights, tournaments, dragons, suspicious nobles, and frankly magnificent insults. But that shifted to the late middle ages / the Renaissance, mainly as I wrote down Sir Percy 'poop-filled latrine incident, 1421' - still not sure why.

But here are five major events that shaped that world, which you should have found out about at some stage in school but have since forgotten...

One: The Battle of Hastings (1066)

The one every British schoolchild knows. When William the Conqueror defeated King Harold in 1066, he didn’t just win a battle. He transformed England. The Norman Conquest changed the aristocracy, the legal system, the language, and kicked off a national enthusiasm for building very large castles on hills.

It also gave English a flood of French vocabulary, which is why we have both cow (in the field) and beef (on the plate). History can be oddly specific.

The Good Knight connection:

Jack’s castle world is largely a Norman inheritance. Without 1066, there is no hilltop castle, no heraldic knights, and considerably fewer opportunities to say beef-witted (check out Sir Percy's Guide to Medieval Insults by signing up to Jack's Shield Wall).

Two: The Magna Carta (1215)

In 1215, rebellious barons forced King John to sign a charter limiting royal power. This became Magna Carta, one of the foundational moments in the history of the rule of law. Its immediate success was mixed. King John tried to ignore it almost instantly.

Its long-term impact was enormous. The principle that even rulers must obey rules has echoed through centuries of democratic government. I am going to write a blog that details what the Magna Carta was and what it meant at some stage, it was a hugely significant piece of history.

The Good Knight connection:

Sir Percy would strongly approve. Book Four, The Tournament, is essentially about whether powerful people can invent rules to suit themselves. The Magna Carta says no and Sir Percy was very happy to agree with that, the Wallachian Weasels not so.

Three: The Black Death (1347–1351)

Between 1347 and 1351, the Black Death killed up to half of Europe’s population. It was one of the most devastating, darkest events in human history. An estimated 50 million people died in Europe.

It also transformed society. With labour suddenly scarce, wages rose. Old feudal structures weakened. Ordinary people gained more bargaining power, women gained more rights (mostly as a result of so many men dying!). The medieval world began to change. This one is also going to get its own blog!

The Good Knight connection:

For the avoidance of doubt, Jack lives in a version of the Middle Ages where none of this is happening. He has enough on with rescuing princesses from Trows, finding out whether unicorns neigh and having fun with his best friends, Fire Pud the Dragon and Princess Charlotte.

But the castle-and-village world of the series belongs to the social order that the Black Death would eventually reshape.

Four: The Crusades (1095–1291)

Across two centuries, armies from Europe launched military campaigns to the Holy Land.

The Crusades were violent, complex, and deeply consequential. They also helped spread ideas, goods, technologies, and cultural influences between regions. Again, a more detailed blog will be written about this one and you will be amazed by the number of deaths it caused (or maybe not).

Many of the symbols we associate with knighthood, heraldry, chivalric codes, elaborate ceremony, developed during this era.

The Good Knight connection:

Jack represents the best version of the knightly ideal: courage, honour, helping the vulnerable, and bringing everyone home safely. A stronger record, frankly, than many real medieval knights managed. He would have ignored requests to join the Crusades, instead playing board games in the castle with Fire Pud.

Five: The Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453)

Despite the name, it lasted 116 years, which suggests either heroic persistence or catastrophic project management. Fought between England and France, it produced famous battles such as Agincourt, where Henry V's vastly outnumbered and exhausted army defeated a much larger, heavily armored French force, and legendary figures such as Joan of Arc and the Black Prince (otherwise known as the far less impressive sounding Edward of Woodstock).

It also marked the decline of the traditional mounted knight. Longbows, gunpowder, and changing armies were making heavy armour less decisive. The age of the knight was beginning to fade...

The Good Knight connection:

Jack lives in the golden age just before everything changes. Which feels like exactly the right time for one small knight to have his adventures.

A very brief conclusion

One thousand years of history. Kings, plagues, wars, castles, rebellions and world-changing ideas.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, in a castle on a hill, beside a dragon who can’t always fly, with armour that may be slightly too big, Jack the Knight is trying to do the right thing.

He always does.