Rise of the Crusader States

Why would the execution of a single Czech priest spark decades of bloody revolution across Europe? In 1414, the outspoken reformer Jan Hus was promised safe conduct to a church council, only to be arrested, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake. Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Le ...  Show more

In 1441, one of England's most powerful women was forced to walk barefoot through London's streets as a convicted sorceress. What drove Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, to the occult? Dr. Eleanor Janega sits down with bestselling novelist Philippa Gregory to uncover the pol ...  Show more

After the fall of Jerusalem into Frankish hands in 1099 during the First Crusade, a string of new crusader states emerged, initiating Western rule in the region for almost 200 years. Drawing on listener questions and top search queries, Emily Briffett speaks to Dr Nicholas Morton ...  Show more

1099 - 1302 - After the conclusion of the First Crusade, four Christian nation states were established in the Levant.  These Crusader States would have to battle for their survival over the next two hundred years, and this episode focuses on that protracted battle.

Nicholas Morton’s The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187 (Oxford UP, 2020) explores the military history of the medieval Near East, piecing together the fault-lines of conflict which entangled this much-contested region. This was an area where eth ...  Show more