Trial by Ordeal and Trial by Combat | A Not So Fair Way of Dealing out Justice
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 ...
24 Marras 202210min
The Unexplained Medieval Mystery of the Splitting Moon...
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 t...
22 Marras 202210min
Boiling and Burning Alive: A Medieval Punishment of Searing Pain
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...
17 Marras 20229min
Henry VI: What Was The King's Great Mysterious Illness?
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 Wilts...
14 Marras 202211min
Death by Pressing and Crushing: A Medieval Punishment You'd Want To Avoid...
Death by pressing or crushing has been around for centuries, although the method used has varied greatly from place to place. In general, it meant that some form of heavy weight would be placed on top...
11 Marras 202211min
Hugh Despenser the Younger: The Most Hated Briton of the Fourteenth Century
"…as a thief therefore you shall be hanged; as a traitor…you shall be drawn and quartered, and your quarters dispersed throughout the kingdom; and as you were outlawed, by our Lord the King and by gen...
7 Marras 202212min
Pigs, Laughter & Road Rage | Bizarre Ways to Die in The Middle Ages…
The Middle Ages were turbulent times. Constant warfare and disease meant that millions of people died all across the world. Some of the ways that death came upon them can still be recognised today, so...
4 Marras 202211min
Lindisfarne 793 | The Dawn of the Viking Age
The first few months of 793 was a worrying time for the north of England. Great portents of impending disaster were seen across the heavens. On Lindisfarne the monks had to suspend their evening praye...
31 Loka 202212min
