Court records of naked, murderous monks, tavern brawls, robberies gone wrong, tragic accidents and criminal gangs reveal how the English in medieval Ireland governed and politicised death. 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis meets Dr. Joanna MacGugan, whose research focuses on how the English legal system in Ireland relied on collective memory, customary law, oral histories, common fame and social networks to collectively decide what was the ‘truth’.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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This episode contains strong language, graphic scenes of torture and sexual content

The chances are, when we think of William Wallace, we think of Mel Gibson in Braveheart, charging down a hill in a kilt with his face painted blue. Maybe we're fascinated in Wallace’s trial and grisly death and its influence on our understanding of war crimes? 

But in this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega sets out to find out about the real William Wallace and his private life. Eleanor has stopped by our sister podcast, Betwixt the Sheets, to chat with Dr. Kate Lister, about Wallace and what we can truly know about

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Preparing, serving and sharing food has always played a critical role in human history. But what did people in the Middle Ages like to eat and what did their food say about their social status? What was the haute cuisine of medieval Bagdad or Moorish Spain? Victoria Flexner and Jay Reifel have recreated classic dishes for their book, A History of the World in 10 Dinners: 2,000 Years, 100 Recipes, allowing modern-day cooks of all abilities to try out meals that were created and enjoyed hundreds of years ago. 

So if you fancy blending spices from the Silk Road, juggling indigenous ingredients of the Americas, or sewing together a terrifying cockentrice - half pig, half chicken - then this episode, in which Matt Lewis finds out more from Victoria and Jay, will have you salivating and eager to try out the recipes for yourself.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Sweyn Forkbeard was the first Viking King of England, however you'd be forgiven for potentially forgetting who he was given he was only King for five short weeks, being declared King on Christmas Day 1013, and ruling till his death on 3rd February 1014.

Part of a distinguished line of Viking rulers, he was the son of Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark, and the father to Cnut the Great, the last Viking King of England.

Today, Eleanor Janega is joined by Dr Caitlin Ellis, Associate Professor in Medieval Nordic History at the Univeristy of Oslo, to answer all the important questions: who was Sweyn Forkbeard? How did he become King of England? Was he a successful ruler? And did he really have a fork beard?

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like our episodes on: Cnut the Great, Harald Bluetooth, and Harald Hardrada.

This episode was produced by Elena Guthrie and Joseph Knight. It was edited by Joseph Knight.

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Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire was an institution of national significance from the late seventh century until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. It was home to eminent writers and had strong royal connections. It housed the tomb of Æthelstan, first king of all England, and Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, took a close interest in its affairs. But it was also home to arguably the most immoral abbot of the Middle Ages, the mass-murdering monk John of Tintern. 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis finds out more from Tony McAleavy, author of the first full-length study of the history of Malmesbury Abbey which brings to life its colourful cast of characters.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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In the early 12th century, when England was suffering wave after wave of Viking invasions, many wondered how God could allow their kingdom to be ravaged by pagans? The Archbishop of York Wulfstan had an answer: the apocalypse was coming. What did that mean to people in the Middle Ages? 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Professor Matthew Gabriele, about how medieval people understood the end of the world, where they got such concepts from, and whether such a belief could actually be a hopeful one? 

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The Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 to 565, Justinian was a ruler who infused even the most mundane tasks with spiritual and religious significance. The challenges he faced - climate change, battles over culture and identity, the first recorded global pandemic - and many of the solutions he found to address them still resonate with us today. His legacy remains all around us, in his massive building programme, in our legal systems, and in his fundamental contribution to both the formation of Christendom and the emergence of Islam.

In this episode, Matt Lewis talks to Peter Sarris, author of Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint, about a man who, from the humblest beginnings, rose to become ruler of much of the known world achieving an almost god-like status.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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When it comes to Japan in the Middle Ages, we think mostly of stories of the Shogun, samurai and ninjas. But for a society dominated by the court and military elite, much was dependent on the labour of skilled people. 

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Dr. Paula Curtis, to find out more particularly about Japan’s metal casters who rose to technical and social preeminence, creating strategic ties and trade networks that would have an influence for centuries to come. 

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

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Geoffrey Chaucer is perhaps medieval England’s most famous writer and poet. Now a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is setting out to give him greater breadth and depth than just The Canterbury Tales. 

To talk more about the ‘Father of English Literature’ with Matt Lewis is its curator Professor Marion Turner.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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By the time the Black Death subsided, between 75 and 200 million people in Afro-Eurasia were dead, entire towns and cities had collapsed, and the earth’s temperature cooled.

In today’s episode of Gone Medieval, guardDr Eleanor Janega speaks to Professor Philip Slavin who has used cutting-edge techniques to consider exactly where and how the worst pandemic the world has ever seen began, and what that reveals about the medieval world.

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