“Plantagenet England 1225–1360” covers a lot of ground and is, on the most part, an engaging history, not a stuffy textbook.

I was amused by some of my country’s long-forgotten surnames, like William Standupryght for example, or the gentleman referred to in the following quote.

“In 1347 Roger Sweatinbed of Friesthorpe was accused of fornication with Letitia Bat.”

English surnames aren’t what they used to be.

It’s amazing how people thought during those times. The following quote of man’s knowledge of woman’s body made me eyebrows move in an upward direction:

“Nor was the female anatomy understood; one view was that it was similar to the male, but turned inside out. In comparison to the male, however, the female body ‘hath smalle ballokkys’, as a late medieval writer put it. Even odder, but well founded in classical writings, was the notion that the uterus was capable of wandering about the body, causing great problems should it lodge in an inappropriate place, such as the chest.”

Medical knowledge has grown considerably since medieval times! ( )