Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

Medieval

Composite image showing a medieval cesspit excavation alongside historic coins found within the deposit.

From health to wealth, here are the strange secrets medieval toilets reveal about life in the Middle Ages

Medieval miniature illustration showing people looking from windows of neighboring houses while a man squats in a courtyard below.

Were medieval toilets as filthy as you think?

The forgotten wars that redefined Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 4Does Magna Carta matter today?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing several mounted Norman figures riding left across the scene. The men wear simple tunics and carry spears; their horses are stylised with patterned manes. On the right, a nobleman holds a falcon on his gloved hand, indicating a falconry scene. Decorative animals and small trees fill the border, and a line of Latin text runs above the figures.

Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask

The real women behind Europe's greatest legends. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 3Magna Carta: why didn't King John keep his word?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 2The Magna Carta myth. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A man in a black long sleeved top, beige trousers and brown shoes sitting on a low wooden bench. He is leant on his knees, with his hands held together. Behind him, there is a river covered in lily pads and a bank of large trees

The overlooked history of Muslims in Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 1Magna Carta: king v barons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Beyond the podcastMagna Carta

A still image from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showing an armoured knight with a lance.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is much more historically accurate than you think – here's why

An illustration of the English King Aethelstan, in front of Viking silver.

How England’s first king used an unexpected weapon to defeat the Vikings

Medieval vampire slayers: why did our ancestors dig up and dismember the dead?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portion of the Bayeux Tapestry showing long ships with people fighting on them

Conquest? What conquest? The other dramatic events that really mattered in 1066. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Could this civil war have toppled England? The battle for Dover Castle. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A composite image showing the Queen Mother in front of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Could the Queen Mother have secured the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum 45 years ago?

A detail from the Bayeux Tapestry showing a moment of violence between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans.

After 1066, this medieval fine was imposed to deter anti-Norman violence

Medieval illustration of warriors riding horses.

Warhorses were one of the most deadly weapons on a medieval battlefield. But why didn’t they run away?

Live locally, live sustainably. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This portrait presents Saladin wearing an elaborate headdress, emphasising his status as a ruler of the medieval Islamic world.

Meet the shadowy assassins who were seconds from taking out Saladin – and upending the Crusades

This scene comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, the nearly 70-metre-long embroidered narrative that chronicles the events leading to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

The Bayeux Tapestry is beautiful, but what was its purpose? New research might have the answer

An illustration of a monk writing on a large piece of parchment, with colourful and dramatic scenes spilling out of the pen

The Book of Kells: "a masterpiece of medieval calligraphy and painting". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Margaret Beaufort: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This composite image brings together Edmond Halley, the comet that bears his name, and the Bayeux Tapestry’s famous depiction of its 1066 appearance. Halley’s calculations in the 18th century revealed the comet’s regular return, transforming a phenomenon once read as an omen of catastrophe — as it was before the Norman Conquest — into a predictable event governed by celestial mechanics.

Has history’s most famous comet been misnamed for centuries? “The answer is clear,” say historians

Assassins vs Templars. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 4How William the Conqueror brutally secured rule of England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Empress Matilda: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How warhorses transformed medieval England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This illustration shows the chief of the Taensa people receiving the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle on 20 March 1682. Set in what is now Louisiana, the scene reflects the early encounters between Indigenous nations of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Europeans

Step inside the lost Native American city that rivalled medieval London