Why the Middle Ages matter

The 20th century saw the mafia go global. Crime groups, from Japan's Yakuza to southern Italy's Camorra, capitalised on political chaos and mass migration to spread their influence around the world. In this episode, Spencer Mizen and Ryan Gingeras trace the relentless rise of the ...  Show more

Thinker, feminist, sociologist, campaigner: 19th-century writer Harriet Martineau was a pioneer and a radical across a huge range of areas, but it's very likely you've never heard of her. Stuart Hobday tells Matt Elton about a figure who played a key role in shaping the modern wo ...  Show more

Deception and trickery have always been a universal feature of warfare and the wars of the Middle Ages were no exception - from the Battle of Hastings to the “fake corpse ruse”. But how did Medieval mores justify deception during wars? Was cunning considered an admir ...

Ian Mortimer is frustrated. The historian and author of “Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter” says the problem is that most people seem to think they don’t. 

“You realize how little people know about the world around them,” Mortimer tells New Lines ma ...

What does archaeology tell us about how regions in the Mediterranean built their wealth between the 10th and 12th centuries? How did economies grow in Egypt, Tunisia, Sicily, the Byzantine empire, Islamic Spain and Portugal, and north-central Italy? And what were their tr ...

Where is the grave of King Arthur? What was the worst year in human history? Who were the most fractious royal siblings? What were the origins of humble pie? Which monsters pre-occupied Medieval minds?

In this episode, Gone Medieval’s co-hosts Matt Lewis and ...