Greetings, {{first name | Producer}},
Welcome to the Weekly Herald for the week of 22 February 2026.
Each week, we return to the chronicles of the Middle Ages, marking anniversaries, revisiting battles, and tracing the enduring consequences of medieval history.
This week, we mark the 760th anniversary of the Battle of Benevento, a clash that reshaped the balance of power in medieval Italy.
Battle of Benevento
On 26 February 1266, the Battle of Benevento was fought near the city of Benevento in present-day southern Italy. The battle pitted Charles I of Anjou against King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred’s defeat and death on the battlefield ended the Hohenstaufen dynasty’s rule in the Italian Peninsula.
In its place rose the Capetian House of Anjou, as Charles claimed the Kingdom of Sicily, a decisive shift in power that would influence Italian and Mediterranean politics for decades to come.
Charles’ reign was severely unpopular. Heavy taxation, harsh administration, and French influence upset the local population. After years of abuse, this frustration ultimately erupted in the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, a violent uprising that expelled Angevin rule from the island and marked one of the most dramatic revolts of the Middle Ages.
THIS WEEK IN THE MIDDLE AGES
24 Feb 1303: At Roslin, Scottish commanders John Comyn and Simon Fraser ambush English forces under John Segrave, one of the period’s most remembered winter clashes, later inflated by chroniclers into legend.
23 Feb 1455 (trad.): The Gutenberg Bible is published, often treated as a symbolic ‘start date’ for Europe’s print revolution, even if surviving evidence suggests the project spanned several years.
THE ILLUMINATION
Bayeux Tapestry, scene 27
Edward the Confessor dies and is taken to his new church, Westminster Abbey. Before his death, he speaks to his followers from his bed.
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THE HERALD'S LEXICON
Word of the Week: Advowson
The legal right to appoint (or recommend) a clergyman to a vacant church post (a “benefice”).
FROM THE FORGE
On the website we are continuing our Medieval Papacy series. This week we looked at Pope Boniface VIII.
We also covered an often forgotten naval battle between King Cnut and his rivals, the kings of Sweden and Norway. The Battle of Helgeå, fought in 1026, took place one thousand years ago.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK
He who has not tasted the bitter, does not know what is sweet.
~Medieval Proverb
The record continues.
The Archivist
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