All Saints’ Church in the village of Brixworth, Northamptonshire is one of the oldest, largest and most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in England. Founded in the eighth century, it has been described as “the finest Romanesque church north of the Alps.”

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Ja...

Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, often cited as the basis for the King’s reputation as a scheming murderer. But what do the Bard’s history plays tell us about the period they are set in and how that era was viewed in Shakespeare’s time? Are there allusions to Elizabet...

Norwich Castle was designed by William the Conqueror to be a royal palace. But no Norman kings ever lived in it. Instead it became a gaol and then - in the Victorian era - a museum, which is today packed with archaeological finds that lift the lid on life in Anglo-Saxon East Anglia.

In this edit...

An extraordinary discovery has been unearthed by archaeologists working alongside the HS2 rail project. The find, made at an undisclosed location near Wendover in the Chilterns, consists of a 5th-6th century burial site that has been described as one of the most important post-Roman, early mediev...

Between AD 1000 and 1500, European towns and cities started to take shape, impacting the lives of millions of people as different cultural, social and religious groups began to interact. But who was allowed to settle in a city and how was it decided who belonged?

In this edition of Gone Medieval...

Matt Lewis concludes his series on the Wars of the Roses with a look at a figure who is often divisive and misunderstood, despised or loved, but who might even be labelled as a winner, maybe the winner of the Wars of the Roses. Margaret Beaufort was the mother of Henry Tudor and the matriarch of ...

When HM The Queen was crowned in 1953, her Coronation ceremony contained some subtle nods to another Queen who made history 1100 years earlier. Princess Judith of Flanders was the first woman to be crowned as Queen among the West Saxons. But her two royal marriages were not without controversy.

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To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Matt Lewis revisits the fascinating story of Empress Matilda who came within a hair’s breadth of being crowned England’s first Queen regnant in the 12th century.

Sent away aged eight to match with the Holy Roman Emperor, Matilda represented status for h...

What do human remains - and the objects buried with them - tell us about people’s lives in Britain in the first millennium, what they thought about mortality, how they felt about loss, and what they believed came next?

The anthropologist and author Professor Alice Roberts has been exploring the ...

As part of our Wars of the Roses special month, there’s one family that demands more attention than they usually get: The Beauforts’.

The influence of the Beauforts’ in the Wars of the Roses can still be felt today, as Margaret Beaufort, the eventual heiress, gave birth to Henry VII, the first ...

Rivers, Silk roads and camels - how did international trade adapt and survive beyond the Roman Empire into the middle ages? In today's episode Cat is joined by author Hilary Green to talk about her debut non-fiction book, "International Trade in the Middle Ages". Together they examine products l...

All things must end. This final special episode on the Wars of the Roses deals with a series of endings and considers what finding a date for the end of the conflict means for how we think about this critical period. Lancaster will be revived, only to meet a final end. The House of York seems sec...

Early medieval royals ate mostly meat, right? Wrong! A new study that’s made headlines around the world has shown that medieval kings were largely vegetarian! To help shed light on this exciting new discovery, today Cat is joined by Dr Sam Leggett of the University of Edinburgh, a bio-archaeologi...

Part one of this comprehensive trilogy covering the Wars of the Roses left the Yorkist lords attained and in exile.

From this point, the 15th century civil wars were transformed into a bitter procession of dynastic clashes between the rival houses of Lancaster and York - the result of which wou...

Margery Kempe: mystic, autobiographer…schizophrenic?

In honour of Mental Health Awareness week, Dr Cat Jarman is joined by Dr Alison Torn from Leeds Trinity University to explore the complicated legacy of a woman who is credited as both the first English autobiographer, and case of schizophrenia...

The Wars of the Roses is a complex and fascinating period of English history that dominates the second half of the 15th century and leads to the rise of the Tudor dynasty. It’s often characterised as a dynastic struggle between Lancaster and York, but it was much more than that.

In this first pa...

In Norse mythology, the Valkyries determine who lived and who died on the battlefield. Translated as “Chooser of the Fallen” in Old Norse, they’re often depicted as supernatural women who guide the souls of deceased soldiers worthy enough of a place in Valhalla, to feast with the god Odin.

Today...

In medieval times, monks were the masters of invention, seeing scientific and philosophical investigation as a way to get closer to God - despite the threat of being labelled a heretic. In today’s Gone Medieval podcast, Matt Lewis joins Dallas Campbell - host of our sister podcast Patented - to e...

Histories of India usually concern themselves with events and invasions in the subcontinent’s North, while the rest of India’s rich story is often reduced down to little more than dry footnotes.

Now historian and Indian history podcast presenter Anirudh Kanisetti has brought to light the early ...

The term “Middle Ages” is commonly used but really only applies to a Western European view of history. It was created at the beginning of the Early Modern period in England to categorise what had gone before.

The acclaimed historian Peter Frankopan is widening the geographic focus to understan...

Easter today is marked by chocolate eggs and two Bank Holidays - in the Medieval world it had a deeply spiritual significance.
But it wasn’t without its share of celebration and merrymaking too.

In this episode, Matt Lewis explains the origins of many Easter traditions in the Medieval period, an...

The Northman now showing in UK cinemas is an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder. Its director Robert Eggers has described it as the “most accurate Viking movie ever made." But what does "accuracy" mean for a historical blockbuster? And...

Little has been known up until now about the involvement and power of women during the Crusader period. When Saladin's armies besieged Jerusalem in 1187, behind the city walls a last-ditch defense was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. She was the last of a lin...

Genghis Khan is still considered one of the most famous and most feared warrior kings in history. But his name still divides opinion. To some, he was the ruthless conqueror of great civilisations, for others a hero who united nomadic tribes and created an enlightened empire. But who was the real ...