The emergence of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France - with its pointed arches, flying buttresses and stained glass windows - triggered an explosion of cathedral-building across western Europe. But behind every great cathedral lay human stories of competition, triumph and tragedy.

In toda...

Dan Jones is world-famous for writing swashbuckling factual history. But now he’s turned his hand to historical fiction with a debut novel Essex Dogs. It’s the first of a trilogy set in the Hundred Years War, in particular during the Crécy Campaign when England conducted large-scale raids through...

September is Vikings month on Gone Medieval, as Dr. Cat Jarman presents a mini-series about her favourite, specialist subject. Over four episodes, Cat is taking a deep dive into the Viking age, looking at how it all started, how it all ended, and the stories we tell about those people from the no...

Today’s episode of Gone Medieval is brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the creators of the game Crusader Kings III. In it, Matt Lewis explores all of the logistics of going on a Medieval crusade and looks at how the first crusade played out.

Matt has been losing whole weekends to this game! ...

What really happened in Britain after the fall of Rome? How did people adapt to their new lives? How were new identities formed, and eventually kingdoms? And how and when did people convert to Christianity?
In today’s Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman poses these questions to Professor Robin Fleming,...

Few kings have made more of an impression on the English - and then the British - nation than King Henry V, who died on 31 August 1422. 

The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 wove Henry V’s legend into the fabric of history. To many, he remains a hero, the exemplar of what a warrior-king should be. To...

September is Vikings month on Gone Medieval, as Dr. Cat Jarman presents a mini-series about her favourite, specialist subject. Over her next four episodes, Cat will be taking a deep dive into the Viking age, looking at how it all started, how it all ended, and the stories we tell about those peop...

In this episode of Gone Medieval, presenter Dr. Cat Jarman swaps seats and becomes the guest of Dr. Kate Lister’s brilliant podcast from History Hit, Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. In it, she delves into the topics that they didn’t teach you about in history lessons at...

The unusual Anchor Church Caves in south Derbyshire were, until quite recently, thought to have been follies cut into the rock in the eighteenth century. But new research has revealed that they could date from the early ninth century - making them probably the oldest intact domestic interiors in ...

Early Medieval Britain was more Roman than we think. The Roman Empire left vast infrastructural resources, not least roads, walls and bridges.
Why have they survived so well? And what did the people who lived here immediately after the Romans think of them and do with them?

In this episode of Go...

Archaeology has a lot to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of the so-called Dark Ages, and every now and then new sites are found in places where we previously knew nothing about the people who once lived there.

In today’s Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman goes to the Ministry of Defence...

England, 1351. In the aftermath of the Pestilence, Gerard Fox - a young knight robbed of his ancestral home, his family name tarnished - sets forth to petition the one man who can restore his lands and reputation. Fox's road entangles him with an enigmatic woman, a priceless relic, and a dark fam...

From an age in which women’s lives were obscured and poorly recorded, one shines brightly from the darkness. Eleanor of Aquitaine - born 900 years ago - has been the subject of scandal and legend for almost a millennium. Nevertheless, she played a central role in the pivotal events that defined n...

Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, a profound transformation took place in the ways that the English language was spoken and words were pronounced. This “Great Vowel Shift” saw a change in the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels, resulting in spellings of words that ofte...

The first of Greenland’s Viking settlements were established in the tenth century. But by the fifteenth century, they had all but vanished, their fate confounding generations of archaeologists. But new research has revealed that it was the trade in walrus ivory that was behind both their prosper...

Outside Medieval London’s city walls, Southwark was a land without rules. It was the place where people went to indulge their love of theatre, watch bear baiting and visit brothels. It was also under the control of the Bishop of Winchester.

In this edition of Gone Medieval - originally released ...

Trees have been universally important to humanity throughout history - not only as the source of fruits and nuts, but also wood for tools, weapons and buildings, and fuel for transport. So integral were trees to early Medieval society that their names were used for places throughout England - suc...

Parish churches were at the heart of English social life in the Middle Ages. But how did they come into existence? Who staffed them? And how were the buildings used?

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis talks to Professor Nicholas Orme, whose new book Going to Church in Medieval England...

Few early medieval gods are as well-known and as popular as Thor. He’s currently thrilling moviegoers worldwide with his new outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder. But behind the countless films and works of fiction, what’s the real origin story for Thor? How was he wor...

Alfred the Great - King of the West Saxons and later King of all the English not under Scandinavian rule - is the only English King to be given the title “the Great”.

So why did he become such a legend that to become a British citizen you now have to answer questions about him?

In this episode...

Castles have held a pivotal place in British life, many of them remaining today as powerful reminders of our history and sources of inspiration. But castles were also homes and status symbols as well as hubs of life, activity, and imagination.

In today’s edition of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis disc...

Gardens and gardening are aspects of medieval life that rarely get much attention. But it was a period when those with a little more land created gardens for leisure and pleasure, a place in which to stroll or entertain friends.

In this edition of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis heads to Prebendal Man...

How do you go about finding your way around the history of a nation and a national identity? For the barrister and author Dominic Selwood, documents are the perfect window through which to watch a country develop and change. His new book Anatomy of a Nation: A History of British Identity in 50 Do...

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time when the close friendship or petty feuding between monarchs could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under English control once reached to within a...