Medieval Madness

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...

The Middle Ages is often thought of as a dark period in our history and from that time there are many dark tales. Here we have put together seven of them for you. Some are creepy, others funny but all of them are strange. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before the Enlightenment the Medievals had no choice but to use their imaginations to make sense of the world around them. Because of the enormous influence that the Church held over their daily lives anything that could not be explained was seen as either sinister or magical. Some of their strange and often ridiculous superstitions are what we will talk about in our video today. Learn more about...

During the Middle Ages, it was felt that the people needed to be afraid of the Civil authority and the Church. The only way to keep order was to make sure that the citizens were terrified of any punishment that would be given out if a person was found guilty of a crime. And so, with the use of corporal punishment penalties were harsh. The inventiveness of the techniques and instruments used by the...

When the Scots were oppressed, and Scottish fortunes were at their lowest he was the chief inspiration for their resistance. A man who stood up to the King of England, Edward I, emerging from obscurity to gain a spectacular victory over the English, before enduring a crushing defeat and being put to death in the most barbaric way. A national hero who has gained great admiration, this is the story...

Almost every night, for the last ten years of her life, Ermine de Reims was systematically battered and tortured by demons. How did a 14th century peasant woman get caught up in a number of religious controversies? Was she possessed? Was she ill? Was she undergoing a divine ‘state of grace’?In this episode we will find out about the visions experienced by Ermine and the supernatural forces that af...

The town of Falaise, Normandy, Northwest France. The year 1386. The murderer had sneaked into the couples home. The husband, Jonnet the Builder was away helping to erect a nearby church while his wife was down at the nearest stream washing some linen garments. Their child was fast asleep in his crib. Seeing her opportunity the killer crept up to the infant and attacked him, mutilating his face and...

Public humiliation was a major part of both corporal and capital punishment during the Middle Ages. In small communities, those being admonished would be well known to everyone else, and having the accused person put on view, usually in the center of a town or village was all part of the punishment. Audience involvement was a key part of the success of the judgment because it only increased the vi...

This has to be one of the most inhuman forms of punishment ever invented and was the most extreme penalty available in English law for those guilty of high treason, which was considered the most serious attack on the monarch’s authority. Those who were being punished in this way were seen as sub-human and the dishonour, pain and cruelty that they suffered was meant to create a division between the...

Probably the most common form of execution and the first one that people think about in regard to Medieval executions, hanging was the usual method of capital punishment for the Anglo Saxons. Other means of execution have been implemented but none of them has been so common and used for so many centuries in Europe, as death by hangman.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

In most European countries today, we use the premise that a person is presumed innocent unless they have been proven guilty. At trial, evidence has to be produced so that a jury or a judge can decide on the culpability of the accused. But during the Middle Ages when someone was suspected of a crime, and they were actually innocent it was believed that God would intervene on their behalf. So, they...

What exactly was it that the monks saw that night in the sky in 1178?  Could it have been the impact of an asteroid hitting the Moon’s surface? Or a meteorite entering the earth’s atmosphere just at the right moment? Did the Moon really split in half or was it just a shared delusion? In this video we shall talk more about this strange Medieval mystery that has baffled historians and scientists ali...

Most of us have burned ourselves at one time or another, perhaps on a stove or on a candle, so we know how painful it can be, and can only imagine how it would feel to be completely engulfed in flames. Being scalded with boiling water is no joke either so just imagine being submerged into a whole pot of it. These are just another two of the worst forms of execution in our Medieval punishment video...

It was August1453. King Henry VI of England left his pregnant wife Margaret of Anjou at home and travelled from court to the West Country on a judicial visit. Stopping off at Clarendon Palace in Wiltshire the 31-year-old king was, “suddenly…taken and smitten with a frenzy and his wit and reason withdrawn”. What was the terrible and mysterious illness that struck down Henry VI who was a central fig...