Sanctity, Heresy, and Superstition: Saint Francis, the Heresiarch "Peter" Waldo, and a Holy Greyhound
Send us Fan Mail In this episode Ellen and I examine how Saint Francis became a saint and Waldo a heretic while following the same call to apostolic poverty, and why in the mid-thirteenth century it w...
15 Juni 202259min
A Crusader Murder Mystery: The Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (By Real Assassins)
Send us Fan Mail On April 28, 1192 the newly elected king of Jerusalem Conrad of Montferrat was assassinated in the streets of the city of Tyre by two Assassins, the name by which the Crusaders knew t...
26 Maj 202258min
How Saladin Took Jerusalem: Two Eyewitness Accounts and a Movie
Send us Fan Mail Saladin's taking of Jerusalem, three months after the fighting forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were wiped out in the Battle of Hattin, precipitated the Third Crusade. Eyewitness a...
12 Maj 202250min
Magna Carta, Bad King John, and an English Crusade
Send us Fan Mail This episode places Magna Carta in its historical context, explains why it really isn't the foundation of Anglo-American liberty, reaffirms John's status as a really bad king (and per...
25 Apr 202252min
An Anglo-Saxon Murder Mystery: How King Edward Became Edward the Martyr
Send us Fan Mail In 978 the eighteen-year old English king Edward was murdered while traveling to visit his younger half-brother Æthelred and his stepmother Ælfthryth. The murder transformed a trucul...
3 Apr 202217min
My Favorite Medieval Epic: A Tale of Violence, Vengeance, and Betrayal
Send us Fan Mail The late twelfth-century Frence epic poem Raoul of Cambrai is a tale of violence, vengeance, and betrayal in which the basic bonds of society--feudal loyalty, family, and friendship--...
1 Apr 202242min
"The finest knight in all the world, part 2: William Marshal, baron, earl, and regent of England
Send us Fan Mail In the second half of “The finest knight in all the world: the practical chivalry of Sir William Marshal,” Ellen and I examine the career of William Marshal as baron, earl, and, ultim...
27 Mars 202246min
"The finest knight in all the world": the practical chivalry of Sir William Marshal
Send us Fan Mail The life of Sir William Marshal reads like a medieval story book. Starting out as a landless squire whose only possession was family connections, Marshal rose from household knight to...
16 Mars 202241min
