Medieval Madness

For the Medievals, summer was a time of celebration for all classes. Perhaps the best time of the year for social gatherings. But work still had to be carried out in the fields and summer was also a time of heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, plague, and fever. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the West, the Middle Ages was a superstitious time, a time when what was real and unreal became blurred. Dragons, witches, basilisks, and zombies were just some of the beasts that offered an ever-present threat to Christian society. Is it any wonder then, that in a time when everything had a religious significance, any unexplained phenomenon in the skies was interpreted as either an omen, the m...

The Egyptians treated them with reverence and adoration having, first domesticated them 4,000 years ago. Since then the small, carnivorous mammals have played a major part in religion, folklore, art, and community health across the world. However, in 13th-century Western Europe, cats became associated with the supernatural, when Pope Gregory IX called them an instrument of Satan. Let’s travel back...

In 1303, Westminster was an important place. West from the City of London, it was protected by its own walls and gates. Westminster Palace was there, which was once the main residence of the kings of England. On the evening of the 12th of May, in Westminster Abbey, which lay just across the pathway from the Palace, the Benedictine could be heard singing compline, their final prayer at the end of t...

The 22nd of March 1144 was Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Outside the city walls, the forester Henry de Sprowston was riding through Thorpe Wood on the outskirts of Norwich, England. Among other things, Henry was looking for thieves, who were known to cut timber without permission. Suddenly he came across a peasant who led him to the mutilated body of a young boy lying under a tree. It was...

Going on a Medieval Crusade was a male mission, a military enterprise in which only men could fight. Obviously, the women stayed home and did womanly things while their dashing, knightly husbands rode off and defended the Holy Land. Right? Wrong. Actually, many women also took up the cross and went off on Crusade, and they weren’t just the important warrior noble women, like Queen Eleanor of Aquit...

The White Tower, as it was originally known, was a fortress-stronghold built by the first Norman king, William the Conqueror. It was intended to protect against foreign invasion and intimidate the citizens of London in equal measure. But the Tower also had other uses. It operated as a royal residence and was where monarchs would stay as they awaited their coronation. However, The Tower of London's...

From an insignificant tribal clan, the Mongols seemed to come out of nowhere to rule over the greatest empire in the world, before disappearing just as quickly three centuries later. Their lands reached out across the Mediterranean to the Pacific from the Arabian Desert in the south to the tundra of Northern Russia and from the forests of Poland to the mountains of China. At the empire’s height, t...

Born in 1359, Owain was the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales and fought for 15 years against English rule. He led successful sieges and battlefield victories to establish an independent Welsh State, refusing to ever give up, even when it seemed that all was lost he continued to resist the English, in the Welsh mountains by utilizing guerrilla warfare. Let’s travel back in tim...

It was a spectacular win for Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, over the two days of the 23rd and 24th of June 1314. Just like the triumph of Agincourt, which was to follow 100 years later, the Battle of Bannockburn was a win for the underdog, when a formidable army lost to one of significantly fewer numbers. A pivotal battle that would change the course of the First Scottish War of Independence...

We often think of Medieval princesses in terms of fairy tales - as beautiful young ladies waiting around, in their tall pointy hats, for some knight to come along and rescue them from a tower. But the reality was far less romantic. Let’s travel back in time now to the Middle Ages and meet some of these noble ladies and take a little look at how they navigated such an overwhelmingly male world. Lea...

There are many medieval ruins scattered throughout England and the landscape is full of crumbling abbeys that were left to deteriorate after Henry VIII’s reformation. But there are also quite a few, little-known palaces, that were once magnificent during the Middle Ages and were also discarded. Some were abandoned because of fire or war and others just fell out of favour with their wealthy owners....

For hundreds of years, for whatever reason, whether innocent or guilty, men, women, and children have found themselves in prison. Imagine travelling back to the Middle Ages and spending time inside one of those “unregulated, frequently packed ... verminous ... ill ventilated and badly sewered” places. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The word alchemy conjures up images of the occult, of dark laboratories and secretive wizard-like figures hunched over bubbling cauldrons. As well as trying to discover the philosopher’s stone, said to be the elixir of life and immortality, the idea of turning base metals into gold or silver has also fascinated people for thousands of years. The Medievals finally believed that they could ‘transmut...

The history of Malmesbury Abbey is a long one and there are many tales to tell of the celebrated monastery. Founded by the Benedictines in 676, part of the abbey still survives today, over thirteen hundred years later. But it is the abbey’s connection to John of Tintern, a cleric described by one historian as probably the “most corrupt and disreputable monk of the entire Middle Ages”, that stands...

In the Middle Ages, men ruled the world, except when they didn’t. Many history lovers are aware of women like Margaret of Anjou and Eleanor of Aquitaine but other lesser-known Medieval female bosses were just as formidable. Let’s travel back in time now and meet some of these women who held power instead. Some in their own right, others as regents, and others by having great influence over the men...

The Middle Ages, with its crippling poverty and lack of law and order, was the perfect time for unscrupulous men to turn to a life of crime and roam around the countryside causing untold trouble. But not all gangsters were poor, some came from noble families, and they certainly weren’t all Robin Hoods – stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Most were brutal, ruthless, and out for themselv...

Many once-great cities of the Middle Ages have been lost over time. It could have been through natural disaster, war, or just because they were victims of their own success. Let’s travel back in time now to rediscover some of these cities, that were once vibrant hubs for trade, culture, and knowledge and find out about their enigmatic disappearance from history. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn...

Earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions, whenever and wherever they hit are devastating events that can wipe out entire cities and leave thousands of people dead. Let’s travel back in time now and take a look at some of the worst natural disasters that took place across the world in the Middle Ages. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We often associate slavery with non-Christians and the Romans, but unfree people continued to be owned and exploited throughout Europe for hundreds of years after the fall of the Empire. In fact, slavery was alive and thriving very well in the Medieval world. Let’s travel back in time and hear some stories about people who were enslaved, bought, sold, and exploited during the Middle Ages. Welcome...

Many forms of torture were utilised during the Middle Ages. But the rack was perhaps the most popular and most feared. Although it was common for joints to be dislocated during the process, the torture could tear a victim’s limbs apart and rip them from their sockets. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was established in 1188, under the reign of King Henry II. What was constructed out of a group of cells housed in London’s city walls above the ‘New Gate’ gatehouse soon became known as a place of darkness and despair. Nicknamed ‘Hell on Earth’ the prison became so synonymous with terror and misery that even the hangman’s noose became a welcome escape. Let’s travel back in time now to the Middl...

It all began in Switzerland, with an area of lush agricultural land, and became a dynasty that dominated Southeast Europe for centuries. The Habsburg's rise to power in the High Middle Ages and its descent into extinction is one of the most fascinating stories in European history. They survived bloody religious wars, alcoholism, and madness but it’s possible that the family's obsession with ‘blood...

From the fall of Rome to the dawn of the Renaissance, the Middle Ages was an era of history that encompassed massive social change. A time of international warfare, national rebellion, devastating disease, and at times brutal cruelty. Here are a few of the highlights or lowlights (depending on your point of view) that occurred over the one-thousand-year period. Welcome to Medieval Madness. Learn m...

When most people think about medieval marriages they are either practical, cold, and loveless, or the idealised “courtly love” of chivalric knights and damsels in distress. But what was married life and love really like in the Middle Ages? Let’s travel back in time and take a look. Welcome to Medieval Madness.0:00 Introduction0:30 To Honour & Obey2:15 Broken Promises3:53 For Richer…4:49 For Poorer...