Women and the Crusades
Women were an integral feature of the crusade movement. They were not only sometimes participants on the battlefields but also played their part recruiting crusaders, and supporting the effort with pa...
18 Feb 202332min
Sandby Borg Massacre: The Evidence
When archeologists uncovered a jewellery hoard buried beneath the Iron Age ring fort of Sandby Borg in 2010, their excitement was palpable. Yet little did they know that they had only scratched the su...
14 Feb 202341min
Origins of Treason in England
First defined in law in 1352, treason remains one of the most serious crimes a person can commit. And, remarkably, the core of the original Treason Act remains in force and relatively unchanged today....
11 Feb 202336min
The Monastery That Held Back the Vikings
For monks and monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England, obliteration by Vikings was a constant threat. Like Lindisfarne - first raided in 793 AD - religious houses were frequently preyed upon by marauding D...
7 Feb 202326min
Edward III, His Queen & His Mistress
Edward III wed Philippa of Hainault when they were both teenagers. It was a marriage of deep affection lasting 41 years. But when Alice Perrers entered court as a young widow, she caught the eye of th...
4 Feb 202335min
The Danelaw
The Danelaw was the part of England where large numbers of Scandinavians settled between the 9th and 11th centuries, and where Danish rather than English law was followed. Its set of legal terms and d...
31 Jan 202332min
The Princes in the Tower
Matt Lewis concludes his four special episodes on medieval mysteries with perhaps the most enduring historical enigma of them all.For more than 500 years, people have speculated about the disappearanc...
28 Jan 202352min
The Crusades and the Chertsey Tiles
The largest group of tiles in The British Museum was found at the site of Chertsey Abbey in Surrey. These fragmented floor tiles depict the fictional killing of Sultan Saladin during the Crusades by R...
24 Jan 202337min
