Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

Medieval

The fabled ‘Vegetable Lamb of Tartary’ was a plant said to grow sheep as its fruit.

Q&AWhat was the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?

At home with the Mongols.

Plagues of our past.

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight's (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo.

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges in the upcoming film 'The Last Duel',

The medieval women who spoke out against sexual violence

A portrait of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York

Like father, like son: Richard Plantagenet and Richard III

Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain in The Green Knight an adaptation of the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

“An intoxicating triumph true to the grandeur of the poem”: a historian’s review of The Green Knight

John of Gaunt: prince without a throne.

The burgundy cover of a British passport

Q&AWhen were passports as we know them today first introduced?

John of Gaunt shown in a c16th-century portrait

John of Gaunt: The man who would be king.

Matthew Stevens tackles listener questions on the history of the Welsh regions during the Middle Ages

Medieval Wales: everything you wanted to know.

Historian Dennis Duncan guides us through singular stories from the history of the book index

A surprising history of the index.

Tostig Godwinson, brother of King Harold II of England, and King Harald Hardrada of Norway receive the submission of the city of York

Hastings, Stamford Bridge and Gate Fulford: three battles that lost England

Dr Benjamin Pohl explores the role of monks and abbots in the Middle Ages, and asks: why did they write histories?

Why did medieval monks write histories?.

The Green Knight shows his severed – and still talking – head to King Arthur in this illustration of the beginning of the 14th century legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: what’s the story?

Perceval meets the Fisher King in an illustration for Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century Perceval, The Story of the Grail

How to write a medieval romance.

Download your free Wars of the Roses poster

Q&ADid the Scottish mass-murdering cannibal Sawney Bean actually exist?

An illustration showing a woman 'Arib al-Ma’muniyya, playing an instrument while four men listen. A chess board is in the foreground

'Arib al-Ma’muniyya: the enslaved medieval woman who sang her way to wealth.

A portrait of a member of the Borgias family

The Borgias: everything you wanted to know.

Two Hitler Youth who have surrendered to Allied Forces, Germany, 1945. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Innocence under fire: how children were used in warfare of the past

Illustration showing the traders who made a fortune during the wake of the Black Death

Merchants of doom: the traders who profited from the Black Death.

The surprisingly modern Middle Ages.

Illustration of German Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel selling indulgences inside a church

Q&AWhat are indulgences, how were they abused in medieval times, and what do they have to do with the Reformation?

Statue of Ibn Battuta at the Islamic culture center, Quanzhou, Fujian, China

Ibn Battuta: the most famous traveller of the medieval Arab world.

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

QuizCan you spot the real historical remedies?.

The forgotten matriarch of the Wars of the Roses.

William Wallace on trial in 1305

William Wallace: who was the Scottish rebel who defied Edward I?

Benin Bronzes at the British Museum In London

What are the Benin Bronzes and why are they important? Explore the significance of the controversial treasures