NEMUS cavalcades to the Leeds IMC 2025
This July, NEMUS returned to Leeds for the International Medieval Congress 2025 (IMC 2025), to organise further interdisciplinary activities.This time, a series of three panels was held about the theme Warhorses, under the command of João Nisa and Afonso Soares de Sousa. The sessions were truly international, as they brought together nine speakers hailing from Canada, Germany, Latvia, the Low Countries, Portugal, the UK and USA, including Paulo M. Dias, another NEMUS member. Many dozen delegates attended all three sessions, and also joined in the debate. All the NEMUS delegates took part in a guided visit to the Leeds Royal Armouries including a handling session led by the horse armour curator, Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys.
Sousa and Nisa further joined another panel, organised by Hylke Hettema (LIAS Universiteit Leiden) and Frederik Kirch (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Baden Württemberg), presenting a paper entitled ‘(De)Constructing the Portuguese Medieval Horse’.
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WARHORSES, I: SOURCES, LIVES, AND HORSEMANSHIP
Mughal Warhorses: Documents from the Telangana State Archives – Eva Orthmann (Seminar für Iranistik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
What Now Noble Steed? – Kathleen Haak (Independent Scholar)
Horsemanship and the Tournament Lifestyle of German Nobility in the Late-15th Century in the Mirror of Private Letters – Frederik Kirch (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Baden-Württemberg)
Moderator: Carolyn Willekes (Department of General Education, Mount Royal University, Alberta)
WARHORSES, II: TRAINING AND VALUE
Warhorses in Late Medieval Portugal – Paulo M. Dias (Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Horses as Spoils of War in Crusading Warfare – Connor Wilson (Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University)
How to Train a Warhorse: Evidence from 13th- and 14thCentury Royal Accounts – Emma Herbert-Davies (Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds).
Moderator: Timothy George Dawson (Independent Scholar)
WARHORSES, III: TYPES, EQUESTRIANISM, AND LITERATURE
Specialising Horse Types for the Tournament in High Medieval England – Dominic Sewell (Independent Scholar)
Frugal Equestrianism among the Templars: An Overview of Evidence in Literary and Visual Sources – Anastasija Ropa (Latvijas Sporta pedagoģijas akadēmija, Rīgas Stradiņa Universitāte)
‘Don’t Die’: Practical Advice on Knightly Pursuits from Pietro Monte – Sean Gulick (Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin)
Moderator: Hylke Hettema (Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden)
Text: Afonso Soares de Sousa, João Nisa, Tiago Viúla de Faria