Gone Medieval

Sweyn Forkbeard was the first Viking King of England, however you'd be forgiven for potentially forgetting who he was given he was only King for five short weeks, being declared King on Christmas Day 1013, and ruling till his death on 3rd February 1014. Part of a distinguished line of Viking rulers, he was the son of Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark, and the father to Cnut the Great, the last Vik...

Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire was an institution of national significance from the late seventh century until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. It was home to eminent writers and had strong royal connections. It housed the tomb of Æthelstan, first king of all England, and Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, took a close interest in its affairs. But it was also home to arguably the most...

In the early 12th century, when England was suffering wave after wave of Viking invasions, many wondered how God could allow their kingdom to be ravaged by pagans? The Archbishop of York Wulfstan had an answer: the apocalypse was coming. What did that mean to people in the Middle Ages?  In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Professor Matthew Gabriele, about how mediev...

The Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 to 565, Justinian was a ruler who infused even the most mundane tasks with spiritual and religious significance. The challenges he faced - climate change, battles over culture and identity, the first recorded global pandemic - and many of the solutions he found to address them still resonate with us today. His legacy remains all around us, in his massiv...

When it comes to Japan in the Middle Ages, we think mostly of stories of the Shogun, samurai and ninjas. But for a society dominated by the court and military elite, much was dependent on the labour of skilled people.  In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Dr. Paula Curtis, to find out more particularly about Japan’s metal casters who rose to technical and social...

Geoffrey Chaucer is perhaps medieval England’s most famous writer and poet. Now a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is setting out to give him greater breadth and depth than just The Canterbury Tales .  To talk more about the ‘Father of English Literature’ with Matt Lewis is its curator Professor Marion Turner. This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg. Enjoy unlimited access t...

By the time the Black Death subsided, between 75 and 200 million people in Afro-Eurasia were dead, entire towns and cities had collapsed, and the earth’s temperature cooled. In today’s episode of Gone Medieval, guardDr Eleanor Janega speaks to Professor Philip Slavin who has used cutting-edge techniques to consider exactly where and how the worst pandemic the world has ever seen began, and what th...

Over the previous three episodes in our special series, Gone Medieval has taken a close look at the three main contenders for the throne of England in 1066. From Harold Godwinson who sat on it, to Harold Hardrada who might have seemed the most likely to win it, and William the Conqueror, the hardened Duke of Normandy. In this episode, Matt Lewis explores the final clash of that seismic year. ...

When his cousin King Edward the Confessor died childless, Duke William of Normandy saw the throne of England as his birthright. But one man stood in his way, Harold Godwinson, whom Edward had named as king on his deathbed. In the third episode of our special series examining the build-up to the Battle of Hastings, Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Professor Judith A. Green to find out more about the...

In the second of Gone Medieval ’s series looking at the road to the Battle of Hastings, Matt Lewis focuses on another claimant to the English throne. Harald Hardrada was a legendary Viking warrior who sought to rebuild the North Sea Empire to which he believed himself heir. Harald invaded the north of England with 10,000 troops and 300 longships in September 1066. But the mission would not be plai...

The stories of King Arthur are among the great legends of British history. But behind the romance, chivalry and sorcery of it all, there were some pretty sexy shenanigans going on, at least in the early to mid-Medieval versions of the legends. And the good, virtuous King Arthur wasn’t quite so innocent as we might have been led to believe from The Sword in the Stone and the poems of Tennyson....

How did medieval surgeons, doctors and monks understand the inner workings of the human body? Who performed the first scientific human dissections? How did artists depict human anatomy? In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis finds out more from Dr. Taylor McCall, author of The Art of Anatomy in Medieval Europe, which explores the deep connections between visual and medical culture during th...

All this month on Gone Medieval , Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis uncover the stories of the protagonists and events that led up to the Battle of Hastings. There’s Harold Godwinson, the Anglo Saxon Lord who became the king of a people only recently brought together; Harald Hardrada, a legendary Viking warrior seeking to rebuild the North Sea Empire to which he believes himself heir; and William...

From William Wallace and King Henry VI, to Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh, London's iconic Tower of London has held some of history's most notorious figures over its 1000 year history. Host of Gone Medieval podcast Matt Lewis joins Dan to uncover the secrets embedded within the tower's formidable walls. They dive into the deep history of this mighty fortress built by William the Conqueror and...

If your new year's resolutions include getting more exercise, drinking less, or eating well, you might be surprised to know that medieval people were every bit as interested as we are in becoming, being and staying healthy. In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Professor Carol Rawcliffe about her fascinating research into health and fitness in the late medieval period and w...

Joan of Arc is a name that’s instantly recognisable to most people. A controversial figure in her own day, she has remained so ever since, often being adopted as a talisman of French nationalism. But how much do we really know—or understand—about the young woman who ignited France’s fightback against England during the Hundred Years’ War, but who paid the ultimate price at the age of jus...

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 o...

In times of plenty, we stuff ourselves. When the food runs out, we're basically stuffed. How did people in medieval Britain share the riches from our fields, dairies, kitchens and seas? In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis is joined by acclaimed food historian Pen Vogler, whose latest book Stuffed: A History of Good Food in Hard Times in Britain , places food at the centre of society...

Just like us, medieval people loved a bit of entertainment at Christmas. But what did they consider funny? How did humorous stories spread in a world where most people could neither read nor write? In this episode of Gone Medieval , Dr. Eleanor Janega finds out more from Kleio Pethainou, who specialises in medieval comedy and storytelling, and also offers an authentic and bizarre Christm...

Berengaria of Navarre is mainly remembered for just one thing: being a Queen of England who never set foot in England, at least not as Queen. But all that is about to change as Dr Gabrielle Storey's forthcoming biography of Berengaria is set to shed more light on this neglected, English Queen Consort.  In this episode of Gone Medieval , Matt Lewis finds out more from Gabrielle about this...

In this episode of Gone Medieval, our co-hosts Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis get together to revive some of the Christmas traditions that were commonplace in the Middle Ages - from the literal origins of the Yule log to having a procession to celebrate finding a duck in a drain! So grab a festive drink and a mince pie because Matt and Eleanor are ready to get serious about the silly season.&nb...

In the ninth century, the Vikings earned a fearsome reputation by wreaking chaos on the coasts of western Europe. But what is perhaps less well known is that they also travelled eastwards. By sailing along the great rivers of north-eastern Europe, they reached Constantinople, the Caspian Sea and even Baghdad, the bustling heart of the mighty Islamic Abbasid Empire.  In this episode of Gone Me...

In many parts of Europe, before Christmas comes, you have first to celebrate one of the medieval period's favourite saints - Saint Nicholas of Myra. It's his legend and celebration that eventually transformed into our own Santa Claus. St Nicolas’s commemoration was a great excuse for medieval people to let down their hair and celebrate while still in the much more sombre and reflective p...

May 1453 saw Constantinople under siege - the culmination of an age long struggle between Christianity and Islam for control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman leader Mehmed II had dreamed of possessing the city since he was a boy, and now the shining light of Christian civilization, that had lasted 1100 years, fell into the hands of Ottomans.  In this episode of Gone Medieval , M...

The city of Constantinople, founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 324 AD, was a glittering jewel in the eastern Mediterranean for more than a thousand years. Its dazzling cathedrals, ambitious emperors and mixing pot culture were the stuff of legend throughout Christendom. But how did it come to tower over medieval Europe as one of the continent’s foremost cities? And why did it earn such a...