Dr David Musgrove

Content director, HistoryExtra.com

Dr David Musgrove is content director of the HistoryExtra.com website and podcast, plus its sister print magazines BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed. He has a PhD in medieval landscape archaeology, investigating monastic drainage and land reclamation in the Somerset Levels (along with a side hustle in prehistoric beaver habitats in France). Since then, he has worked in history publishing for almost twenty years. He is author of 100 Places that made Britain (BBC Books, 2011), and with Michael Lewis, The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry (Thames and Hudson 2021). He regularly interviews historians for the podcast and curates HistoryExtra’s Medieval newsletter.

Recent articles by Dr David Musgrove

Edgar the Aetheling is notably missing from the Bayeux Tapestry

The lost figure of the Bayeux Tapestry: where is Edgar Ætheling?

Illustration of the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne

Slaves in the Viking Age: how prevalent were enslaved people in Viking societies?

A 14th-century depiction of bakers at work.

Social mobility in the Middle Ages: could medieval people improve their station?

Naming of St John the Baptist, c12th century. From a wall painting in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Medieval baby names: what were people called in the Middle Ages?

An illustration depicting the deposition of the body of Edward the Confessor in the tomb at Westminster in 1066. (

Was the early medieval period a “golden age” for the elderly?

Edward the Confessor, depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry

Edward the Confessor: 9 fascinating facts

Hadrian's Wall (UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1987), near Housesteads, England, United Kingdom, Roman civilization, 2nd century.

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #15: What’s lurking in the background of medieval maps? And what did medieval people really know about the wider world?

A royal banquet in the 13th century. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #14: What did an aristocratic household eat in the Middle Ages? And who was Eleanor de Montfort?

Statue of King Richard I outside the Palace of Westminster in London

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #13: Why aren’t monuments to medieval figures included in the statues debate, and was there racism in the Middle Ages?

Hamo Thornycroft's 1901 statue of King Alfred the Great in Winchester. (Photo by RDImages/Epics/Getty Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #12: secrets of the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, Painting by Emile Signol (1804–1892), (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters 11: Did women fight in the crusades? And why did people follow a goose to the Holy Land?

Queen Emma and her sons, miniature in 'Encomium Emmae reginae', mid 11th century, British Library (Photo by Getty Images)

Are women at the heart of the action in the Norman Conquest?

Newgrange Passage Tombs, Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland. (Photo by Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #9: Do early medieval Irish texts shed light on prehistoric incest?

The ruined monastery walls of Lindisfarne priory on Holy Island, on 27th June 2019, on Lindisfarne Island, Northumberland, England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish monk Saint Aidan, and the priory was founded before the end of 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, also known simply as Holy Island, is an island off the northeast coast of England. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic and Anglo-saxon Christianity. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was re-established. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #8: Did medieval people care about the time? And did they get bored?

Tournament between the Duke of Brittany and the Duke of Bourbon. (Photo by Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #7: what it meant to be ‘blue’ in the Middle Ages (and more killer rabbits)