Gone Medieval – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis embark on a rollicking journey through the High Middle Ages, unearthing the epic power struggles between popes and kings, and getting to know standout figures like the audacious Frederick II.

They discuss how game-changing innovations like the heavy plough and crop rotation systems transformed medieval farming and sparked a social revolution, exploring the intellectual boom of the 12th-century Renaissance, the relentless Norman conquests, and the majestic Mongol Empire. It's a period packed with fascinating advancements and larger-than-life characters.

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Emperor Frederick II: Scourge of the Papacy

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0f2RDfAxdDuaQFCvrDJ1HB

Gengis Khan's Pax Mongolica

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KtWTM2HM99H29Aotldkc9

Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega. Audio editor is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

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. 

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https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

How did Frederick Barbarossa reshape medieval Europe into the romantic legends that endure today?

Dr. Eleanor Janega finds out with help from Professor Graham Loud. They explore Barbarossa's dramatic reign, his conflicts with the Lombard League and the Italian city-states, as well as his pivotal role in two Crusades.

Hear about the extraordinary lengths Barbarossa went to secure safe passage for his army, his clash with the Byzantine Empire, and his fateful end during the Third Crusade.

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Holy Roman Empire

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4eqNlsXu44G54sFUS68C13

Teutonic Knights

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gUpGPLW74wnhDm7MI5h6V

Gone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega. It was edited by Amy Haddow, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

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. 

You can take part in our listener survey here: https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MK

What's the true story behind the Magna Carta, and how did a 17-year-old King Henry III shape a document that impacted the course of history?

Matt Lewis is joined by Professor David Carpenter to explore the origins of the Magna Carta, finding out how it laid the foundations for a new way of living for all subjects, from the protections offered to 'merry widows' who gained the right to manage their own estates, to protections of life for poachers. This episode sheds light on how these and other clauses of the Magna Carta shaped English law and governance, influencing modern concepts of individual rights and limited government.

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Myths of Magna Carta:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7xatVZ23U0HqXyXZl2xCtg

King John: Worst Medieval Monarch?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2O5vN33xBGeREbv250bwvC

Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and edited by Amy Haddow. The producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Once connected to a busy and thriving hospital, Great St Bart's Church in Smithfield is not only a survivor of the Great Fire of London, but also has a fascinating foundation story.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis goes to get a closer look at London’s oldest surviving parish church with Father Marcus Walker.

Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and edited by Ella Blaxill. The Producer is Rob Weinberg, the Senior Producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Out of the shadowy world of the medieval church, an extraordinary legend emerged of a woman who disguised herself as a man and remarkably, rose to become Pope. It's a story of secret identities, illicit affairs and a Church shaken by the unthinkable - a female pope giving birth in the midst of a sacred procession.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Professor Craig Rustici from Hofstra University NY, author of The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England. Together they try to unravel the threads of the scant historical evidence, the anti-papal agendas that may have fuelled the myth, and why the tale of a cross-dressing woman rising to the Throne of St. Peter continues to intrigue us more than seven centuries later.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The Crusader states in the Near East were created after the First Crusade in order to keep hold of the territorial gains made by those known in the region as the Franks - essentially Christians from Western Europe. What can the military activities of the many different factions in the region tell us about how and why those states rose and then fell?

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis finds out more from Dr. Nicholas Morton, author of The Crusader States and Their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187.

This episode was edited by Anisha Deva and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

One of the last kings of Anglo-Saxon England, Edward the Confessor regained the throne for the House of Wessex and is the only English monarch to become a Saint. But Edward the Confessor has also been blamed for causing the invasion of 1066―the last successful conquest of England by a foreign power.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Professor Tom Licence, author of Edward the Confessor: Last of the Royal Blood, about a compassionate and conscientious ruler, whose reign marked an interval of peace and prosperity between periods of strife.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Joseph Knight and Rob Weinberg.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

The Anarchy is an intriguing and often forgotten period of history. There are fascinating characters and moments of deep political importance to England's development as a state. The involvement of women in the Anarchy is vital to understanding how it played out over almost two decades. 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis talks to Sharon Bennett Connolly - author of Women of the Anarchy - in which she demonstrates how certain women were prime movers in a time of conflict and how their strengths, weaknesses and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of civil war one way - and then the other.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

In the Middle Ages, animals were often the means for survival and the source of great wealth. No wonder then that in the medieval imagination, animals are not just animals. Animals were thought to have traits and characteristics that meant that they could be sorted into moral categories - good and bad, righteous and evil - that dominate the Christian imagination. Ants could be monsters and panthers could be your friend, dog-headed men were as real as elephants and whales were as sneaky as wolves. 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Hana Videen, author of The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary to discuss animals, language, and how - when it comes to thinking about the animal kingdom - we actually have a lot in common with our Medieval ancestors. 

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Joseph Knight.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

If you are planning - or dreaming of - your next holiday, have you stopped to wonder whether our medieval counterparts did exactly the same thing? Why did people travel in the Middle Ages, and what was the experience like for them? Were there any similarities with travelling today?

In this edition of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis talks to Anthony Bale.  His book A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages invites the reader to journey alongside scholars, spies and saints, from western Europe to the Far East and the Antipodes, giving an insight into how medieval people understood their world.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >