Medieval Madness

In the Middle Ages fighting females were uncommon. Joan of Arc being a rare exception. But she was not the only woman to strap on armour and wield a sword. In this video we will travel back to the 14th century to meet a vengeful noblewoman who became a pirate and reigned down terror on the King of France. Welcome to Medieval Madness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15th century Florence was the epitome of a Renaissance city and home to some of the greatest philosophers, inventors and artists that have ever lived. A place full of new ideas, free thinking and beauty and also home to two families with tremendous wealth and power, the Pazzi’s and the Medici’s. On Easter Sunday 26th April 1478, a group of conspirators from the Pazzi family decided it would really...

Public executions were a major part of life in the largest and most significant city in the kingdom. The first recorded execution happened there in 1196, but we can be certain that capital punishment took place in London long before the 12th century. London offered an impressive backdrop for some of the most infamous executions in history. As the power of the state became greater, public punishmen...

Remember the expression ‘You’ve got to laugh or else you’ll cry’, well we all need a little bit of laughter in our lives and the Medievals were no different. Let’s face it having to deal with poverty, being supremely pious and suffering from horrific diseases like the Black Death was enough to make anybody miserable and the Medievals had to grab whatever joy they could. Let’s travel back in time f...

With this video we continue to look at the records kept by the royal official known as the Coroner. In the Middle Ages witness testimony was often all an investigator had to go on and often the only witness available was the victim or perpetrator of the crime. And neither were likely to give a fair and balanced statement. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when these records were made...

When a Medieval death occurred in England an official appointed by the crown and known as the Coroner was responsible for finding out what had happened. By the 13th century there were four coroners in every county. Each one of them had a deputy who would sometimes hold an inquest. Their duties extended to a range of criminal matters, not just a violent or sudden death, but if that was thought to b...

Animals were everywhere in Medieval life. They were used to pull carts and plough fields, they were milked, sheared, skinned and eaten. But were they ever kept just for the sake of companionship, as we keep them today? We often think of pets as animals that live indoors with us. The word ‘pet’ as describing a sort of companion animal wasn’t even used, in the English language until the 16th century...

Were the Middle Ages really as brutal and sadistic as we imagine today? There are many records from the time that actually do prove the stereotype to be true. Let’s face it we all know what the character Marsellus Wallace meant in the film Pulp Fiction when he threatened, “I’m gonna get Medieval on your a*s!” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through the ages humans have resolved disputes by fighting with one another and this was also true in the Middle Ages when judiciary duels were often held.   Also known as trial by combat or battle by combat it was seen as a chivalric way to settle a dispute. If an accusation was made against someone, without a witness or a confession, fighting in single combat was the only way to recognise who wa...

How did people live and die during the harshest months of the year? How did they stay warm? What did they eat? How did they keep themselves entertained in an age before modern day luxuries like electric blankets, double glazing, and Netflix? The onset of the Little Ice Age, between 1300 until about 1870 meant that the long, dark winters of the Late Middle Ages were colder and more dangerous. With...

From the beginnings of civilization, humans have always looked up to the heavens in wonder. Sightings of stars and planets, comets and eclipses are awe inspiring and help us to try and understand our place in the cosmos. Technological advances made just over the last few decades with larger and more powerful equipment mean that we can now probe much deeper into the unknown universe of countless ga...

For our fourth video in our ‘Day in the Life’ series we will travel back in time to the 13th century, where the spectre of heresy loomed large over all the regions of Europe. But especially in the Languedoc area of what is now South West France. Why was the Catholic Church so threatened by a group of celibate vegetarians? What were their beliefs? How were they connected to our old friends the Knig...

The English historian James Anthony Froude once said. “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself”. And it would seem that the Medievals were outstanding in creating torture devices that were both breath-taking in their aesthetic and brutality. So we’ve put together another compilation of some of their most crea...

She was an ordinary peasant girl that changed the course of the 100 Years War. A teenager that became the figurehead of the French army. But who was she really? This is the story of the Maid of Orléans, her faith, her military role, capture and eventual death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1324 Dame Alice Kyteler was the first Irish woman to be accused of witchcraft. Had she really used the dark arts to acquire her wealth or was she just your every day serial killer? In this video we will delve into the deadly story of a woman who became known as the ‘Witch of Kilkenny’.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2016 the English theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking said, “We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity”. During the Middle Ages people put their faith in things that we now know to be complete nonsense. Here we are going to take a look at some of those outrageous beliefs. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn more about your ad choic...

In the Middle Ages, the barber-surgeon became the poor-man’s go to doctor. Someone to deal with the more mundane and dirty jobs. Jobs like bloodletting, pulling out teeth, dealing with minor wounds, rashes and burns. But as time went on they gradually became associated with much more skilled but gruesome tasks such as setting limbs, performing surgeries, even delivering babies and amputations. In...

It’s that time of year when we all want to hear a good old fashioned ghost story. In the Middle Ages many of these tales were often loaded with hidden meaning for the listener and tried to explain the unexplainable to their Medieval audience. Some come from the Viking sagas, others were written by members of the church and others have been passed down verbally through families. Many of the monasti...

Lets travel back in time and look at the life of one Medieval monk, who it turned out became a magician, an outlaw, a mercenary, a pirate and even had a brief stint as Admiral of the French fleet.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hated by their contemporaries they earned nicknames like Accursed, Hater of Sunlight and Monster during the Middle Ages. In this video we discuss three individuals who acted with violence, treachery and down right nastiness just because they could.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this video, which is part of our day in the life series, we discuss what it was like to be a member of the elite fighting force of the day. Taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they were so well trained that in battle they were forbidden from retreating unless they were outnumbered three to one and yet so devout that they were considered a monastic order. For almost two centuries the...

Over thousands of years human beings have spent an inordinate amount of time working out how to kill one another. So, it wasn’t long before they had the idea of using drowning as a form of lethal punishment. And regardless of the beliefs of the Medievals it wasn’t as pain free or as instantaneous as they thought. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say it is “the oldest profession in the world”. In Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt there were temples dedicated to ‘sacred prostitution’. There are ancient Sumerian records dating back to 2400 BCE that refer to prostitution as an occupation. In this video we continue our “day in the life” series and travel back to 15th century Germany, to see what life was like for one particular prostitute in...

He was the right-hand man of Joan of Arc and the single richest and most powerful nobleman of Anjou. He was a war hero, the Marshall of France. But he has also been described as the most horrific serial killer in French history, a man who inspired the grizzly tale of Bluebeard. In this video we will discuss Gilles de Rais the man who supposedly sold his soul to the Devil and eventually paid the ul...

What did people in the Middle Ages really find funny? It would seem that the same things have been found to be amusing right across the ages. Many of the riddles that the Medievals told have double entendre’s and the jokes are rude with references to sex and bodily functions. No one was exempt from being the target of a Medieval joke; stupid husbands, unfaithful wives, bishops, even royalty. Learn...