HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-06-04T14:12:23.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: When was the worst time to be alive? You'll be surprised at what our expert has to say
items: How King John helped bring about a political miracle in medieval England
items: “Slapstick and smutty”: the real medieval history behind The Decameron
items: Did Black Death trigger the rise of Europe?
items: The Black Death: death, sin & spirituality
items: The Black Death: medieval medical thinking
items: The Black Death: living through the plague
items: The Black Death: origins & spread
items: The Black Death: introduction
items: 1348: The Black Death

When was the worst time to be alive? You'll be surprised at what our expert has to say
type: item
date: 2025-06-04T14:12:23.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical events
subject: Historical people
description: If there's one lesson we should take from history, it's that we're fortunate not to be living in the past, Professor David Carpenter tells Dr David Musgrove
encoded: Imagine you’re having a truly bad day. You’ve dropped your phone down the toilet, burnt your toast, endured a packed commute on a slow-running train, and got soaked in a rain shower. And that’s all before you get to work. If there’s one lesson from history that might get you through such woes, it’s the fact that however bleak things are for you now, chances are they would have been worse if you’d had the misfortune to be alive in the past. That’s the message I got from the great medieval historian Professor David Carpenter, as he compared England in the 13th century to today. Professor Carpenter knows that century intimately: he is a world authority on Magna Carta (and was in the news recently over the discovery that he and Professor Nicholas Vincent made of a medieval copy of Magna Carta in an American library) and the definitive biographer of King Henry III. Recently I was chatting to him about Magna Carta for a HistoryExtra podcast, and when I asked him, at the end of that conversation, if there was any learning from his deep and extensive study of the past that he carried with him in day-to-day life, this was his reply: “We ought to feel how profoundly lucky we are, in two key ways: the first is parliamentary democracy, in which we have evolved a system whereby political conflicts are conducted within a democratic framework. That contrasts hugely with the 13th century when we had two very, very violent civil wars from 1215–17 and 1263–67 in which property was ravaged, people were killed, Jews were massacred, and peasants starved to death. So I think that we should value our parliamentary democracy compared to, for example, the situation in the 13th century. “The other thing we should value is that, although I know there’s obviously a lot of poverty, we live in a society where no one starves to death. Whereas in the 13th century, in years of bad harvest, very considerable numbers of peasants, and to some extent townsmen too, quite literally, starved to death.” Ba…

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How King John helped bring about a political miracle in medieval England
type: item
date: 2024-08-07T20:02:44.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Hundred Years War
subject: Medieval kings and queens
description: From the historic moment that 'bad' King John was made to put his seal to Magna Carta to parliament, taxation and the law courts, the 13th and 14th centuries heralded many changes in England. In fact, Caroline Burt and Richard Partington explore how these changes laid the foundations for the modern British state
encoded: Good. But could do better. That was the message that the English people conveyed to their all-conquering monarch at the height of the Hundred Years’ War. In 1358, England’s great warrior-king Edward III asked parliament if he should accept a peace treaty he’d negotiated with the French, following a series of dramatic military victories. Parliament emphatically advised the king to fight again. Too much blood had been shed and too much treasure expended. The French, MPs declared, were not offering enough. For Edward’s distant predecessor King John, such a scenario would have been unthinkable. Then, at the dawn of the 13th century, there was no notion of shared national enterprise around foreign policy. The English king’s lands in France were a matter for the king alone – not for the community of the realm expressing its will through parliament. The people, if they had been courageous enough to venture their opinions to John, would have been told – not so politely – to keep their noses out. It was also unimaginable during John’s reign that other matters that parliament routinely considered in Edward III’s day – issues such as how much tax people paid, and the way in which law and justice was dispensed to the masses – might be a matter of nationwide debate. English state transformed Yet the 150 or so years between John’s reign and Edward’s victories over the French witnessed the utter transformation of the English state. This extraordinary period saw the introduction of a system of national taxation by consent, and the advent of the forum that approved that tax: parliament. It saw the legal system grow exponentially and a network of royal officers being appointed across the land. It saw striking advances in military organisation, including the professionalisation of the army. And, of course, it saw the introduction of Magna Carta, which established the much-cherished principle that the king was subject to the same law as his subjects. <img src="https://images.immediate.…

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“Slapstick and smutty”: the real medieval history behind The Decameron
type: item
date: 2024-07-26T14:02:16.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: As the darkly comic tale of 14th-century Florentine nobles escaping the Black Death is brought to life in a Netflix limited series, we investigate the real history behind the bawdy medieval bestseller with expertise from Dr Rebecca Bowen…
encoded: The Black Death, the 14th-century pandemic that caused the deaths of as many as a third of all Europeans, perhaps isn’t a likely contender as the backdrop for an irreverent comedy. When the writer Boccaccio saw the plague ravage the city of Florence in 1348, he described the symptoms in vivid detail: “Its first sign here in both men and women was a swelling in the groin or beneath the armpit, growing sometimes in the shape of a simple apple, sometimes in that of an egg.” After this, he explains, “symptoms would develop then into dark of livid patches that many people found appearing on their arms of thighs or elsewhere.” There was little hope, he wrote. “No physician's prescriptions, no medicine seemed of the slightest benefit as a cure for this disease,” and “nearly all the sick would succumb within three days.” It doesn’t sound fun. Yet Netflix’s black-humoured take on Boccaccio’s Decameron doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities of the pestilence, from showing flagellants tearing their own flesh with cattle whips to the widespread abandonment of the sick and dead – all while inviting laughs at the petty vanities, squabbles and desires of its main characters. It's a raunchy and far-from-grave take on this devastating event, and set to a thoroughly modern soundtrack – New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ doesn’t feature in many medieval lute players’ repertoires. But this (literal) romp through the Decameron’s many-layered stories still borrows much from the spirit of Boccaccio’s original book, and has much to teach us about life amid the Black Death. Read on for the real history of the slapstick source material, and the grim realities of an era-defining pandemic that caused Boccaccio to put pen to paper. Is The Decameron a real story? No, Netflix’s The Decameron is not a true story. The series is very loosely based on Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century Decameron, which was a collection of fictional stories. Boccaccio imagines a group of young men and women m…

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Did Black Death trigger the rise of Europe?
type: item
date: 2023-05-22T05:35:48.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: James Belich considers how the Black Death had consequences that stretched far beyond the Middle Ages – and was, in fact, one of the key reasons why Europe rose to prominence
encoded: The Black Death unquestionably wrought a horrific death toll in the mid-14th century, but did it also sweep in social and cultural changes that eventually led to the rise of Europe? Professor James Belich certainly thinks so, and he lays out his argument in new book The World The Plague Made. Speaking to David Musgrove, James considers how the inventiveness required in a depopulated world led to global changes with long-term consequences. James Belich is the author of The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe (Princeton University Press, 2022) Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Waterstones

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The Black Death: death, sin & spirituality
type: item
date: 2022-04-21T10:23:27.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Black Death podcast series
description: Join us for episode five in our six-part series examining how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages…
encoded: The arrival of a terrifying pandemic made medieval people increasingly preoccupied with death, sin and the afterlife. In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Helen Carr about spiritual responses to the Black Death, from special prayers to self-flagellation. The primary sources quoted in this series are mainly taken from: The Black Death, translated and edited by Rosemary Horrox (1994) The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents, John Arberth (2005) Want to hear more? Browse the rest of the episodes in our podcast series on the Black Death

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The Black Death: medieval medical thinking
type: item
date: 2022-04-13T12:35:34.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Black Death podcast series
description: Join us for episode four in our six-part series examining how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages…
encoded: How do you fight a disease, when you don’t know what causes it? In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Elma Brenner about medieval medical thinking and how it informed responses to the Black Death, from ideas about how bad air and misaligned planets could make you sick, to the rituals and remedies used to treat plague victims and the state of 14th-century hospital care. Note: the primary sources quoted in this series are taken from: The Black Death, translated and edited by Rosemary Horrox (1994) The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents, John Arberth (2005) Want to hear more? Browse the rest of the episodes in our podcast series on the Black Death

The Black Death: living through the plague
type: item
date: 2022-04-07T08:45:28.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Black Death podcast series
description: Join us for episode three in our six-part series examining how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages…
encoded: What would it have been like to live through a Black Death outbreak? In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Professor Samuel Cohn about the experiences of medieval people in communities ravaged by the deadly disease. He reveals what the chroniclers tell us about the range of responses to the crisis in the late 1340s, and the lengths people went to to survive. Note: the primary sources quoted in this series are taken from: The Black Death, translated and edited by Rosemary Horrox (1994) The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents, John Arberth (2005) Want to hear more? Browse the rest of the episodes in our podcast series on the Black Death

The Black Death: origins & spread
type: item
date: 2022-03-31T12:51:20.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Black Death podcast series
description: Join us for episode two in our six-part series examining how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages…
encoded: Over recent years, our understanding of the Black Death has been radically transformed by new scientific developments. In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Professor Monica Green about what the latest research can tell us about where the plague originated, and how it spread to eventually engulf vast swathes of the globe. Note: The primary sources quoted in this series are taken from: The Black Death, translated and edited by Rosemary Horrox (1994) The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents, John Arberth (2005) Want to hear more? Browse the rest of the episodes in our podcast series on the Black Death

The Black Death: introduction
type: item
date: 2022-03-24T15:43:37.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Black Death podcast series
description: Join us for episode one in our six-part series examining how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages…
encoded: In the late 1340s, people in cities, towns and villages across the medieval world began to fall ill from a mysterious pestilence. This six part series looks at the how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages, killing millions and transforming societies. Speaking to expert historians, we'll track the spread of this devastating disease, reveal what it was like to live through the pandemic and consider its dramatic, long-lasting impact. Note: The primary sources quoted in this series are taken from: The Black Death, translated and edited by Rosemary Horrox (1994) The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents, John Arberth (2005) Want to hear more? Browse the rest of the episodes in our podcast series on the Black Death

1348: The Black Death
type: item
date: 2021-12-27T07:07:35.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Turning points in British history
description: Part seven in our 20-part series looking at decisive moments of the last 1,000 years in British history explores 1300–1349. Mark Ormrod looked at the year when a third of the population perished due to the Black Death, a cataclysm which was to change the nature of society in the British Isles
encoded: The Black Death was one of the greatest human tragedies ever experienced in the British Isles. Since the 1920s, historians have compared it to the First World War, so great was its demographic and psychological impact; more recently it has been analysed in relation to the advent of AIDS. In fact, the scale and effect of the 14th-century disaster is still much disputed. How many people died, and how were the survivors affected? Did the Black Death really change the course of British social history, or merely accelerate trends that would have occurred anyway? In particular, historians have recently begun to consider whether it is appropriate to make comparisons with modern First World disasters because medieval people were much more conditioned and resigned to the notion that things have a tendency to fall apart. The “calamity-sensitive” nature of the medieval economy (a telling phrase) inured people to the prospect of hunger and disease in a way that would be unthinkable in modern Britain – even though it is still, of course, a daily reality in the Third World. Of all the outcomes of the Black Death, then, the one that is most difficult to fathom is probably the relative lack of comment on the disaster: when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales, he made only a single allusion to a phenomenon that contemporary society must surely have held as its greatest fear. The plague was first reported in continental Europe in 1347 and reached Britain in the summer of 1348: the historical convention is that it entered England via the port of Melcombe Regis in Dorset. The name Black Death came later: at the time, people simply called this new disease the “pestilence”. Although many different theories have been put forward, it seems most likely that the Black Death was bubonic plague, which is transmitted by fleas borne on the backs of rats; the apparent virulence of the outbreak of 1347–50 is explicable not only in terms of the lack of immunity among the population of Europ…

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