Gone Medieval

Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, often cited as the basis for the King’s reputation as a scheming murderer...

Norwich Castle was designed by William the Conqueror to be a royal palace. But no Norman kings ever lived in it. Instead it became a gaol and then - in the Victorian era - a museum, which is today packed with archaeological finds that lift the lid on life in Anglo-Saxon East Anglia.

In this edition of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman takes an exclusive tour of Norwich Castle with Dr. Tim Pestell and learns more about its extraordinary history and collection...

An extraordinary discovery has been unearthed by archaeologists working alongside the HS2 rail project. The find, made at an undisclosed location near Wendover in the Chilterns, consists of a 5th-6th century burial site that has been described as one of the most important post-Roman, early medieval discoveries of our lifetime.

It offers the chance to see more clearly a part of British history that has been hidden from us until now...

Between 1000 and 1500, European towns and cities started to take shape, impacting the lives of millions of people as different cultural, social and religious groups began to interact. But who was allowed to settle in a city and how was it decided who belonged?

In this edition of Gone Medieval, Dr...

Matt Lewis concludes his series on the Wars of the Roses with a look at a figure who is often divisive and misunderstood, despised or loved, but who might even be labelled as a winner, maybe the winner of the Wars of the Roses. Margaret Beaufort was the mother of Henry Tudor and the matriarch of England’s most famous dynasty. But the story of her early life gives no hint of what would follow...

When HM The Queen was crowned in 1953, her Coronation ceremony contained some subtle nods to another Queen who made history 1100 years earlier.

Princess Judith of Flanders was the first woman to be crowned as Queen among the West Saxons.

But her two royal marriages were not without controversy.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman finds out more about Queen Judith from medieval historian Florence Scott...

To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Matt Lewis revisits the fascinating story of Empress Matilda who came within a hair’s breadth of being crowned England’s first Queen regnant in the 12th century.

Sent away aged eight to match with the Holy Roman Emperor, Matilda represented status for her father and money for her intended. However, Matilda was independent, intelligent, educated and authoritative. Join medieval historian Dr...

What do human remains - and the objects buried with them - tell us about people’s lives in Britain in the first millennium, what they thought about mortality, how they felt about loss, and what they believed came next?

The anthropologist and author Professor Alice Roberts has been exploring the ways in which Ancient Britons bade farewell to their dead, examining sites of Roman cremations and graveside feasts, richly furnished Anglo Saxon graves and the first Christian burial...

As part of our Wars of the Roses special month, there’s one family that demands more attention than they usually get: The Beauforts’.

The influence of the Beauforts’ in the Wars of the Roses can still be felt today, as Margaret Beaufort, the eventual heiress, gave birth to Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch...

Rivers, Silk roads and camels - how did international trade adapt and survive beyond the Roman Empire into the middle ages?