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Dr Rory MacLellan

@rorymaclellan.bsky.social
1.3K followers 536 following 356 posts

Historian of the Hospitallers, Templars, crusades, and Jews in medieval England. rorymaclellan.com uk.bookshop.org/shop/rafmaclellan

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Reposted by Dr Rory MacLellan
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦 @kfduggan.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Medieval Executions 🧵 Hi there. One of my areas of expertise is medieval crime and punishment. If you’re interested, here are some comments on medieval executions. Note that, just as today, practices and perceptions varied widely across medieval Europe... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation
Pentagon said execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be broadcast live
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Another great medieval name (or Ork?): John Stabba (data.1381.online/projects_dat...) #medievalsky
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Cartoon of someone in an audience telling the speaker "I want my kids taught about the past exactly as it happened in a way that also mythologises this country's achievements in particular while portraying bad actions aberrations in order to instil a sense of civic pride but is not in any way opinionated."
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
d
Who, Me? was a top secret, sulfurous, non-lethal chemical weapon developed by MIT-graduate Ernest Crocker for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services during World War II.[1][2] Who, Me? smelled strongly of fecal matter, and was issued in pocket atomizers intended to be unobtrusively sprayed on a German officer to humiliate him and, by extension, demoralize the occupying German forces.[3]

Who, Me? had a high concentration of extremely volatile sulfur compounds that were very difficult to control: more often than not, the person who did the spraying also ended up smelling as bad as the one targeted.[4] After two weeks, it was concluded that Who, Me? was a failure.
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I accidentally spent £17,700 on 400 subscriptions to the LRB for Home Office staff and now the Life in the UK test is asking applicants to rank Derek Jarman films from most to least emotionally resonant?
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Storyteller Fran @storytellerfran.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s Michaelmas, the feast of St Michael the Archangel. Here he is on the astonishing doom painting in Wenhaston church, weighing souls in competition with the Devil!
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"We should support Moderate Imperials like Thrawn".
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
And if people are interested in reading more about Yorkist propaganda, I have an article on their treatment of Henry V, trying to denounce him as a usurper but also co-opt him as a warrior ideal: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #medievalsky
tandfonline.com
The Good Lancastrian? Remembering Henry V in Yorkist England
The Yorkist rhetoric of the Wars of the Roses is full of invective against their Lancastrian rival Henry VI and his grandfather Henry IV. The former was cast as incompetent, the latter as a usurper...
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think this one was digitised too so should be available on the BL catalogue
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That is BL, LFC Ch XXV 21
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Doesn't quite beat Dudeman though.
"Dudemannesland"
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I believe that is Latin for 'strong coffee'
A manuscript shelfmark with a stamp: 'Wodehouse MSS 'frappe fort'.
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Another one I found, that sounds like a Warhammer dwarf, is Innocent Stonethakker
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Reposted by Dr Rory MacLellan
Dr Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull (He/They) 🏳️‍🌈 @benwt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Call for papers! “Reading Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Religion and Politics: Marginalia and Manuscripts” @rorymaclellan.bsky.social and I are putting together a panel for next year’s SRS conference in London. Deadline for 200 word abstracts is tomorrow Please get in touch and repost!
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Feel sorry for their descendants
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I think so, though I wonder what people do to get that surname in the first place
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Another great medieval name: Thomas le Cursed. TNA C/66 124 #medievalsky
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Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
CFP: Far-Right Archives in the Digital Age, a collaboration between @wienerlibrary.bsky.social and me (via my @britishacademy.bsky.social grant): 27 November, London: www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo... Travel funds are available (probably only within UK)!! Please share. 🗃️
northampton.ac.uk
CFP: Far-Right Archives in the Digital Age | UON
Wiener Holocaust Library, London. Friday 27 November 2026, 10.30am-4pm Improved digital access to far-right material at archives, libraries, and beyond...
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Yeah, a lot of these spells show how little people have changed
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A more party-trick medieval spell is to make bread 'dance': "Take quicksilver (i.e. mercury) and put it in the dough in the middle of the loaf, then put it to bake and it shall leap about. Likewise, put the quicksilver in a hot loaf of bread and it shall leap about." #medievalsky
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A chance for some experimental archaeology?
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A spell in a 15th-century grimoire for summoning a demon to find buried treasure. Sloane MS 3849, f. 18r. #medievalsky
Medieval spell to find buried treasure, with diagrams. When you come to a place where you believe there to be treasure hidden, you must draw a quadrangle in the earth as shown in the diagrams. Then burn or boil frankincense, saffron, and a dyed red rose and breath in the fumes, presenting the concoction to each corner of the quadrangle, this will bind the spirit to you when he appears in one of the corners.
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Dr Dean Irwin @medievaljews.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
With all of the emphasis on the Bayeux Tapestry this week, and with Rosh Hashanah about to start, it's reflecting that the world of William the Conqueror wasn't just a Christian one. The centuries before prior to 1066 had seen Jewish communities gradually expand North through Germany and France. 1/
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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The myth of the Norman Yoke as requested by @danherb10.bsky.social in the latest of my what do you want to know about the Normans? posts. The Norman Yoke is about legal matters, particularly obligations of tenure, right to plead in various courts and their preceived oppressive nature 1/
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
It does sound like it. Surely there was another way to make the ending slightly uplifting? Just have the main character personally wronged by Hales or Sudbury or a fictional character and they get revenge on him before the end. Or did it even need to be uplifting in the end at all?
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A seventeenth-century doodle of a smiley face
Doodle of a smiley face with a beard and hat in an early modern manuscript
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Willard Foxton @willardfoxton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Coming to the conclusion of a 2-year long warhammer narrative campaign. Penultimate big battle (18ft table! 5 players each side!) was this Sunday.
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History Rage Podcast @historyrage.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
📅 #onthisday 3 Sept 1120: Blessed Gerardo Salso dies. Long before Templar myths took over, his Knights Hospitaller were building hospitals, power, and longevity. This military order survived for centuries. With @rorymaclellan.bsky.social 🎧 Listen 👉 pod.fo/e/37b7e4 #otd #history #podcast ⛪⚔️
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Mine too, removed from the website too. I don't even see Grace's one on the playlist. Well, we did say we didn't want to be associated with it any more, I guess.
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Charlie Lynch @charlielynch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Let’s try again: I’d like to hear about new research from Scottish historians. Especially ECRs whose work may not get much attention. This is because I have a newspaper column where I publicise new work by Scottish historians! Tell me about your research!
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
as Norway plunges into chaos following death of king, one military strongman is seizing power
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Thanks, Aasa! It's definitely a stressful decision, even more so for you working so directly in this field. At least there's the Manchester workshop and hopefully new conferences on this will follow in time
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Aasa T 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @rosgakori.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I am withdrawing my paper proposal from Warhammer Conference 2026. My reasoning can be found below. In a way, this has been one of the most stressful decisions of my academic career. In one way, the answer was clear to me since I found out about this.
To Dr. Ryder:

I am deeply saddened to do this, but I must withdraw my paper proposal for this year’s Warhammer Conference. I have been attending the conference every year since its inception, and as you are aware, this is the premiere conference in the field where I am currently writing my doctoral thesis.  

My withdrawal is based your signature of the open letter in support of Nathan Cofnas, which I feel misleadingly frames his suspension as an issue of academic free speech, where as Ghent University has stated that their reasoning was based on shoddy work ethics and work that would bring university’s reputation into disrepute, i.e. “race realism” and other frankly racist and dubiously scientific works. I believe that many well-meaning scholars have been misled by primarily making this a case of academic free speech. 

Moreover, Nathan Cofnas was the instigator for a mass harassment campaign of dubious merits that led to the death of Professor Jason Arday, which I find disgusting, horrible and unforgivable. I am unwilling to associate with anyone who shows support for Cofnas under the guise of academic free speech. The far right have shown their capability to use free speech as a smokescreen to harass, target, and demonize whole groups of people, and this is just another example of it. To see “academic free speech” being used as a reason to support this odious man is unacceptable to me. Without speculating on your motives, I have to listen to my own principles in this matter.

Aasa Timonen
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Thanks! I'll send over a link when it's out
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
and other minoritised groups, trying to give teachers more examples, lives, and histories to bring into the classroom. All the resources will be available for free on the website when it launches if you want to check them out
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I've been bringing in the Jewish history to Magna Carta, for example, by explaining why it has terms about Jewish debts, or for the development of parliament, by talking about the Worcester Jewish 'parliament' in 1241. Also doing more on the women involved in these episodes
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It does read of a panicked marketing team facing poor tracking. It's this project, and I'm working on the medieval section which is King John and Magna Carta, Simon de Montfort and Parliament, and 1381: www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/new...
royalholloway.ac.uk
Royal Holloway launches £1.5 million project to chart struggle for rights and representation from Magna Carta to present day
Royal Holloway has launched a £1.5 million project to support teachers with more inclusive UK political history resources.
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Why does it always have to be Robin Hood?! I'm working for a project making school history teaching more inclusive, e.g. adding Jewish and women's histories into Magna Carta and Simon de Montfort. Next week I'm starting on the 'Peasants'' Revolt, so I sort of have to see this for work purposes...
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thanks, Emi, I really appreciate it! Sorry to have left so abruptly as well but I didn't want to risk getting into rehashing hackneyed arguments about academic freedom. It's really disappointing as the other organisers don't agree with him on this
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thanks! I'm glad I did it but it was more difficult than I expected
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
His second-best role as a Soviet.
static.klipy.com
Tim Curry: Uncorrupted Space
ALT: Tim Curry: Uncorrupted Space
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thanks! Yeah, it wasn't fun. He doubled down on his support in his response, which made me feel I made the right choice
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Had to withdraw from this in the end as one of the organisers signed the letter supporting Nathan Cofnas. While the other organiser didn't agree with them, I just don't want to be associated with it, especially in a franchise that already has far-right elements in its fanbase. #warhammercommunity
I am sorry to be writing to withdraw my paper proposal for this year's Warhammer Conference. I greatly enjoyed attending the first conference in 2024 and had been very much looking forward to going again this year.

However, I have seen that you have signed the open letter in support of Nathan Cofnas (https://johnarmstrongmaths.com/openletters/letter.php?campaign=cofnas). The letter portrays his suspension as purely an issue of academic free speech and unfair punishment for whistleblowing: "As academics, we are concerned that Ghent University's disciplinary proceedings against Dr Cofnas appear to constitute retaliation, at least in part, for publicizing academic misconduct that occurred in British universities."

I strongly disagree with the characterisation. Ghent's own letter setting out their reasoning is that Cofnas has publicly presented himself as working on racist projects like his "Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution", not the postdoctoral project he was hired for, and has risked bringing the university's reputation into disrepute. In doing so he has breached the employment contract he willingly signed: https://bsky.app/profile/roterote.bsky.social/post/3mtonundvbs22 Ironically, he himself has written about his desire to violate the academic freedom of anyone who disagrees with his 'race realism': https://xcancel.com/mariachong/status/2090858937465835982#mThis is not an academic free speech issue at heart. It is a philosophy academic opining on IQ and genetics, something he does not have a single degree in, nor has he been hired to work on these topics.

Regardless of my interpretation of this academic speech point, which we may have to agree to disagree upon, I do not want to be associated with support for this odious man. As you have signed this letter in support of him and are one of the lead organisers and have been the public face of the conference, I do not want to present at it and shall exercise my academic free speech in withdrawing my paper.

Cofnas' racist views and his stated dream to "after the revolution" become "head of the Department of Eugenics and Race Science at Harvard" are abhorrent. Considering the problems that Warhammer already faces with far-right elements in its fanbase, something you have yourself written upon, it is deeply disappointing that the only conference on the franchise is now linked to such an individual as Cofnas, a publicly admitted eugenicist.

Rory
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Gratifying to see that within a day it already has 700 more signatures than the letter supporting Cofnas
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Just seen the organiser of a conference I'm due to speak at has signed it, so that's 'fun'...
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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
You know, I would love it if the people in this thread with access to large audiences and the ears of policy makers could shadow a uni admissions team and/or the lecturers responsible for bringing first-year students’ skills up to a reasonable standard across the cohort. 1/
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Dr Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull (He/They) 🏳️‍🌈 @benwt.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Had a wonderful time the other week teaching a session for @royalholloway.bsky.social ‘s MA Public History students on creative responses to archival materials @thelondonarchives.bsky.social. Highlights included Eleanor Rykener’s deposition and Ignatio Sancho’s voting record
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Wow! There's also a lecturer who was hired on a 1-year contract before submitting their PhD and told it would become permanent upon submission. He never did it, just kept getting renewed until one year HR accidentally sent him a permanent contract. He signed that ASAP and now can't be gotten rid of.
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I know of one emeritus professor who claimed they had an MA from St Andrews when they got their first lecturer post, counting on the fact that the hiring committee wouldn't know that it was an undergraduate degree.
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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Another reason to count it as one of the two good Nightmare on Elm Street sequels
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