Villains and Virgins History Podcast

The Crusaders narrowly escape annihilation when they attempt to fight their way out of Antioch.  Some men credit the miracle of the Holy Lance for their amazing escape.  Divisions emerge amongst the nobles, while the army starves.  Some Crusaders turn to cannibalism, and a fiery trial by ordeal ends the career of a peasant preacher.  The Crusadering army finally arrives at the walls of Jerusalem i...

As Western knights and nobles ride toward Jerusalem, there are many other cities they must take along the way.  Their first battlefield encounter with the Turks leaves a lasting impression on both sides, but they are soon occupied with besieging fortified cities.  Heads are brandished on spears and bodies hang on display from the ramparts. The siege of Antioch comes close to ending the entire crus...

The First Crusade became the stuff of legend soon after it finished.   Western knights headed to Constantinople and ultimately to Jerusalem, to rescue pilgrimage sites from the control of Muslim invaders.   The crusade involved close to 100,000 people from Western Europe heading east, in a journey that would cover thousands of miles, mostly on foot.   It's often told as a struggle of East vs. West...

The image of the knight in shining armour has had a very long shadow in Western culture, from King Arthur to Monty Python.  The reality of life for medieval knights, obsessed with honour and reputation is the subject of this episode.  We meet a real Spanish knight, Suero de Quinones, who wore an iron collar and broke hundreds of lances for the love of a lady.  What was courtly love and how did it...

The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage is exploding in popularity these days, but the modern travellers are part of a tradition that is over 1000 years old.  How did the Camino begin?  Why did medieval people go on pilgrimages anyway?  From drinking wine used to wash skulls, to pilgrims in chains, this episode explores the world of medieval Christianity, and the surprising traditions around pilgrimage,...

The grandsons of Charlemagne slide into civil war, with thousands of Franks killing each other over the division of the empire.  Though the Treaty of Verdun ends the bloodletting, Frankish troubles are far from over.  Vikings sail up the Seine and sack Paris, finally leaving after being bought off by King Charles of West Francia.  However Louis the German, King of East Francia, makes Viking raider...

Both the Germans and the French trace their origins to Charlemagne and the Franks. But who were the Franks, and how did they have such a powerful effect on the shape of Western Europe? This episode is a family drama gone wild, as the warriors of Charlemagne's family compete for land and status. Blindings, treachery and imprisonment follow. Our story will focus on one warrior in particular, known a...

Roger II has played a high stakes game to secure his crown.   Now a king, he must face the consequences of backing the wrong Pope.   Rebellious barons, treacherous in-laws, and the loss of his beloved wife burden him as Roger continues to fight for his kingdom.   Two emperors conspire to jointly attack him, and the Sicilian navy stages an audacious raid at the gates of Constantinople.   Roger II d...

Roger II inherits his father's position as ruler of Sicily and begins to take over parts of Southern Italy as well.   Along the way a daring plan leads Norman knights out of a desperate situation, and a Crusader king proposes marriage.   Norman state-building in Sicily takes on a unique character, and Norman knights fight armies led by the Pope.   When two popes are elected on the same day, Roger...

The Vikings terrorised coastal Europe in their longboats, plundering and killing as they went.  Some of them were offered a deal: they could accept land and settle in France, in exchange for defending the area from other raiders.  These Vikings became known as Normans, and while the name changed, the game remained the same.  They begin arriving in Italy, and soon become the most coveted military m...

The Peasants' War was the largest peasant uprising prior to the French Revolution.  Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people organise a labour strike and dare to demand a measure of fairness.  They use the ideas of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation to do it.  Luther wants nothing to do with the rebels, and supports the German nobles in killing these "mad dogs".  The heavy cavalry and th...

This is the story of the biggest peasant uprising prior to the French Revolution. Inspired by the writing of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, it was a shocking challenge to the social order. Serfs occupied castles, executed nobles, and plundered monasteries.  Events that lasted less than a year would result in thousands of peasant deaths, and change the direction of the Reformation it...

The Wars of Religion are the bloody outcome of the religious fracturing of Europe.  They reshaped political identity and redefined the balance of power among countries.  But what actually happened and why does it matter?  This episode is a wild ride through three different countries, as scheming French cardinals send funds to Protestant rebels abroad, and the king of Spain institutes bloody punish...

In this episode we watch England execute a king.  This is the strange tale of how England became a Protestant country, and why the Church of England is the way it is.  Along the way we watch militant Scottish Reformers challenge the power of the monarch, and uncover the roots of the Covenanters and Presbyterian churches.  The episode culminates in the English Civil War, as competing versions of ch...

John Calvin is one of the major figures of the Protestant Reformation, famous for his doctrine of pre-destination.  This episode covers his time in Geneva, and how he turned that city into a grim and terrifying experiment in theocracy.  It is also the story of Protestants burning a heretic at the stake, in a bizarre moment of borrowing the very punishments that had been used to suppress them.  Thi...

In this episode we cover the unlikely journey of one young man from earnest Augustinian monk to rebel reformer.  Martin Luther ignited a firestorm of existing anti-clerical sentiment across Europe, with results that would change Europe and the Western Christian Church forever. 

What is the Protestant Reformation and why does it matter?  To begin to understand how thoroughly it has shaped Western Europe and North America we must travel back in time to see the world as it was before the Reformation.  This episode is all about the Middle Ages, when an emperor braved the Alps in winter to appeal to a Pope, and thousands of people in Southern France were slaughtered by Crusad...

1492 was a year that changed everything.  In Castile, it was the end of the Reconquista, as Isabella and Ferdinand ended a decade long war with a triumphant ride through the streets of Granada.  It was also the year they signed the Alhambra Decree, which banished all Jews from Castile, and it was the beginning of the end of Moorish presence as well.  The connection between these two events and the...

You have probably heard of the Spanish Inquisition, even if only from a certain Monty Python sketch.  The truth about why it was started and for what purpose will probably surprise you.  In this episode we take a close look at the episodes in Spanish history that prepared the way for the Inquisition.  We also examine how it operated, what forms of torture were used, and who it targeted.  Why did t...

In this episode, our plucky and determined heroine discovers the mantle of religious warfare.  Isabella and Ferdinand respond to an attack on a Castilian city from Moorish forces.  This becomes the first skirmish in a "Holy War" against Muslims in Spain.  It is a war that will last a decade, and inflict a terrible fate on the city of Malaga.  Harem politics of betrayal and revenge undermine Mooris...

After a high risk secret marriage to Prince Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella finds there is no easy path to gaining the crown of Castile.  An evil uncle, a civil war, and a heroic Portuguese flag bearer appear in this episode as Isabella fights to be Queen.  An astonishing solution to a domestic quarrel paves the way for female rulers in Spain, and Isabella reveals her courage and determination as sh...

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain are figures you may have heard of in passing, as the sponsors of Christopher Columbus.  The fact that Isabella's name is remembered in the same breath with Ferdinand's is remarkable in an age when only men could hold political power.  From the Black Death to royal scandal, this episode introduces the fascinating story of these two people and how their marriage would...

The remarkable story of the mass evacuation of Britain's children in the darkest days of WWII.  Britain, under Winston Churchill, faces aerial assault and imminent collapse.  This is a moment when it is clear that history could have taken a radically different direction.  

Henry VIII is dead, but he leaves behind an England that is forever changed by his Church of England legacy.  Two of his daughters, from very different mothers, will inherit the throne.  These two queens, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I will pull the nation in opposite directions.  Tales of ordinary people burning at the stake reveal how "Bloody Mary" got her name.

After the execution of Anne Boleyn, what is next for Henry VIII and for England?  A terrible jousting accident changes the king, and may be a hidden factor in his increasing ruthlessness.  The future of England and its religion hangs in the balance as Henry decides to assert his authority over English monasteries.  This episode covers the Pilgrimage of Grace, the sordid fall of Catherine Howard, a...