Gone Medieval
From long-lost Viking ships to kings buried in unexpected places; from murders and power politics, to myths, religion, the lives of ordinary people: Gone Medieval is History Hit’s podcast dedicated to the middle ages, in Europe and far beyond. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday. A podcast by History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, The Ancients, and Betwixt the Sheets. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
A plague of terrifying speed, mysterious symptoms and global reach, the Black Death transformed more than Europe alone.
Matt Lewis is joined by Thomas Asbridge to chart the medieval spread, from Caffa’s siege lines to Cairo’s crowded streets, from brutal medical experiments to self-flagellating penitents and a medieval world shaken to its core.
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How To Survive Plague and War in the Middle Ages
Could a medieval church really protect a killer from the law?
From the 40-day asylum of parish churches to the more permanent protections claimed by Westminster Abbey, sanctuary was never simply an escape route, it was a contested space where mercy and authority met.
Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Professor Shannon McSheffrey to uncover the extraordinary history of a medieval institution that could save lives, provoke outrage and ex...
How could a love song become a political weapon? How were scandals, wars and crusades turned into some of the most influential poetry ever written?
The songs of the troubadours - celebrities in their day - helped define the emotional landscape of the Middle Ages and left a legacy that still echoes through European literature. Matt Lewis is joined by Professor Linda M. Paterson to explore the poet-musicians who shaped medieval ideas ...
Who survives when medieval deaths are turned into Top Trumps? In this riotous made up game of Foolish Fatalities, Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis rank the most ridiculous ends of the Middle Ages, from a latrine disaster and Henry I’s fatal fish, to a king laughing himself to death and a ghoulish deadly bite delivered by a severed head. Expect gore, gossip, and (at least) one unforgettable toilet death.
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The White Ship Disas...
How did the Fatimids build one of Islam's most powerful medieval empires? What can the rise of this dynasty reveal about power, culture, tolerance, and women’s authority?
Stretching across North Africa, Egypt, and parts of Sicily, Syria, Palestine and Arabia, the Fatimids created an empire renowned for prosperity, cultural brilliance and relative tolerance, one in which women were promoted to positions rarely seen elsewhere.
Matt Le...
Long-haired rulers, dynastic bloodshed, secret letters, and a kingdom built in the aftermath of empire; Dr. Eleanor Janega and Dr. James Palmer dive into the wild, Roman-adjacent world of the Merovingians.
What made the first kings of France so unforgettable, and why were they later written out of the story? From myth to murder, this is the family that helped shape medieval France.
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Why The Early Middle Ages Matter
What happened after the Battle of Agincourt? How did Henry V's victory turn into a seven-year struggle of sieges, diplomacy, ambition, murder and missed destiny?
Matt Lewis is joined by W.B. Bartlett to explore a brutal and often overlooked phase of the Hundred Years’ War and why the post-Agincourt years matter so much to medieval, English and French history.
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The Battle of Agincourt
Henry V with...
What if one medieval woman could outwit emperors, shape popes, and force Henry IV to stand barefoot in the snow?
Dr. Katherine Harvey joins Dr. Eleanor Janega to tell the astonishing story of Matilda of Canossa, the Iron Countess of Tuscany, whose fortress at Canossa became the stage for the famous Walk to Canossa. Discover her political brilliance, brutal family dramas, papal alliances, failed marriages, and the legacy that kept he...
What if the medieval world did not end with a bang, but with a messy argument over who gets to define history itself? Matt Lewis spars with Not Just The Tudors' host Professor Suzannah Lipscomb to spar over Gutenberg, the Reformation, witchcraft, plague, the Renaissance, and the Wars of the Roses to ask where medieval ends and early modern begins. The result is a lively, surprising fight over power, change, and the making of the mo...
What could drive a pope to put a corpse on trial?
In 897, Rome staged one of the Middle Ages’ strangest spectacles: the Cadaver Synod, where Pope Stephen VI exhumed his predecessor and put his body on trial. Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Jessica Wärnberg to unpack the violent politics behind the outrage, the rival factions at stake, and why this gruesome event still fascinates today.
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Conclave: Picking Popes
How did a widowed mother transform loss, politics and misogyny into one of the most accomplished literary careers in medieval history?
From the Parisian court to contemporaneously telling the story of Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan was Europe’s first professional woman writer and publisher. Matt Lewis is joined by Katherine Pangonis to explore her extraordinary life and uncover the story of one of history's most formidable writers.
...Did Constantinople’s fall in 1453 end the Byzantine Empire as neatly as we think?
Dr. Eleanor Janega and Dr. Laura Bolick unpack the Empire's dramatic final years and reveal a story far more complex than simple decline. Through the lives of Isidore of Kiev and Bessarion, they explore desperate diplomacy, church union, Ottoman expansion, and the political gambles behind the demise of Constantinople.
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The Rise of Constantinople ...
Was Offa a tyrant whose reputation was forever tainted by the killing of his prospective son-in-law? Or a visionary ruler whose achievements have been overshadowed by legend?
Offa is largely known for murderous acts and building a dyke. But he was so much more: a great leader who reshaped Mercia into the dominant power in southern Britain, and pioneered new models of kingship that would influence generations.
Matt Lewis talks to Prof...
Who would pick a fight with the Pope?? Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega dive into the explosive clash between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, a head of state who dared to challenge papal power. From taxes and excommunication to arrest and humiliation, this is a gripping story of ambition, authority, and the Avignon Papacy.
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Pope Vs. Emperor: An 11th Century Crisis
Holy Roman Emp...
Was Richard the Lionheart really England’s greatest medieval hero? Or is he one of history’s most successful myths, more heroic in legend than in life?
Over eight centuries, Richard has handled Excalibur, been celebrated in medieval romance, reinvented in novels and films, and even transformed into a character in Assassin’s Creed.
Matt Lewis is joined by Dr. Heather Blurton to dig into the myths of Richard the Lionheart and ask w...
What's the best cure for a hangover? What's the most effective way to curse your enemies? How do you keep demonic powers at bay?
The medieval Celtic world was filled with magic which became absorbed and restructured within a Christian worldview, as saints, prayers, and sacred objects replaced earlier supernatural beings, incantations, charms and talismans.
Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Dr. Brigid Ehrmantraut to find out how p...
What makes an Archbishop one of the most hated figures in British history? And does Thomas Arundel truly deserve to be branded the greatest villain of 15th-century Britain?
Matt Lewis and Professor Chris Given-Wilson explore the life, power, and legacy of a man whose influence reached deep into the politics, religion, and royal struggles of late medieval England, and ask whether he was truly a villain or a far more complex figure th...
"Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?!"
These words supposedly uttered by a King over 800 years ago set in motion a chain of gruesome events, and sparked cult-like devotion across the world.
Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis consider Becket's meteoric rise in status to becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury, his increasingly fractious relationship with King Henry II, the vicious murder itself and finally, how the cult of St Tho...
Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega dive into the chaos of the late Middle Ages; from the Great Famine and the Little Ice Age to plague, peasant revolts, papal schism and deposed kings, they explore how the 14th and 15th centuries rocked Europe’s political, social and religious foundations. Along the way, they ask what really separates the “high” from the “late” Middle Ages, how far disasters undermined faith in monarchy and the Chur...
What if the most powerful warlords in medieval Europe were women?
From wine country to empire, Burgundy’s Duchesses brokered marriages, bullied rivals, made kings and emperors, and ruled vast lands in their own right. Dr Eleanor Janega is joined by Susan Abernethy to uncover the formidable women behind one of Europe’s wealthiest, most sophisticated courts.
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The Two Hundred Years War
The Real ...
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