HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-01-16T15:22:31.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: We often refer to countries as 'female' – so why has history excluded women from nation-building?
items: HistoryExtra Women of the Middle Ages Masterclass: Hildegard of Bingen with Janina Ramirez
items: HistoryExtra Women of the Middle Ages Masterclass: The Loftus Princess with Janina Ramirez
items: 15 minutes of fame | Janina Ramirez chooses Hildegard of Bingen
items: 15 minutes of fame: Hildegard of Bingen, medieval polymath
items: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: the warrior queen who crushed the Vikings
items: "Vikings didn't wear horned helmets," plus 7 more Viking myths busted
items: Julian of Norwich: Janina Ramirez hails 'the female Chaucer'
items: Books interview with Janina Ramirez: the private lives of the saints

We often refer to countries as 'female' – so why has history excluded women from nation-building?
type: item
date: 2025-12-15T09:00:09.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Joan of Arc
subject: Medieval life
description: Janina Ramirez speaks to Danny Bird about how women and their stories have been co-opted and curated by men attempting to forge nations across Europe
encoded: Danny Bird: What was the genesis of Legenda? Was there a moment when you knew you had to write this book? Janina Ramirez: From the start of my academic career, I learned from [Palestinian-American literary critic and activist] Edward Said and others the value of acknowledging one’s perspective: being transparent about who you are, rather than claiming some sense of neutral empirical truth. For me, identity rests on three pillars. First, I am a woman. Second, class: I come from an immigrant, working-class background. Third, heritage: Polish-Irish, born in Dubai, raised in the UK, married to a Spanish-Scot, with a distinctly European sense of self. With all that, I wasn’t going to get away without a Catholic upbringing: convent school, just very Roman Catholic foundations. I’m not practising now, but it gave me empathy for faith and an understanding of belief. These roots inevitably shape my work. When I published The Private Lives of the Saints [in 2015], my aunt, a Franciscan missionary, told me how proud she was. I had to laugh because the book dismantled saintly myths rather than celebrating them. Yet she was right: I was still that Catholic schoolgirl, writing about religious figures, even as I reframed them. Questions of nationality also ran through my research. My first book required careful choices of terms: ‘Irish’, ‘Welsh’, ‘Scottish’, ‘British Isles’ – each politically charged. By Femina [2022], the pattern was striking: nations everywhere reclaiming heritage, from Scandinavia’s Vikings to France’s Cathars. The focus of my latest book crystallised while writing about [queen and saint] Jadwiga of Poland. My grandmother, who owned a bronze of Pope John Paul II, reminded me how faith and identity intertwine. In my lifetime, that pope canonised women I now study, using them to shape national narratives. So the direction of this new book was clear even as I finished the last one. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/12/ali053…

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HistoryExtra Women of the Middle Ages Masterclass: Hildegard of Bingen with Janina Ramirez
type: item
date: 2022-09-08T16:33:40.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Janina Ramirez masterclass
description: In the second session of our Women of the Middle Ages masterclass with Janina Ramirez, learn more about the ultimate Renaissance woman, Hildegard of Bingen...
encoded: Our curated three-part virtual lecture series from historian and broadcaster Janina Ramirez offers a fresh look at the medieval world through the women usually written out of it. This second session considers how our modern understanding of terms such as ‘nun’ and ‘convent’ have shaped our understanding of the intellectual and creative capacities of medieval women. By focusing on the individual Hildegard of Bingen, uncover an environment in which men and women could become talented polymaths and change the world around them through education, writing and political activism. View Green Video on the source website Who was Hildegard of Bingen? Janina Ramirez introduces the ultimate Renaissance woman, Hildegard of Bingen It’s often assumed that medieval women were denied education from childhood and kept from the resources they would need to match their male counterparts. Yet the achievements of Hildegard of Bingen – a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic and visionary who inspired a cultural renaissance from her Rhineland home in the 12th century – have long challenged that assumption. High on a hilltop in a remote part of the German countryside, the abandoned medieval monastery of Disibodenberg is where we come closest to Hildegard of Bingen. In these evocative ruins 900 years ago she quietly and patiently grew her knowledge and range of talents to become one of the medieval world’s great polymaths. Listen | In 15 Minutes of Fame, Janina Ramirez explains why Hildegard of Bingen deserves more recognition Medieval monasteries were distinctly gendered sites. At Disibodenberg, the monks dominated the buildings, from the church to the refectory. But on the northern edge was another small community who were separated out, yet able to benefit from this rich cultural environment – a group of young nuns. It was here, in a cell attached to a tiny church, that Hildegard came as a child and lived enclosed until she was in her forties. When her mentor and abbess, Jutta, died in 1…

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HistoryExtra Women of the Middle Ages Masterclass: The Loftus Princess with Janina Ramirez
type: item
date: 2022-09-08T15:50:21.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Janina Ramirez masterclass
description: Learn more about the sixth-century Loftus Princess in the first session of our masterclass series with Janina Ramirez...
encoded: Our curated three-part virtual lecture series from historian and broadcaster Janina Ramirez offers a fresh look at the medieval world through the women usually written out of it. This first session addresses some of the big themes behind the book, including how history as a subject is changing, the kinds of people we should be looking for, and the tools that we need to uncover lost or hidden narratives. Janina also explores the example of the sixth-century Loftus Princess to reveal the central role played by women in the ideological revolutions of the early medieval period. View Green Video on the source website Who was the Loftus Princess? Janina Ramirez introduces the Loftus Princess, who left important legacies for those that came after... A few beads and pendants were all they found. It wasn’t much to go on, but these diminutive treasures nestled in the soil threw up some tantalising clues about an influential woman who died in the seventh century. That woman lived during a period of huge cultural change in England. Known as the Loftus Princess, her burial alongside a series of remarkable treasures, overlooking the cliffs of North Yorkshire, testifies that she was honoured by the people who placed her in the earth. The rest of her story – what she achieved, how she lived, who she encountered – can only be surmised. Should we stop asking questions and dismiss the Loftus Princess as yet another lost woman from our medieval past? Or can we put her in context and build up a world around her using a range of evidence and approaches at our disposal? For all too long, the former option has prevailed. Read more | Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "There are other medieval women who we can bring to the foreground" That we know that the Loftus Princess existed at all is down to archaeologist Steve Sherlock and his team, who in 2006 discovered an early medieval burial site cut into an ancient landscape near the town of Loftus. Among Iron Age barrows and Roman remains were 10…

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15 minutes of fame | Janina Ramirez chooses Hildegard of Bingen
type: item
date: 2022-07-05T09:06:47.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: 15 minutes of fame
subject: Historical people
description: As part of our series exploring lost or lesser-known figures from history who deserve their 15 minutes of fame, Emily Briffett interviews Dr Janina Ramirez about the life of Hildegard of Bingen
encoded: Who was Hildegard of Bingen? Hildegard of Bingen was born in the Rhineland in 1098, a time when a cultural and artistic renaissance was happening in and around Germany. Brought up in a monastery in Disibodenberg, Hildegard went on to be a highly influential polymath during her long life, dying at the age of 81. Her long life is of great importance to historians, explains Ramirez. If she had died at the average age for the 12th century (in her 40s or 50s), we would not have much work to look at, “because Hildegard created the majority of her key works in later life”. Hildegard of Bingen’s life From an early age, perhaps as young as four or five, Hildegard had told people of the visions she had. When one seemingly came true – a calf was born that fit a description Hildegard had given prior to its birth – she was sent to be trained by Jutta von Sponheim, who, according to Ramirez, was the thought to be the brightest female mind of her time. Under Jutta’s guidance, Hildegard became a nun. Ramirez points out that ‘nun’ had different connotations in the 12th century to what we might think of now: nuns were creatives, artists, intellectuals. Convents were “powerhouses of these incredibly important people that were changing the climate of the time”, so Hildegard grew up in a very powerful place. Her reported visions were widely known, but Hildegard did not write about them until they became more intense later in her life. In the mid 12th century (c1151/1152) she published an illustrated work called Scivias, created with her confidante Richardis and a scribe, Volmar. This book detailed her visions, as she tried to describe what was considered indescribable. Another surviving piece of material is the Riesencodex, a collection of Hildegard’s work, written towards the end of her life/after her death. It is a great source, explains Ramirez, for Hildegard’s thoughts and opinions of a variety of topics, from science to politics. Hildegard of Bingen’s historical importance is not j…

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15 minutes of fame: Hildegard of Bingen, medieval polymath
type: item
date: 2022-06-27T14:52:29.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: 15 minutes of fame
description: Janina Ramirez explains why medieval polymath Hildegard of Bingen deserves recognition today
encoded: It’s the HistoryExtra podcast’s 15th birthday! To celebrate, we’ve asked 15 historians to nominate a figure from history they think deserves their ‘15 minutes of fame’. In this episode, Dr Janina Ramirez nominates Hildegard of Bingen. Speaking with Emily Briffett, she explains why this 12th-century abbess, composer, scientist, writer and saint deserves to be better remembered today. Browse more episodes about figures from history who deserve 15 minutes of fame

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Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: the warrior queen who crushed the Vikings
type: item
date: 2022-03-11T16:58:00.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Anglo-Saxon
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: British queens
subject: Historical people
subject: TV interest
subject: Viking Britain
description: She is a medieval marvel, but – as the daughter of Alfred the Great, and ultimately succeeded by her nephew Æthelstan – Æthelflæd has been overshadowed by the men in her life. Janina Ramirez reveals how the wife, mother, diplomat – and, above all, warrior-queen – left an indelible mark on Anglo-Saxon England in the 10th century
encoded: Listen to a version of this article: There are only a handful of warrior women from the past who have captured imaginations for centuries. The most famous are Boudicca, her chariot complete with spiked wheels, and the armoured teenager, Joan of Arc. These were the exceptions – women in a man’s world who men followed into battle. But there is one warrior woman who is less celebrated. Eleven centuries ago, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, died and was buried in Gloucester. She was exceptional for many reasons. She is one of the few known women who not only held a role within the household as mother and lady – and within the court, as daughter and wife to kings – but also wielded power on the battlefield. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2020/04/1120TLK4_208ep_2019sc_22sc_20Adrienn20Szabo_201408201920108-fdc5d06.jpg" width="1024" height="694" alt="Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in series four of 'The Last Kingdom'. (Image by Carnival/adrienn szabo/Netflix)" title="Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in series four of 'The Last Kingdom'. (Image by Carnival/adrienn szabo/Netflix)" /> What’s more, she is the only queen in English history to have passed her reign directly to her daughter. She is a medieval marvel, but she has been overshadowed by the men who surrounded her in life – her father, Alfred the Great; her husband, Æthelred of Mercia (a kingdom in what is now central England); and her ultimate successor, her nephew, Æthelstan, ‘the king of the whole of Britain’. Yet Michael Wood has argued that “without her England might never have happened”. In the 12th century, the historian Henry of Huntingdon declared Æthelflæd to be “so powerful that in praise and exaltation of her wonderful gifts, some call her not only lady, but even king”. He praised her as “worthy of a man’s name” and “more illustrious than Caesar”. So why do we not know more about the Lady of the Mercians, and is it finally her time to shine? The Last Kingdom: everything you nee…

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"Vikings didn't wear horned helmets," plus 7 more Viking myths busted
type: item
date: 2021-11-15T19:30:01.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Period
subject: Viking
subject: Viking life and culture
description: Bearded, violent beyond reason and singularly successful at suppressing everyone around them. This, says Janina Ramirez, is the popular – yet questionable – image of Vikings. But how violent were they really, and did they actually wear horned helmets? You may be surprised to learn that many beliefs about the Vikings have little grounding in historical fact...
encoded: What were the Vikings really like? Popular TV and film portrayals of Vikings would have us believe that they are fierce, battle-hardened people who wore horned helmets and ruthlessly conquered any land they came across. Discover the truth behind eight common myths about the Vikings, as historian Janina Ramirez separates fact from fiction... Myth 1: Vikings wore horned helmets Let’s get this out of the way straight off. There is no evidence that the Vikings wore horned helmets, and nothing like this has ever been discovered in any archaeological dig. They certainly wore helmets but they would have been simple skullcaps, designed to protect the head from impact. Having a pair of horns on your head in battle would not have been helpful if warriors were striking at you with clubs, swords or axes. Ivar the Boneless, Ragnvald of Ed and 6 more Vikings you should know about The helmet plaques from Sutton Hoo and Vendel suggest that god-like warriors donned helmets with protruding ‘horns’ (although these are actually hook-beaked birds), but the Viking raiders and traders did not. The modern idea of Vikings in horned helmets originated in the 19th century, but it was Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle [a cycle of four operas by the German composer based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas] that seared it into the modern imagination. Costume designer Carl Emil Doepler (1824–1905) created horned helmets in the 1870s for the Viking characters, and so the myth was born. Numerous cartoonists, filmmakers and artists have continued this fantasy right up to the present day. Listen | Acclaimed screenwriter and producer Michael Hirst talks about his work on Vikings and the secrets of making great history drama Myth 2: They were a defined group – ‘the Vikings’ The term ‘Viking’ comes from Old Icelandic ‘Viking-r, a creek-dweller’. The Viken was the primary mercantile region of Norway, so it is possible that this apparently homogenous group of people got their name from the extensive…

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Julian of Norwich: Janina Ramirez hails 'the female Chaucer'
type: item
date: 2020-04-13T10:01:49.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Medieval life
description: As the fallout from the Black Death threw England into turmoil, a woman with a man's name produced a piece of literature so beautiful that it still resonates with readers across the world today. Janina Ramirez hails Julian of Norwich
encoded: History is largely dominated by men. Kings, popes, bishops, monks, knights… they have defined the course of history, and they have written history. Despite the valiant attempts of feminists in the past century, writing women into history is a difficult process. Individuals who managed to break the mould are now widely celebrated: Joan of Arc, Æthelflæd, Elizabeth I. Yet for every one woman written into history there are many hundreds of men that drown out their achievements. And so it is with literature. The canonical texts of the past two millennia are largely written by male authors. We read Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Joyce. The father of English literature is Chaucer. But who is the mother? The first known woman to write a book in English is an obscure anchoress from Norwich, whose very name has been given a masculine twist: Julian. The word ‘anchoress’ comes from the Greek meaning ‘to retire’, and anchoresses gave up their lives on Earth to be walled up in a cell until death. They would be witnesses at their own funerals, receiving the last rites, and have the door to their room sealed or bricked up. They could not leave again on pain of excommunication. Doctors, playwrights and feminists: meet 6 trailblazing medieval women Julian most probably took her name from the church in which she was walled up for decades, St Julian’s Church off King’s Street. She wrote a mystical text in the late 14th century entitled Revelations of Divine Love, but it is virtually unheard of. Certainly students don’t have a copy of it propped up next to The Canterbury Tales as they learn about the birth of English literature. Yet it is one of the most stunning literary achievements of the medieval period. This book could have been written in any time, any place, by a male or a female writer, and it would still be considered an incredible work. The fact that it was written during one of the most turbulent times in European history, simply adds to its mystery. Who was Julian of Norwich? …

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Books interview with Janina Ramirez: the private lives of the saints
type: item
date: 2015-07-23T11:33:48.000Z
creator: Dr Janina Ramirez
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Janina Ramirez talks to Matt Elton about her new book exploring the lives and legacies of 10 Anglo-Saxon saints – who, as she explains, were often more earthly than heavenly
encoded: This interview was first published in the August 2015 issue of BBC History Magazine In context The litany of saints in the Anglo-Saxon period, often regarded as running from 600 to 1066, features some of the era’s most famous names. Many, such as Bede, Hilda and Cuthbert (all of whom lived in the seventh century) were monks or religious figures; others were members of royal families. These saints came to occupy a huge role in the public imagination, with shrines being set up in their honour and stories told about their actions. What role would the saints have played in Anglo-Saxon England? One of the inspirations for writing this book was flicking through The Sun and seeing famous people who are part of the zeitgeist – arguably celebrities are more recognisable than politicians – and thinking that, if there had been such a thing as an Anglo-Saxon tabloid newspaper, it would have featured people such as Saint Cuthbert or Saint Hilda. The stories would have been about the latest martyr or strange hermit who had taken themselves off to the Fens and had been seen battling demons in the middle of the night. These would be the people that the populus wanted to know about. It’s important to remember that the Anglo-Saxon period was a time of great religious and imaginative transition. The pagan world had been inhabited by local deities, gods of the river or glen, and household deities that people thought about inside their houses. The saints took over both of those roles, and people would pray to little icons or statues of them instead. So saints became the intermediary between the earthly and the divine, but they were also part of the environment. People would wake up and think about them. What do we mean when we talk about ‘saints’ in this context? Our modern conception is that saints have to prove themselves by going through a long period of canonisation, decided by a particular branch of the Vatican. But that wasn’t the case in the Anglo-Saxon period: what made you a sa…

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