When we picture the Middle Ages, we often imagine knights, castles, and bustling marketplaces, not cozy homes filled with pets. Yet people in medieval Europe did keep animals for companionship, though ...

Cats had a bad reputation in the middle ages. Their presumed links with paganism and witchcraft meant they were often treated with suspicion. But despite their association with the supernatural, ...

When Kathleen Walker-Meikle, a historian at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, ponders the Middle Ages, her mind tends to drift not to religious conquest or Viking raids, but to squirrels. Tawny ...

Animals in court–with charges, defense, and verdict? Stories about animal trials in the Middle Ages seem bizarre. But were ...