While it’s easy to think of the Middle Ages as just the time between the fall of the western Rome empire and the flourishing of the Renaissance – a time regularly dismissed as an age of ignorance and isolation in Europe – but the Middle Ages were a vibrant time, which saw cultures migrate, interact, and grow; It was when the first universities were born and modern literature took shape; And it saw upheavals from the Vikings, the Normans, and the failed Crusaders – all of which made lasting legacies still helping to shape our world today.
Early episodes in this playlist alternate between free installments and episodes available to patrons only – Become a patron (at any amount you want to contribute) to unlock all the content.
The seven primary playlists of Historiansplaining:
Featured Playlist Episode:
How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire
What did people do when the Roman empire fell apart around them? Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the “dark” centuries between 450 and 750 AD, the people of western Europe, from conquering kings to ordinary peasants, built a resilient and inventive society on the foundations (often literally) of the old… More…
The Middle Ages Episodes
The Vikings, pt. 2 - Into Distant Realms
They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages - we discuss the motives behind the expansion, which are rooted in the religious mismatch between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, the technologies that made it possible, the prizes and targets at which they aimed, the victories and setbacks that they encountered, the imprints that they left behind, and the winds of change that ultimately brought an end to the Viking adventure. Also see:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Vikings, pt. 1 - In the Norsemen's World
Unlocked after one year for patrons only: We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe -- but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from? What society produced them? How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it? We examine the Norsemen's complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology. Also see:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: 1066 - Sailing Into the Storm
1066 -- the year of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest -- is the most famous date in English history. Few understand, though, that far more happened in this cataclysmic and pivotal year than just the Norman defeat of an English army on a field in East Sussex. The culmination of centuries of shifting struggle over control of England, the events of 1066 show how even epochal changes in a society can hinge on minor accidents of timing, weather, health, and personal choice. Image: Modern re-enactors representing Harold Godwinson's army at Hastings.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 1 -- From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century
Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"? Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe? How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political upheaval, without a state or country of their own? We trace the path of this remarkable and resilient people from their mysterious origins in India to their arrival in Constantinople and medieval Europe and through the wave of persecution and ethnic cleansing in the 1600s. Also see:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings, 757-1066
How did a set of seven fractious kingdoms unite into a new kingdom, known as "England," while under almost constant attack by Viking berserkers from across the North Sea? Also see:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Crossing the Waters - Britain in the Dark Age
Romans, Brythons, Picts, Angles, Gaels, Saxons, and Jutes -- how did this kaleidoscopic welter of contending tribes crystallize into the medieval Christian kingdoms we know as England and Scotland? We consider the most tumultuous and mysterious period in British history, following the Roman withdrawal, as locals and Germanic migrants sought to assert power and maintain stability. Despite the great uncertainty, Britons mastered new knowledge, developed a poetic tradition, and passed on an enduring romance around the sacred power of water. Image: 6th-century Anglo-Saxon inlaid gold disk brooch, found in gravesite in Kent. Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
Back to the Dark Age - How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire
What did people do when the Roman empire fall apart around them? Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the "dark" centuries between 450 and 750 AD, the people of western Europe, from conquering kings to ordinary peasants, improvised new political alliances, maintained law and order, improved the productivity of their land, and invented new crafts and art forms, building a resilient and inventive society on the foundations (often literally) of the old.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Freemasonry - Its Origins, Its Myths, and Its Rituals
Freemasonry: What is it? Where does it come from? What is one taught as a Freemason? What do they do in their closed-door rituals -- and why? Freemasonry in the 1700s is my own field of research, and as a thank-you for reaching 50 patrons, I give a deep illumination of this unusual Society's roots in the gatherings of stonemasons in the late Middle Ages, its mythical connections to Solomon's Temple and the Crusades, and its elaborate system of symbols and initiatory rituals, which cast the Masons as a quasi-priestly caste with a shamanic connection to the world of the dead.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see Freemasonry -- Its Growth and Spread Before 1789
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
In the second part of our exploration of the history of universities, we discuss the apotheosis of the university in the American republic, the rise of the German-style research university, and the arrival of women in the elite universities. We end by considering the current crisis of universities, as humanities departments disappear, sexual-assault scandals tarnish prestigious schools, and the public turns an increasingly jaundiced and cynical eye toward the academic "ivory tower."
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
Universities are unique -- a quintessential product of the High Middle Ages that has miraculously survived and even flourished in the modern world. In the first part of the history of universities, we examine the origins of the first universities in the power struggles of Popes and emperors; the ways that medieval students learned, lived, and annoyed their elders; and the ways that universities adapted to and withstood serious challenges from Renaissance humanism and the republic of letters. Next will be the rise of universities in America, the modern research university, and the current crisis of academia.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
 | The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French RevolutionCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We trace the winding paths by which Jews, after the diaspora, sought out social and economic niches in which they were able to survive within European Christian society. We uncover the origins of the two main Jewish groups in Europe -- the Sephardic and Ashkenazi -- and consider how they adapted to changing conditions, including the increasing assimilation of German Jews in the 1700s, which led on the one hand to the beginnings of Jewish reform and on the other to the appearance of Hasidism, a mystical renewal movement. Most importantly, we consider the deep and long-denied influence of the messianic fervor that swept over Europe in the 1660s surrounding the mercurial and mischievous Greek rabbi, Sabbatai Zvi.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see all 7 episodes On Judaism and Jewish History
Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View
We cap off the series of lectures on the Middle Ages by piecing together how the people of the high and late Middle Ages understood their place in the cosmos. From the lowliest peasants to popes and emperors, medievals believed they formed the limbs of a living, breathing social body, and that body or tree was part of a Great Chain of Being connecting rocks and dirt to stars and planets and ultimately to God. Through these metaphors we can understand why medievals disapproved of commerce and abhorred high finance. We end with a commentary on the great, crowning statement of the late medieval mind, the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Also See:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages
 | Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the ways that medieval people described, displayed, and generally failed to control their sexual appetites. While theologians sermonized on the dangers of carnal lust, parishioners surreptitiously met in churches and stables, kept themselves amused with dildoes, or luxuriated in brothels all over Europe. We also trace how medievals categorized one another's sexual "orientations" using the complex concept of sodomy, and briefly consider the intense scholarly debate over the nature of same-sex bonding ceremonies in the Middle Ages.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 9: Knowledge and Ignorance in the Middle Ages (and Today)
We examine how medieval scholars battled over the meanings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and of the Christian religion, while illiterate artisans made breakthroughs in architecture, engineering, metallurgy, and alchemy. The vast body of medieval scholarship came under attack during the Renaissance as so many "metaphysical obscurities," while today we stand on the precipice of a true Dark Age of ignorance.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 8: The Knights Templar
 | Middle Ages 8: The Knights TemplarCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the true history of the first brotherhood of warrior-monks, who rose to extraordinary power in the High Middle Ages, functioned as a shadow empire reaching from Jerusalem to the far corners of Europe, and then fell to their ruin amidst lurid accusations of religious and sexual crimes. Apart from the endless myths and conspiracy theories, the Templars left a lasting mark on Western society through their militarization of Christianity.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 7: The Later Crusades and Their Legacies
We examine the long train of crusading expeditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from the triumphs of Richard the Lionheart to the trainwreck of the sack of Constantinople. We consider the many ways that modern myths have distorted the Crusades for political purposes and erased the Crusaders' central motivation: control of Jerusalem.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode DetailsRelated content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 6: The First Crusade
 | Middle Ages 6: The First CrusadeCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We follow the bloody deeds and improbable victories of the first crusading army, as it slogs its way through Syria toward the ultimate prize.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 5: The Crusades - Why Did They Happen?
We examine the forces that led the Pope to put forward the far-fetched scheme of mobilizing Christian knights to reclaim Jerusalem in 1095, and briefly consider what lesson the launching of the first Crusade holds for our own world almost 1,000 years later.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see all 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle Ages
 | Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We discuss how the civilization of the High Middle Ages broke down under the onslaught of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and the gunpowder revolution.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 3: the High Middle Ages
We examine the flourishing of the Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300, which gave us chivalry, Gothic cathedrals, epics of King Arthur, and nearly all of the romantic images that we still associate with the medieval era, even as the noose of social conformity and repression began to tighten around the people of Europe.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
Also see History as it Happens: Notre Dame and the Nine Lives of Gothic Cathedrals
Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval World
 | Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval WorldCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
How Europeans picked up the pieces in the wake of the breakup of the Roman Empire, created a new society that briefly flourished in the spectacular reign of Charlemagne, and then were plunged back into chaos at the hands of the Vikings.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see:
Middle Ages 1: Exploding the Myth of the Middle Ages
In Dr. Sam's first lecture on the Middle Ages, we start by clearing out the junk, such as the notions that medievals smelled bad and hunted witches, and then look into the mystical and apocalyptic roots of the idea of the "middle age." Also see:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Full Episode Details
The Vikings, pt. 2 - Into Distant Realms
They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages - we discuss the motives behind the expansion, which are rooted in the religious mismatch between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, the technologies that made it possible, the prizes and targets at which they aimed, the victories and setbacks that they encountered, the imprints that they left behind, and the winds of change that ultimately brought an end to the Viking adventure. Also see:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Vikings, pt. 1 - In the Norsemen's World
Unlocked after one year for patrons only: We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe -- but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from? What society produced them? How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it? We examine the Norsemen's complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology. Also see:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: 1066 - Sailing Into the Storm
1066 -- the year of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest -- is the most famous date in English history. Few understand, though, that far more happened in this cataclysmic and pivotal year than just the Norman defeat of an English army on a field in East Sussex. The culmination of centuries of shifting struggle over control of England, the events of 1066 show how even epochal changes in a society can hinge on minor accidents of timing, weather, health, and personal choice. Image: Modern re-enactors representing Harold Godwinson's army at Hastings.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 1 -- From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century
Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"? Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe? How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political upheaval, without a state or country of their own? We trace the path of this remarkable and resilient people from their mysterious origins in India to their arrival in Constantinople and medieval Europe and through the wave of persecution and ethnic cleansing in the 1600s. Also see:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings, 757-1066
How did a set of seven fractious kingdoms unite into a new kingdom, known as "England," while under almost constant attack by Viking berserkers from across the North Sea? Also see:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Crossing the Waters - Britain in the Dark Age
Romans, Brythons, Picts, Angles, Gaels, Saxons, and Jutes -- how did this kaleidoscopic welter of contending tribes crystallize into the medieval Christian kingdoms we know as England and Scotland? We consider the most tumultuous and mysterious period in British history, following the Roman withdrawal, as locals and Germanic migrants sought to assert power and maintain stability. Despite the great uncertainty, Britons mastered new knowledge, developed a poetic tradition, and passed on an enduring romance around the sacred power of water. Image: 6th-century Anglo-Saxon inlaid gold disk brooch, found in gravesite in Kent. Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
Back to the Dark Age - How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire
What did people do when the Roman empire fall apart around them? Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the "dark" centuries between 450 and 750 AD, the people of western Europe, from conquering kings to ordinary peasants, improvised new political alliances, maintained law and order, improved the productivity of their land, and invented new crafts and art forms, building a resilient and inventive society on the foundations (often literally) of the old.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: Freemasonry - Its Origins, Its Myths, and Its Rituals
Freemasonry: What is it? Where does it come from? What is one taught as a Freemason? What do they do in their closed-door rituals -- and why? Freemasonry in the 1700s is my own field of research, and as a thank-you for reaching 50 patrons, I give a deep illumination of this unusual Society's roots in the gatherings of stonemasons in the late Middle Ages, its mythical connections to Solomon's Temple and the Crusades, and its elaborate system of symbols and initiatory rituals, which cast the Masons as a quasi-priestly caste with a shamanic connection to the world of the dead.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see Freemasonry -- Its Growth and Spread Before 1789
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
In the second part of our exploration of the history of universities, we discuss the apotheosis of the university in the American republic, the rise of the German-style research university, and the arrival of women in the elite universities. We end by considering the current crisis of universities, as humanities departments disappear, sexual-assault scandals tarnish prestigious schools, and the public turns an increasingly jaundiced and cynical eye toward the academic "ivory tower."
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
Universities are unique -- a quintessential product of the High Middle Ages that has miraculously survived and even flourished in the modern world. In the first part of the history of universities, we examine the origins of the first universities in the power struggles of Popes and emperors; the ways that medieval students learned, lived, and annoyed their elders; and the ways that universities adapted to and withstood serious challenges from Renaissance humanism and the republic of letters. Next will be the rise of universities in America, the modern research university, and the current crisis of academia.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
| | The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French RevolutionCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We trace the winding paths by which Jews, after the diaspora, sought out social and economic niches in which they were able to survive within European Christian society. We uncover the origins of the two main Jewish groups in Europe -- the Sephardic and Ashkenazi -- and consider how they adapted to changing conditions, including the increasing assimilation of German Jews in the 1700s, which led on the one hand to the beginnings of Jewish reform and on the other to the appearance of Hasidism, a mystical renewal movement. Most importantly, we consider the deep and long-denied influence of the messianic fervor that swept over Europe in the 1660s surrounding the mercurial and mischievous Greek rabbi, Sabbatai Zvi.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see all 7 episodes On Judaism and Jewish History
Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View
We cap off the series of lectures on the Middle Ages by piecing together how the people of the high and late Middle Ages understood their place in the cosmos. From the lowliest peasants to popes and emperors, medievals believed they formed the limbs of a living, breathing social body, and that body or tree was part of a Great Chain of Being connecting rocks and dirt to stars and planets and ultimately to God. Through these metaphors we can understand why medievals disapproved of commerce and abhorred high finance. We end with a commentary on the great, crowning statement of the late medieval mind, the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Also See:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the ways that medieval people described, displayed, and generally failed to control their sexual appetites. While theologians sermonized on the dangers of carnal lust, parishioners surreptitiously met in churches and stables, kept themselves amused with dildoes, or luxuriated in brothels all over Europe. We also trace how medievals categorized one another's sexual "orientations" using the complex concept of sodomy, and briefly consider the intense scholarly debate over the nature of same-sex bonding ceremonies in the Middle Ages.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 9: Knowledge and Ignorance in the Middle Ages (and Today)
We examine how medieval scholars battled over the meanings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and of the Christian religion, while illiterate artisans made breakthroughs in architecture, engineering, metallurgy, and alchemy. The vast body of medieval scholarship came under attack during the Renaissance as so many "metaphysical obscurities," while today we stand on the precipice of a true Dark Age of ignorance.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 8: The Knights Templar
| | Middle Ages 8: The Knights TemplarCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the true history of the first brotherhood of warrior-monks, who rose to extraordinary power in the High Middle Ages, functioned as a shadow empire reaching from Jerusalem to the far corners of Europe, and then fell to their ruin amidst lurid accusations of religious and sexual crimes. Apart from the endless myths and conspiracy theories, the Templars left a lasting mark on Western society through their militarization of Christianity.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 7: The Later Crusades and Their Legacies
We examine the long train of crusading expeditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from the triumphs of Richard the Lionheart to the trainwreck of the sack of Constantinople. We consider the many ways that modern myths have distorted the Crusades for political purposes and erased the Crusaders' central motivation: control of Jerusalem.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode DetailsRelated content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 6: The First Crusade
| | Middle Ages 6: The First CrusadeCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We follow the bloody deeds and improbable victories of the first crusading army, as it slogs its way through Syria toward the ultimate prize.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 5: The Crusades - Why Did They Happen?
We examine the forces that led the Pope to put forward the far-fetched scheme of mobilizing Christian knights to reclaim Jerusalem in 1095, and briefly consider what lesson the launching of the first Crusade holds for our own world almost 1,000 years later.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see all 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We discuss how the civilization of the High Middle Ages broke down under the onslaught of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and the gunpowder revolution.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 3: the High Middle Ages
We examine the flourishing of the Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300, which gave us chivalry, Gothic cathedrals, epics of King Arthur, and nearly all of the romantic images that we still associate with the medieval era, even as the noose of social conformity and repression began to tighten around the people of Europe.
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
Also see History as it Happens: Notre Dame and the Nine Lives of Gothic Cathedrals
Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval World
| | Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval WorldCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
How Europeans picked up the pieces in the wake of the breakup of the Roman Empire, created a new society that briefly flourished in the spectacular reign of Charlemagne, and then were plunged back into chaos at the hands of the Vikings.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see:
Middle Ages 1: Exploding the Myth of the Middle Ages
In Dr. Sam's first lecture on the Middle Ages, we start by clearing out the junk, such as the notions that medievals smelled bad and hunted witches, and then look into the mystical and apocalyptic roots of the idea of the "middle age." Also see:
Listen on SoundCloud
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
| | The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French RevolutionCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We trace the winding paths by which Jews, after the diaspora, sought out social and economic niches in which they were able to survive within European Christian society. We uncover the origins of the two main Jewish groups in Europe -- the Sephardic and Ashkenazi -- and consider how they adapted to changing conditions, including the increasing assimilation of German Jews in the 1700s, which led on the one hand to the beginnings of Jewish reform and on the other to the appearance of Hasidism, a mystical renewal movement. Most importantly, we consider the deep and long-denied influence of the messianic fervor that swept over Europe in the 1660s surrounding the mercurial and mischievous Greek rabbi, Sabbatai Zvi.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see all 7 episodes On Judaism and Jewish History
Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the ways that medieval people described, displayed, and generally failed to control their sexual appetites. While theologians sermonized on the dangers of carnal lust, parishioners surreptitiously met in churches and stables, kept themselves amused with dildoes, or luxuriated in brothels all over Europe. We also trace how medievals categorized one another's sexual "orientations" using the complex concept of sodomy, and briefly consider the intense scholarly debate over the nature of same-sex bonding ceremonies in the Middle Ages.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 8: The Knights Templar
| | Middle Ages 8: The Knights TemplarCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the true history of the first brotherhood of warrior-monks, who rose to extraordinary power in the High Middle Ages, functioned as a shadow empire reaching from Jerusalem to the far corners of Europe, and then fell to their ruin amidst lurid accusations of religious and sexual crimes. Apart from the endless myths and conspiracy theories, the Templars left a lasting mark on Western society through their militarization of Christianity.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 6: The First Crusade
| | Middle Ages 6: The First CrusadeCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We follow the bloody deeds and improbable victories of the first crusading army, as it slogs its way through Syria toward the ultimate prize.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details Related content: 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We discuss how the civilization of the High Middle Ages broke down under the onslaught of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and the gunpowder revolution.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval World
| | Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval WorldCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
How Europeans picked up the pieces in the wake of the breakup of the Roman Empire, created a new society that briefly flourished in the spectacular reign of Charlemagne, and then were plunged back into chaos at the hands of the Vikings.
Listen on Patreon Full Episode Details
Also see:
First Full-Video Lecture! A Survey of Western Architecture, part 1: Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages
Dr. Sam explores the methods that builders, from Egypt to Rome to medieval Europe, have used to create grand structures and to enclose beautiful spaces, whether by reaching outward across the landscape or upwards toward the sky, in order to enthrall the senses and to inspire emotions from terror to tranquility.
This is the first full-video lecture from Historiansplaining, available on YouTube. With the help of our new producer, Dan Rogers, Dr. Sam can peel back the layers of time & place with the visual treatment needed for the very optic-oriented topic of Western Architecture, bringing a whole new facet to the catalogue of Historiansplaining.
Listen on YouTube
Full Episode Details
The Vikings, pt. 2 - Into Distant Realms
They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages - we discuss the motives behind the expansion, which are rooted in the religious mismatch between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, the technologies that made it possible, the prizes and targets at which they aimed, the victories and setbacks that they encountered, the imprints that they left behind, and the winds of change that ultimately brought an end to the Viking adventure. Also see:
Listen on YouTube
Full Episode Details
The Vikings, pt. 1 - In the Norsemen's World
Unlocked after one year for patrons only: We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe -- but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from? What society produced them? How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it? We examine the Norsemen's complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology. Also see:
Listen on YouTube
Full Episode Details
The Middle Ages: 1066 - Sailing Into the Storm
1066 -- the year of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest -- is the most famous date in English history. Few understand, though, that far more happened in this cataclysmic and pivotal year than just the Norman defeat of an English army on a field in East Sussex. The culmination of centuries of shifting struggle over control of England, the events of 1066 show how even epochal changes in a society can hinge on minor accidents of timing, weather, health, and personal choice. Image: Modern re-enactors representing Harold Godwinson's army at Hastings.
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Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 1 -- From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century
Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"? Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe? How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political upheaval, without a state or country of their own? We trace the path of this remarkable and resilient people from their mysterious origins in India to their arrival in Constantinople and medieval Europe and through the wave of persecution and ethnic cleansing in the 1600s. Also see:
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The Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings, 757-1066
How did a set of seven fractious kingdoms unite into a new kingdom, known as "England," while under almost constant attack by Viking berserkers from across the North Sea? Also see:
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The Middle Ages: Crossing the Waters - Britain in the Dark Age
Romans, Brythons, Picts, Angles, Gaels, Saxons, and Jutes -- how did this kaleidoscopic welter of contending tribes crystallize into the medieval Christian kingdoms we know as England and Scotland? We consider the most tumultuous and mysterious period in British history, following the Roman withdrawal, as locals and Germanic migrants sought to assert power and maintain stability. Despite the great uncertainty, Britons mastered new knowledge, developed a poetic tradition, and passed on an enduring romance around the sacred power of water. Image: 6th-century Anglo-Saxon inlaid gold disk brooch, found in gravesite in Kent. Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
Back to the Dark Age - How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire
What did people do when the Roman empire fall apart around them? Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the "dark" centuries between 450 and 750 AD, the people of western Europe, from conquering kings to ordinary peasants, improvised new political alliances, maintained law and order, improved the productivity of their land, and invented new crafts and art forms, building a resilient and inventive society on the foundations (often literally) of the old.
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The Middle Ages: Freemasonry - Its Origins, Its Myths, and Its Rituals
Freemasonry: What is it? Where does it come from? What is one taught as a Freemason? What do they do in their closed-door rituals -- and why? Freemasonry in the 1700s is my own field of research, and as a thank-you for reaching 50 patrons, I give a deep illumination of this unusual Society's roots in the gatherings of stonemasons in the late Middle Ages, its mythical connections to Solomon's Temple and the Crusades, and its elaborate system of symbols and initiatory rituals, which cast the Masons as a quasi-priestly caste with a shamanic connection to the world of the dead.
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Also see Freemasonry -- Its Growth and Spread Before 1789
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
In the second part of our exploration of the history of universities, we discuss the apotheosis of the university in the American republic, the rise of the German-style research university, and the arrival of women in the elite universities. We end by considering the current crisis of universities, as humanities departments disappear, sexual-assault scandals tarnish prestigious schools, and the public turns an increasingly jaundiced and cynical eye toward the academic "ivory tower."
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Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 1 - Flower of the Middle Ages
Universities are unique -- a quintessential product of the High Middle Ages that has miraculously survived and even flourished in the modern world. In the first part of the history of universities, we examine the origins of the first universities in the power struggles of Popes and emperors; the ways that medieval students learned, lived, and annoyed their elders; and the ways that universities adapted to and withstood serious challenges from Renaissance humanism and the republic of letters. Next will be the rise of universities in America, the modern research university, and the current crisis of academia.
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Also see The Middle Ages: History of Universities, Part 2 - A Crumbling Tower?
The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
| | The Middle Ages: The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French RevolutionCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We trace the winding paths by which Jews, after the diaspora, sought out social and economic niches in which they were able to survive within European Christian society. We uncover the origins of the two main Jewish groups in Europe -- the Sephardic and Ashkenazi -- and consider how they adapted to changing conditions, including the increasing assimilation of German Jews in the 1700s, which led on the one hand to the beginnings of Jewish reform and on the other to the appearance of Hasidism, a mystical renewal movement. Most importantly, we consider the deep and long-denied influence of the messianic fervor that swept over Europe in the 1660s surrounding the mercurial and mischievous Greek rabbi, Sabbatai Zvi.
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Also see all 7 episodes On Judaism and Jewish History
Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View
We cap off the series of lectures on the Middle Ages by piecing together how the people of the high and late Middle Ages understood their place in the cosmos. From the lowliest peasants to popes and emperors, medievals believed they formed the limbs of a living, breathing social body, and that body or tree was part of a Great Chain of Being connecting rocks and dirt to stars and planets and ultimately to God. Through these metaphors we can understand why medievals disapproved of commerce and abhorred high finance. We end with a commentary on the great, crowning statement of the late medieval mind, the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Also See:
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Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the ways that medieval people described, displayed, and generally failed to control their sexual appetites. While theologians sermonized on the dangers of carnal lust, parishioners surreptitiously met in churches and stables, kept themselves amused with dildoes, or luxuriated in brothels all over Europe. We also trace how medievals categorized one another's sexual "orientations" using the complex concept of sodomy, and briefly consider the intense scholarly debate over the nature of same-sex bonding ceremonies in the Middle Ages.
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Middle Ages 9: Knowledge and Ignorance in the Middle Ages (and Today)
We examine how medieval scholars battled over the meanings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and of the Christian religion, while illiterate artisans made breakthroughs in architecture, engineering, metallurgy, and alchemy. The vast body of medieval scholarship came under attack during the Renaissance as so many "metaphysical obscurities," while today we stand on the precipice of a true Dark Age of ignorance.
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Middle Ages 8: The Knights Templar
| | Middle Ages 8: The Knights TemplarCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We examine the true history of the first brotherhood of warrior-monks, who rose to extraordinary power in the High Middle Ages, functioned as a shadow empire reaching from Jerusalem to the far corners of Europe, and then fell to their ruin amidst lurid accusations of religious and sexual crimes. Apart from the endless myths and conspiracy theories, the Templars left a lasting mark on Western society through their militarization of Christianity.
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Middle Ages 7: The Later Crusades and Their Legacies
We examine the long train of crusading expeditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from the triumphs of Richard the Lionheart to the trainwreck of the sack of Constantinople. We consider the many ways that modern myths have distorted the Crusades for political purposes and erased the Crusaders' central motivation: control of Jerusalem.
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Middle Ages 6: The First Crusade
| | Middle Ages 6: The First CrusadeCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We follow the bloody deeds and improbable victories of the first crusading army, as it slogs its way through Syria toward the ultimate prize.
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Middle Ages 5: The Crusades - Why Did They Happen?
We examine the forces that led the Pope to put forward the far-fetched scheme of mobilizing Christian knights to reclaim Jerusalem in 1095, and briefly consider what lesson the launching of the first Crusade holds for our own world almost 1,000 years later.
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Also see all 8 episodes On the History of Christianity
Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle Ages
| | Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle AgesCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
We discuss how the civilization of the High Middle Ages broke down under the onslaught of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and the gunpowder revolution.
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Middle Ages 3: the High Middle Ages
We examine the flourishing of the Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300, which gave us chivalry, Gothic cathedrals, epics of King Arthur, and nearly all of the romantic images that we still associate with the medieval era, even as the noose of social conformity and repression began to tighten around the people of Europe.
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Also see History as it Happens: Notre Dame and the Nine Lives of Gothic Cathedrals
Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval World
| | Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval WorldCurrently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website: What do I get as a supporter?I'm already a supporter |
How Europeans picked up the pieces in the wake of the breakup of the Roman Empire, created a new society that briefly flourished in the spectacular reign of Charlemagne, and then were plunged back into chaos at the hands of the Vikings.
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Middle Ages 1: Exploding the Myth of the Middle Ages
In Dr. Sam's first lecture on the Middle Ages, we start by clearing out the junk, such as the notions that medievals smelled bad and hunted witches, and then look into the mystical and apocalyptic roots of the idea of the "middle age." Also see:
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Closely related myths to explore from the Middle Ages on other playlists:
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