Obviously there WERE laws, but how one-sided were these legal systems? If you were caught stealing from a lord or king, obviously you would be severely punished.

But were the lower class protected against the higher class as well? If a landed royal or otherwise "important" person committed a crime such as rape or murder against a peasant, was there an expectation of justice?

It seems like there’s a year long gap where there was no country in Anatolia which could really be the case right?

It's my understanding that the Oseberg excavation was a well documented event and very important to Norwegian archaeology. I would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the direction of further reading. I'd also be happy with any books that might aid my understanding of the Oseberg ship even if it's not the primary focus of the text.

Thanks

How common was rape and child sex in Europe during the Middle Ages?

In a discussion regarding George R.R. Martin's work, the dubious claim was made that the seemingly excessive and gratuitous rape scenes were to paint a historically accurate picture of medieval times.

Was the average woman or child at great risk of rape?

Would this change during times of war?

For women and children captured after battle?

Were women and children at great risk of being captured after battle?

I know that the Latin Empire, the Empires of Trebizond and Nikea, and the Despotate of Epirus all claimed to be the true successors to the Empire but I am just curious how it fragmented that heavily since at that point the Crusaders were deep in what was now very hostile territory and nearby armies could have been brought against them.

Here in Brazil we have tests, very hard ones, to get into universities; in the US they have the whole letters and interviews thing. In the Soviet Union, because of socialism and the ideal of equality, seems logical that they would try to make access to education the most democratic as possible. So how was the system to get into universities? And did any policy designed to diminish inequality in education actually work?

For clarification, as I understand it at this point the majority of people living around Uppsala, where the old temple was, were still pagan. Not much further south, however, the majority were Christians, and only a minority held on to the old gods; I belong to that pagan minority. If I’m mistaken, please go ahead and correct me!

I know there’s some debate as to whether or not a real King Arthur Pendragon, even existed, or what the original legends were based on.

With that said, I was wondering if UK historians had any sort of sigil, or emblem they considered to have belonged to, or descended from King Arthur, or from any famous monarchs that may have inspired the legends?

Like something you would paint on a shield, tabard, or sow onto a banner.

I’m hoping to find sources like journal entries, personal reflections, opinion editorials etc.

There’s something of an apocalyptic flavour to current affairs. I’m trying to find some more personal insights into how people dealt with the emotional terror of what must have felt like the end of the world.

I recall reading a long time ago, that Franz Ferdinand was in favor of allowing more ethnic autonomy to non Austrians within the empire. He was also in favor of increasing their representation in their parliament. From what I understood, this was against the mainstream belief of the Austrian dominated government leaders. The writer explained this made his assassination all the more tragic because had he assumed the throne of the empire, he could have eased a lot of the ethno-nationalist tensions that caused his assassination and started the First World War.

How accurate are these assertions by the author, or am I misremembering entirely?

I would like to ask especially in the case of the titular Romulus, who was supposed to have killed his own brother in the process of the building of Rome.

Hello, I’ve always been curious as to why and how northern Central Asia got its borders today, And I read that the borders were redrawn by the USSR after absorbing the Khivan and bukkharan territories. I was just wondering exactly why and how the borders were redrawn? What are their purpose? How has it affected the peoples? And why exactly were these borders decided on specifically? I’ve been trying to find direct sources on the subject but I really don’t know where to look

I understand that most of Rome's slave population came about through conquests during wars, but that they also bought slaves from pirates, and that criminals could be enslaved.

Could just anyone kidnap a person and bring to a Roman market? Was there paperwork involved? Did some kind of database exist, or did slave owners keep documents that proved ownership of a slave?

I've read that climate change was one of the biggest factors, but a recent thread also brought up the growth in power of coastal regions over inland empires as one possible reason too.

during the 1920s and before rabbits were a major part of the Australian diet and going out and hunting your own was fairly common (my grandfather has a photo of him and his brothers with 10+ dead rabbits) but these days I don't even know where you would get a rabbit from. what caused the decline of eating rabbits in Australia?

It's probably me reading the wrong books, but isn't his account of post-Pericles Athenian politics and Cleon in particular taken too much at face value in popular history? The way I see it, Thucydides had extremely strong motivation to depict Athenians in general and their leaders in particular in as bad light as possible, and he did portray them as both too coldly cynical (in the infamous Melian dialogue) and too fickle and passionate at the same time...

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So how modern historians rate his reliability, and what would be good, layman-accessible further reading on this?

So I'm reading a lot of Dickens at the moment, and one thing that stands out is the amount of office work that is done by main characters. However, one thing that's bugging me is the lack of toilets or commentary on sanitary habits. Did office workers in the 19th Century just go "excuse me boss I need to urinate" and go into the street to do it?

As my office bathrooms are like 30 seconds from my desk I would hate to have to go down a few flights of stairs to the street or ground level to take a leak - seems massively inefficient to me and a waste of the working day.

I’m reading the very interesting Sicily by Norwich. I’m really interested in the figure of Roger II of Sicily. Was really its rule such tolerant and open to other cultures? The Palatine chamber suggest that, and also the sources that we got from the time. But I was interested in the issue and to know if there are other sources that put in doubt that narrative.

I'm writing a fictitious light novel based on medieval era, perhaps around 14th century where people battled with swards, not yet with guns. In the story, a king makes an announcement throughout his kingdom. To do so, what's the natural way of the announcement?

Were notification boards/bulletin boards used?

Were messages engraved directly on wooden boards? Or some sort of papers, such as parchment, were used?

If parchment was used, was it weatherable?

Not many people around that time might be able to read written words, I guess. So they didn't use bulletin boards at all? Rather, a public servant read out a message paper in front of villagers? (Before this announcement, the public servant has to walk around the village on his horse notifying people that there will be a public announcement)

Please note that this question is for a fiction. It doesn't have to be strictly based on facts. So any suggestion that could naturally fit in the fictitious story would be fine.

Thank you!

During the early stages of quarantine last year, I steadily worked my way through the cdrama The Princess Weiyoung, a drama set in Northern Wei in the middle of the fifth century. It gave rise to some questions about social dynamics that the show takes for granted, but which are unfamiliar to me.

1. A lot of the first half of the show is taken up with household politics, particularly dealing with the relationship between the first wife/her children and a concubine/her daughter. So basically: what were the general family dynamics within imperial or aristocratic harems at this time? I know that all of the children were considered the wife's children, legally, but was there any sense of the wife's biological children being higher status or more legitimate heirs?

2. I understand that the Tuoba clan was (possibly? probably?) from Mongolia; did they have some relationship to the nomadic Rouran?

3. While looking at the Wikipedia pages for the actual history that the show is very, very loosely based on, I saw this:

Emperor Taiwu created him the Prince of Gaoyang, but then reconsidered, believing that a princely title was inappropriate for his oldest grandson, and therefore cancelled the title—signifying strongly that he intended for Tuoba Jun to succeed him.

What is going on here? What was the meaning of princely titles, if having one made a person seem less likely to be selected as a successor to the emperor?