At this time of year, many of us will find ourselves singing about a royal personage who braves the snow on the Feast of Stephen – the Second Day of Christmas – so that he can distribute alms to a poor peasant. But who was the real Good King Wenceslas and was he as pious and saintly as the Christmas song suggests? In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman is joined by Czech historian Dr. David Kalhous to learn about the tenth century Bohemian Duke, posthumously declared to be a king and ...
Dec 20, 2022•24 min
In recent weeks, cinema audiences have been enjoying The Lost King , which tells the story of the efforts of amateur historian Philippa Langley to find the remains of Richard III - lost for more than 500 years - beneath a social services car park in Leicester. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis meets Philippa to hear the story of this amazing discovery. This episode was edited and produced by Elena Guthrie and Rob Weinberg. We've also been nominated for Best History Podcast and the Li...
Dec 17, 2022•42 min
Dr. Cat Jarman finds out more about a fragment of Old English poetry that depicts one of the defining conflicts of 10th century England - the Battle of Maldon. Its 325 lines immortalise the bloody defence by Earl Byrhtnoth and the Anglo-Saxons against the Vikings which took place on the banks of the River Blackwater in Essex in the year 991. Cat talks to Dr. Mark Atherton - author of The Battle of Maldon: War and Peace in Tenth-Century England - who describes the circumstances of the battle and ...
Dec 13, 2022•29 min
The Christmas carols we sing each year share roots in medieval church music. But as Matt Lewis finds out in this episode, carols were not just for Christmas but could be sung in different settings all your round. To find out the origins of carols, Matt talks to Micah Mackay, who is a doctoral candidate researching medieval carols at Balliol College, Oxford. This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. We've also been nominated for Best History Podcast and the Listener's Choice Award at ...
Dec 10, 2022•30 min
According to tradition, if it rains on Saint Swithun's bridge in Winchester on St. Swithun’s day — 15 July — it will continue for 40 days. But who was the real Swithun? And why has his historical importance as an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester been overshadowed by his reputation as a miracle worker? In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman finds out more about Swithun from Associate Professor Karl Christian Alvestad from the University of South-Eastern Norway. This episode was edited ...
Dec 06, 2022•41 min
Medieval England’s relationship with the Jewish community was complex and, at times, brutally violent and cruel. In 1290, the entire population of some 3,000 Jews was expelled from the country by King Edward I. In this edition of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis talks to Dr. Dean Irwin, whose research into Jewish moneylending activities sheds a fascinating light on the life of Jews in Medieval England, and the outbreaks of persecution against them. This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg....
Dec 03, 2022•33 min
Humanity's relationship with the wilderness has been a theme of myths and legends for thousands of years. Such stories can offer a unique insight into the medieval mind and its concept of the wild. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman ventures out into ancient Selwood Forest in Wiltshire with Amy Jeffs - author of Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain - to reflect on our ancestors’ travels through fen and forest in the Middle Ages. This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinb...
Nov 29, 2022•33 min
The Crusades are well-known but only part of the complex history of the medieval Near East. During the same era, the region was completely remade by the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols upended the region’s geopolitics. In this edition of Gone Medieva l, Matt Lewis talks to Dr. Nicholas Morton, author of The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East , about the conquests that forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies ...
Nov 26, 2022•35 min
Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the Hanseatic League — a powerful network of merchant guilds and market towns — dominated trade across almost 200 settlements in seven modern-day countries. But how did it function and manage to become so successful over such a vast region? In this edition of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman finds out more about the Hanse from Dr. Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz. This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. For more Gone Medieval cont...
Nov 22, 2022•25 min
In the fourth century AD, the Christian faith exploded out of Palestine, overwhelming the paganism of Rome, converting the Emperor Constantine in the process. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion was deeply ingrained within culture and society. In this edition of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis talks to Professor Peter Heather, author of Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion , about how Christianity rose to wield authority across nearly al...
Nov 19, 2022•42 min
878 AD witnessed a pivotal moment in the history of England as an emerging, unified nation, with the defeat of the Vikings by Alfred the Great at the Battle of Edington. Now, a new immersive history experience is opening in Winchester, titled 878 AD . Winchester featured heavily in the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla , and the experience draws heavily on imagery and assets from the game to create an engaging representation of the city at the time. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Ja...
Nov 15, 2022•35 min
Public executions were a major part of Londoners’ lives from the 12th century right through to the 19th. Now the Museum of London Docklands has brought the rarely told and often tragic human stories behind these events to a superb new exhibition, containing a range of fascinating objects, paintings and projections, many of which have rarely been seen in public. In this edition of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis explores some of the exhibition’s Medieval stories and items with curator Meriel Jeater. T...
Nov 12, 2022•28 min
Britain was once a mosaic of small kingdoms, some of which have vanished without a trace. In his new book Lost Realms , Thomas Williams, uncovers the forgotten stories of nine kingdoms that fell while others - such as Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and Gwynedd - prospered. In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman talks to Thomas Williams whose close scrutiny of Britain’s ancient landscape has resurrected a lost past. This episode was edited by Thomas Ntinas and produced by Rob Weinberg. If ...
Nov 08, 2022•32 min
Jan Žižka is the legendary Czech national hero who led Hussite forces against three crusades and never lost a single battle. His rise to military greatness is now told in the feature film titled Medieval , starring Ben Foster and Sir Michael Caine - the most expensive Czech film ever made. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis finds out more about Jan Žižka and the film from its director Petr Jákl and writer Petr Bok. This episode was edited by Anisha Deva and produced by Rob Weinberg. F...
Nov 05, 2022•22 min
Archeological evidence of the Vikings as far north as Northumbria has practically been non-existent. On Gone Medieval in May 2021, Dr. Cat Jarman reported on a brand-new Viking site in Northumberland, 15 years after metal detectorists started carefully documenting their finds in the area. In this edition of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman is joined by Dr. Jane Harrison and Dr. Jane Kershaw who report on new discoveries at the site which reveal more fascinating details about life and industry at t...
Nov 01, 2022•26 min
Vlad the Impaler - Vlad Dracula - is one of history’s most brutal figures, who has enjoyed a bizarre afterlife as a cult character. Although a hero to his Romanian countrymen, the name Dracula has since become a global byword for horror. In this Hallowe’en edition of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis finds out more about Vlad the Impaler’s dramatic life and career from Gavin Baddeley, co-author of Prince Dracula: The Bloody Legacy of Vlad the Impaler . **WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptio...
Oct 29, 2022•52 min
Earlier this month, it was reported that DNA analysis of the skeleton of a 10-year-old girl buried in Kent in the 7th century showed she was of West African descent. Thirty-three per cent of her DNA suggests that the girl’s grandfather or great-grandfather was probably from the Esan or Yoruba people. As Black History Month draws to a close, Dr. Cat Jarman explores what is known about the presence of Africans in Britain during the Medieval period with the distinguished historian of African affair...
Oct 25, 2022•31 min
On 21 October 1422 - 600 years ago - King Charles VI of France died at the age of 53 after reigning for 42 years. He was known as both Charles le Bien-Aimé (the Beloved) and Charles le Fou (the Mad) - the latter a reference to the mental health episodes that frequently dogged his life. Because he was a king, his health is better documented than most cases of mental illness in the Medieval period. In this explainer episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis recounts the story of a man whose life was p...
Oct 22, 2022•34 min
For centuries, the pub has played a central role in our lives and communities. Throughout Britain, there are many pubs saying that they are the oldest - some of them even claim to have Medieval origins. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman welcomes back award-winning buildings archaeologist Dr. James Wright to explore how long we have actually had pubs and which of them can truly claim to be the oldest. The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It was edited and produce...
Oct 18, 2022•37 min
Were sub-Saharan Africans present in Medieval Europe? Despite their absence from many histories, they were. Arriving as traders, as explorers, as warriors, or - for those only known from archaeological discoveries - for many reasons that we may never find out. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis marks Black History Month with a look at the challenges of researching this largely ignored or unknown history with Dr Adam Simmons. The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It wa...
Oct 15, 2022•30 min
Across the world, a wide range of writing systems developed in diverse societies and Medieval Europe was no different. Apart from the Latin alphabet, many will be familiar with the use of runes. But did you know that in Ireland and Britain, right at the start of the Medieval period, a different alphabet emerged by the name of Ogham? To find out more about this fascinating script, Dr. Cat Jarman is joined by Professor Katherine Forsyth and Dr. Nora White who are deeply immersed in research into t...
Oct 11, 2022•25 min
When the skeletons of six adults and 11 children were found at the bottom of a Medieval well in Norwich in 2004, they were thought perhaps to be the victims of plague or famine or civil unrest. Now scientific advances in DNA analysis have made it possible to not only age the victims, but identify their Jewish origin and - in combination with historical sources - the precise day they died. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis unravels the mystery of the bodies in the well with Dr. Selina...
Oct 08, 2022•23 min
Charles III recently became King at the age of 73 - the oldest man ever to become a British monarch. That might not seem so odd to us today, but had he been a child it would certainly have raised eyebrows. The idea of a child monarch is today practically unthinkable; in the Medieval period it was relatively common. But the rule of a boy king did not necessarily mean political disorder. In fact it posed far less of a challenge than having an adolescent king. In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr....
Oct 04, 2022•38 min
The emergence of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France - with its pointed arches, flying buttresses and stained glass windows - triggered an explosion of cathedral-building across western Europe. But behind every great cathedral lay human stories of competition, triumph and tragedy. In today’s episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis talks to Dr. Emma J. Wells, whose new book Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals reveals how 1000 years of cathedral-building...
Oct 01, 2022•26 min
Dr. Cat Jarman concludes her month-long series about her favourite, specialist subject - the Vikings. Cnut the Great became King of England in 1016, King of Denmark in 1018 and King of Norway in 1028, creating the North Sea Empire. In today’s episode Cat talks to Dr. Caitlin Ellis about Cnut, his impact and legacy, and the end of the Viking Era. The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Thomas Ntinas and produced by Rob Weinberg. For more Gone Medieval content, subs...
Sep 27, 2022•31 min
Castles have held a pivotal place in British life, many of them remaining today as powerful reminders of our history and sources of inspiration. But castles were also homes and status symbols as well as hubs of life, activity, and imagination. In today’s edition of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis discusses the castle’s early genesis from the Norman Conquest onward with John Goodall, whose new book The Castle: A History weaves together the history of the British castle from the eleventh century to the...
Sep 24, 2022•42 min
Few people in European history have had as many stories told about them as the Vikings. We know about them from novels, films, TV series and games. But telling stories about the Vikings is nothing new. In fact the richest stories come from the Middle Ages in the form of sagas that were mainly written down in Iceland. As part of her special month of episodes exploring the Vikings on Gone Medieval , Dr. Cat Jarman meets Medievalist Dr. Eleanor Barraclough to explore the sagas and sort out the fact...
Sep 20, 2022•37 min
Dan Jones is world-famous for writing swashbuckling factual history. But now he’s turned his hand to historical fiction with a debut novel Essex Dogs . It’s the first of a trilogy set in the Hundred Years War, in particular during the Crécy Campaign when England conducted large-scale raids throughout northern France. In today’s episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis talks to Dan about his journey into writing fiction, how he combined historical accuracy with his imagination to dream up an unforge...
Sep 17, 2022•39 min
September is Vikings month on Gone Medieval , as Dr. Cat Jarman presents a mini-series about her favourite, specialist subject. Over four episodes, Cat is taking a deep dive into the Viking age, looking at how it all started, how it all ended, and the stories we tell about those people from the north in between. In this second episode, Cat tells how raiders, traders and settlers from Scandinavia succeeded over 300 years to make an indelible mark on Western Europe, with insights from some previou...
Sep 13, 2022•33 min
Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the British throne. Born in April 1926, Elizabeth Windsor became heir apparent, aged 10, when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated and her father George VI became king. In 1947 – She married navy lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a Greek Prince, at London’s Westminster Abbey before being crowned there in 1953 in the world’s first televised coronation. In this special episode of Dan Snow’s History Hit, Dan is joined by historian Kate Williams to look at The Q...
Sep 08, 2022•29 min
