How to Survive the 14th Century

Summary

Gone Medieval: "How to Survive the 14th Century" – Detailed Summary

Released on May 30, 2025 by History Hit

Introduction

In the "How to Survive the 14th Century" episode of Gone Medieval, hosts Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Jaenega delve into the tumultuous 14th century, exploring the interplay of political upheaval, social change, and pivotal historical figures that shaped modern England. The episode features an in-depth discussion with historian Helen Carr, author of Sceptered Isle: A New History of the 14th Century, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of this pivotal era.

Overview of the 14th Century

The 14th century was marked by dramatic events that tested the resilience of England. From the Great Famine and the devastating Black Death to the Peasants' Revolt and significant shifts in monarchy, this period was anything but peaceful. Helen Carr emphasizes the century's complexity, describing it as a time of "drama, disaster, upheaval, and resilience" (00:44).

The Book "Sceptered Isle"

Helen Carr's Sceptered Isle serves as the cornerstone of the discussion, providing a chronological exploration of the 14th century from 1307 to 1399. Carr outlines the book's scope, covering the reigns of three pivotal kings—Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II—as well as major events like the Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt (05:57).

Reconstructing History from Sources

Carr discusses the challenges of reconstructing 14th-century history due to biased chronicles and limited records. She highlights the importance of cross-referencing sources, such as chronicles by Jean Froissart and Thomas Walsingham, and utilizing governmental records like King's Bench records and Parliament rolls (09:13). Carr particularly values petitions as a source, noting their role in providing voices of ordinary people and women, exemplified by the case of Maud de Burgh (12:37).

The Three Kings: Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II

Carr provides a nuanced portrayal of the three kings:

• Edward II: Described as a vulnerable king shaped by his formidable father, Edward I. Edward II's reliance on favorites like Piers Gaveston destabilized the traditional feudal hierarchy, leading to his eventual downfall (17:46). Matt Lewis summarizes this by comparing Edward II's approach to the feudal pyramid as adding a precarious "spire at the top" (21:29).

• Edward III: Contrasting his predecessors, Edward III is portrayed as a more competent and strategic king. Carr credits his mother, Isabella of France, for influencing his leadership style, including his establishment of the Order of the Garter and fostering economic and academic development (23:14).

• Richard II: Coming to power as a teenager, Richard II lacked proper training and was heavily influenced by his close relationships. Carr describes him as "tyrannical and petulant," with his reign marked by increasing paranoia and conflicts following the death of his queen, Anne of Bohemia (26:33).

Role of Queens

Queens played pivotal roles in stabilizing and influencing their husbands' reigns:

• Isabella of France: Initially a supportive queen who acted with authority and military prowess, Isabella's relationship with Edward II deteriorated due to his favoritism towards Hugh Despenser the Younger. Her strategic use of mourning and alliances with Roger Mortimer exemplified her soft power (28:48).

• Philippa of Hainault: Seen as an ideal queen alongside Edward III, Philippa was deeply involved in economic development and was beloved by the people. Her intercession during the Siege of Calais and investment in the wool trade highlight her significant influence (38:52).

• Anne of Bohemia: Richard II's wife acted as a calming influence, and her death marked a turning point in his reign, leading to increased vindictiveness and instability (40:56).

Social History and Ordinary People

Carr emphasizes the importance of understanding the lives of ordinary people amidst the grandeur of kings and queens. Through petitions and wills, she uncovers the struggles and resilience of commoners, particularly women like Maud de Burgh. Maud's case, where she claimed to be pregnant for nearly three years after her husband's death, illustrates the complexities of personal trauma and societal pressures (13:13).

Evolution of Institutions: Parliament

The 14th century was crucial in the development of Parliament. Carr explains how the deposition of kings became centered in Parliament, laying the groundwork for its enduring role in British governance. The century also saw the creation of the Lords and Commons by Edward III, institutions that persist to this day (56:42).

Key Characters and Stories

• Maud de Burgh: Her prolonged false pregnancy claim reflects the limited agency and harsh scrutiny women faced, challenging historical interpretations that dismissed her claims as mere deceit (16:37).

• Elizabeth de Bourgh: A favorite of Carr, Elizabeth is noted for her scathing protest against Hugh Despenser the Younger, highlighting the active role noble women played in political maneuvering and resistance (47:31).

Impact of the 14th Century on Modern England

Despite being a century fraught with calamity, the 14th century laid the foundation for modern England through:

• Economic and Social Reforms: The aftermath of the Black Death led to labor shortages, economic shifts, and social mobility.

• Cultural Advancements: The rise of the vernacular and figures like Geoffrey Chaucer spurred cultural and literary growth.

• Political Developments: The strengthening of Parliament and the gradual shift towards more representative governance are direct legacies of this era (57:03).

Favorite Moments and Characters

Carr shares personal favorites from the century:

• Edward II: Contrary to his villainous depiction, Carr portrays Edward II as a "complex and nuanced man" who genuinely cared for his people and was mismatched in his reliance on favorites (48:45).

• Medieval Tournaments: Carr expresses a desire to witness the grandeur and pageantry of Edward III's court, comparing medieval jousts to modern-day concerts in their spectacle and communal experience (51:35).

Conclusion

The episode concludes with reflections on the 14th century's enduring influence and the importance of understanding its multifaceted history. Matt Lewis underscores the century's critical role in shaping contemporary English institutions and societal structures, despite its challenges. Helen Carr reinforces the theme of resilience and the evolution of power dynamics, emphasizing that the 14th century was indeed a crucible for change and modernization.

Notable Quotes

• Helen Carr: "Gone Medieval is History Hit’s podcast dedicated to the middle ages, in Europe and far beyond." (00:14)

• Helen Carr: "Parliament is still such a core part of the nation today. You see that really beginning to grow in the 14th century." (57:03)

• Matt Lewis: "Was the 14th century truly the worst time to be alive? Or was it a crucible for resilience and change?" (05:08)

Timestamps Overview

• 00:14: Introduction to Gone Medieval
• 05:57: Overview of Sceptered Isle
• 09:13: Discussing historical sources
• 12:37: Importance of petitions and ordinary voices
• 16:37: Maud de Burgh's case
• 17:46: Analysis of Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II
• 23:14: Edward III’s reign and influence of his mother
• 26:33: Richard II’s reign
• 28:48: Role and influence of queens
• 38:52: Philippa of Hainault’s contributions
• 40:56: Impact of Anne of Bohemia’s death
• 47:31: Favorite historical figures
• 51:35: Medieval tournaments as fascinating events
• 57:03: Impact of the 14th century on modern England

Final Thoughts

"Gone Medieval: How to Survive the 14th Century" offers a rich, engaging exploration of one of history’s most challenging centuries. Through expert analysis and vivid storytelling, Matt Lewis and Helen Carr illuminate the resilience and transformative power that emerged from the era’s crises. Whether you’re a history enthusiast or new to medieval studies, this episode provides valuable insights into how the 14th century shaped the trajectory of modern society.

Transcript

[Matt Lewis]

Hello, I'm Matt Lewis.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

And I'm Dr. Eleanor Jaenega and we're.

[Matt Lewis]

Just popping up here to tell you some insider info.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

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[Matt Lewis]

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[Helen Carr]

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[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

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[Matt Lewis]

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[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

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[Helen Carr]

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[Matt Lewis]

Or find the link in the show notes for this episode.

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[Matt Lewis]

Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the.

[Helen Carr]

Gobsmacking details, and latest groundbreaking research. From the Vikings to the printing press.

[Matt Lewis]

From kings to Popes to the Crusades.

[Helen Carr]

We cross centuries and continents to delve.

[Matt Lewis]

Into rebellions, plots and murders.

[Helen Carr]

To find the stories, big and small.

[Matt Lewis]

That tell us how we got here.

[Helen Carr]

Find out who we really were with. Gone Medieval Travel back with me to the 14th century, a time when England was anything but the blessed plot Shakespeare described. More like a place of drama, disaster, upheaval and resilience. Take for example, June 1381, when London was gripped by chaos as thousands of rebels, peasants, artisans and labourers stormed the city, furious over crippling taxes and broken promises.

[Matt Lewis]

In a dramatic twist, the unthinkable happened.

[Helen Carr]

The mighty Tower of London, long considered impregnable, was breached not by an army, but by commoners. Inside, the terrified 14 year old king.

[Matt Lewis]

Richard II and his household, hidden as.

[Helen Carr]

The rebels seized control, executed top officials and demanded justice. Yet even as their hopes were dashed and their leaders slain the rebels, courage and resilience echoed through history, challenging the foundations of medieval power and sparking demands for change. So what was it really like to live through famine, civil war and plague? The centuries crises shaped not just monarchs, but the lives of ordinary people, especially women, whose voices we can find in rarely used petitions and court records. One particularly gripping story we'll explore is the mysterious case of Maud de Burgh, who claimed to be pregnant for nearly three years after her husband's death. Was this a calculated bid for power or the tragic result of trauma and a misunderstood medical condition?

[Matt Lewis]

From the death of Edward I to.

[Helen Carr]

The turbulent rise of Henry iv, Helen Carr's new book, Sceptered Isle, explores the reigns of three pivotal kings, the devastation of the Black Death and the seismic Peasants Revolt. I'm delighted that Helen, a good friend.

[Matt Lewis]

Of God Medieval, joins me today and I want to ask her how we.

[Helen Carr]

Reconstruct the truth from biased chronicles and dry parliamentary roles and find out about.

[Matt Lewis]

The detective work needed to read between.

[Helen Carr]

The lines, question assumptions and give agency to those too long overlooked. So today we're going to immerse you in the sights, sounds and struggles of a century that shaped modern Britain. Expect intrigue, heartbreak and humanity. As we ask, was the 14th century truly the worst time to be alive? Or was it a crucible for resilience and change?

[Matt Lewis]

Welcome back to Gone Medieval. Helen, it's fantastic to have you join us again.

[Alltrails]

No, it's really great to be here. It's nice to see you, Matt, and.

[Matt Lewis]

Back to talk about your brilliant, shiny new book, Sceptered Isle. I wonder if you could start off just by telling us what Sceptered Isle is about.

[Alltrails]

So, Septine Isle is a new history of the 14th century. So it starts with the death of Edward I, the accession of Edward ii, and it ends with the deposition of Richard II in 1399. So 1307 all the way through to 1399 and covering some of the, hopefully most of the major events of the 14th century. So you have these three major kings, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II. But then within that space of rulership, you've also got the great famine, the civil war in England with Edward II and Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. You have the Black Death, famously right in the middle 1348, the hundred years War, big famous battles like the Battle of Crecy. And then you also have the Peasants Revolt and it's just jam packed full of drama as you, as you're probably already getting a sense of. And then right to the end you have the deposition of Richard and the rise of the first Lancastrian King, Henry iv.

[Matt Lewis]

It certainly is a jam packed century of not always very good stuff going on. Was there a particular reason that you wanted to try and tackle this whole century? Is it important for us to view what happens in context of what's happening around it?

[Alltrails]

Yeah, I think so. I've always been very interested in characters and personalities and human beings. My first book was the biography of John of Gaunt, the Red Prince. And when I was telling that story and story of Gaunt's life, I sort of felt so constrained, as you are when you're writing biography. And I couldn't sort of go on these tangents into everything else that was going on around him. And I was fascinated with the first part of the century, you know, the 50 years before he was born. And I was also fascinated with some of the things that were going on during his lifetime, but that he had no real interaction with. So what was so interesting to me was how he was shaped as a person by the events that were going on around him and as a magnate. But that applies also to the leaders and the kings and the people who were existing around him at that time as well. And as I said before, I wanted to tell that first part of the century. I felt like kings like Edward II hadn't really been given a huge amount of attention and there hadn't really been much of a, an in depth analysis as to his character and his famous Queen Isabella of France, notoriously called a she wolf. It felt like an important story to tell. And of course, right in the middle with the Black Death, that was the most appalling circumstance that reshaped humanity going forward into the rest of the Middle Ages and into the early modern period. So I felt like it was incredibly important to cover that too.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, and it's great, I think, to put all of the things in sequence in context. You could get a book just about the Black Death. But this allows you to place all of those things in the context of the politics and the economics that's happening around all of the characters as well and the people. So it's a really great way to approach what are seismic events in the 14th century. I wonder, before we get into some of the detail of the story as well, if you could tell us a little bit about the sources that are available for you to construct. The 14th century, it's sort of. We're still in the medieval period. Sources aren't always that good.

[Alltrails]

Yeah, so it's a lovely question. I love talking about sources. I get to really nerd out when I get asked this question because obviously you have the brilliant chronicle accounts of the period and you have these wonderful characters. You have the Vita, the Life of Edward II and then in the Kings after, and you have brilliant French chroniclers like Jean de Villen, you have Jean Froissart, famously, and then, you know, you have the brilliant, scathing Thomas Walsingham, who just has crossed with everyone and he likes to be rude about all of the leading magnates at the time. But obviously chronicle accounts are inevitably flawed. They are always taken from a personal reading. They're often written to appease their patron. They want to give a version of events that is going to be biased towards one side, as everything in history is written by those terms. But also they're often from second hand accounts, they're often written from the confines of a monastery. So it's very difficult for these authors, these historians of their time to really deliver a very accurate account. And often with these accounts, read, multiply. So when you have one account corroborating another. So, for example, with the Peasants Revolt, we know a lot of what went on because you have multiple accounts corroborating what the other one's saying. So the Anonomyl chronicler who might have been there was also saying the same thing as Thomas Walsingham, who was guessing an eyewitness version of what had been going on. So they can be incredibly useful in those terms and you do get a sense of truth and reality through that. But you have to layer this with what is available in the records and you go into the archive where a lot of things are actually brilliantly have been digitized and are available online through all sorts of different projects and things which are such a great source. I mean, there's so many of them, if you actually manage to delve into what's available. But I love going into the archives and most of the things I need are in the National Archives, which is incredibly helpful. And you're looking at, you're looking at things like King's Bench records, so court records, you're looking at Parliament rolls, so everything, it's like minutes, right? So it's like documented as to what is happening and being said during the course of Parliament, which all being well, takes place twice a year, and so you'll get a really good detail of what's going on with all of these different accounts. And I really love working on petitions, which are a source that's not really used all that often, but I use them for my academic work. And petitions are a wonderful way to access what is going on for the people who are at this, at the front line. You know, they are experiencing the world as they are seeing it, and they're writing to the king, to government, and saying, I need help with X. So and so has taken illegally this portion of land. I need help through this. And you can sort of track the way these petitions make their way through the governmental systems. But what is also wonderful about them is it one of the few sources available that we get a sense of direct voice from women. So these petitions, they're not being written personally by women, they're being orated to clerks. And you get this wonderful sense when you're reading them, of almost performative action. So you can almost see the way that women are moving their bodies, the way that they're expressing themselves. And it's just such a valuable source to me. And I tried to incorporate these within the book, particularly in relation to the ongoing war with Scotland and the women living in those borderlands.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, because I guess the issue is you've got that section of the chronicles, which, as you say, you know, they're quite often biased, they're quite often a bit snarky, They've got a message that they're trying to convey. And then against that, you've got the slightly drier governmental paperwork, which gives you numbers and dates and who was going where, but doesn't necessarily why, doesn't give you much motivation for why things are happening. So I guess it's trying to feed those together to shuffle the deck and come up with a fuller picture. But it sounds like petitions are kind of a good halfway house. You've got some court paperwork, but it's actually coming from an ordinary person who's explaining their issue with the world that they're living in.

[Alltrails]

Yeah, yeah. And I think that something I do a lot as well is I spend ages just sort of even with parliament rolls, like, reading the detail very carefully and going back and reading it again. And as historians like, one of the major things we do is we ask questions of the source. And you can draw out more from these records than might necessarily just then you might think that's what's available to you on the page. So, for example, it totally depends on the way you are reading it, I'm reading it from the perspective of a woman. I'm looking at it through, you know, a young woman, a woman who's a mother. I've had children, so I'm going to empathize and feel differently when these sorts of cases about women and childbirth and children come up in the record and you see things through a different lens and often, particularly in relation to talking about women or more marginalized people, the court records are phenomenally biased because they're written from the perspective of the privileged. And so you have to use that brilliant tool of reading against the grain. So you're sort of reading against what it's saying and you're questioning, is this truth? Or why is this person being spoken to by these terms? Why are they being referred to by these terms? What is that actually telling us? So it's kind of like reading this very small source. You might have three lines, and you're looking at it again and again and saying, this doesn't hang on. If they're talking about this person by these terms, does that not mean X or could that mean Y? An example of this, which I found in the course of researching this book, was the case of Maud de Burgh, who we might go into looking at the Declare sisters later on in the podcast. But Maud de Burgh was the wife of the recently deceased Earl of Gloucester, who was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn. And after the death of her, of her husband Gilbert, she claimed she was with child. She was pregnant. And what's so fascinating about this case is it's quite a famous one that Hugh Despenser the Younger couldn't get her lands, the Clare sisters couldn't claim their rightful inheritance because there was this potential heir coming, right? So Gilbert's sisters, who would have been the next in line to inherit the property, had to wait. Everyone was waiting. Is this baby. What is. What's going on? She claimed to be pregnant for almost three years, and we know that biologically impossible. And previously this has always been assumed that she was lying. And when I was reading through the case and I was looking at the record and what was said about her, there was an instance that inspectors had gone to look at her, and importantly as well, people within her vicinity had seen her to be with child. The meaning of this was she looked like she was pregnant. She appeared to be pregnant. She was investigated for pregnancy. So with all of this in mind, that seems like a very elaborate lie. And when you think about the experience that she'd Been having the trauma of losing her husband, the stress of the expectation, the knowledge that a widow without a child, without a son to protect her is in a more vulnerable position. It seemed rational to me that Maud might be experiencing what is not an uncommon condition, which is pseudo csis, which is a false pregnancy. So, in fact, contrary to what has previously been assumed from. From a very male historical gaze, that she was lying. I actually don't think she was. I think she was unwell.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. Yeah. And I guess, you know, between the stress and the desire, the desire to be pregnant, all of that is feeding into creating the situation in which, yes, it's easy for us to look back and say she was just lying to drag things out. But as you say, thinking about it from a slightly different angle, there's potentially so much more to that story than just a fib to try and get an inheritance.

[Alltrails]

Yeah, exactly. It seems like quite an elaborate one. I think she was actually probably deeply vulnerable, probably incredibly confused, and was really appallingly victimized and treated thereafter.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned that at the start the book deals with three kings, and even that's not simple for you, is it? Because we've got two that are deposed, one that rules for kind of half the century, two that are considered amongst the worst medieval kings of England, one that's considered potentially the best medieval king of England. So you've got kind of all kinds of extremes going on in there. How did you find that Edward ii, Edward III and Richard II approached kingship? What were the differences in the ways that they got it right and got it wrong?

[Alltrails]

Yeah, I think it's a really interesting question. And I think these three kings are a fantastic example of medieval kingship in the sense that they do it so different. You know, they are example of how to do it right and how to do it wrong and the mistakes that they make, what they value, what's different deemed important as a leader and as a king and what people around you value, and also what historians in the future have valued and people in the future have valued. You know, do we value a king who doesn't really have as much interest in war and just wants to focus on the realm and his image, you know, how he's represented? Or do we value a king who wants to take armies into France and conquer and be victorious, but in the process of that, also ending the lives of a lot of innocent people? So it also begs the question of how do we think about kingship? And these kings do do it very differently. I think a lot of this comes down to power and how they use it. And with Edward ii, he is an interesting case study of kingship in that he is actually going into his rule as an incredibly vulnerable man. His father was bully. I mean, it's no doubt that Edward Hammer of the Scots, Edward I, Edward Longshanks was a fearsome man. He was scary, he was intimidating. And he made no secret of the fact that he would punish his son when he didn't stand up to what he valued as his heir. He was treated quite aggressively in his youth and so when he comes to the throne, he needs the support of people around him. He's not coming to it feeling buoyed up by a sense of his own importance and a duty to do right by the realm. And come on, let's get going, let's go to war with the Scots and sort them out. Just like my father was. He was somebody who didn't really know what to do do. And what he looked for was strong minded, strong willed individuals to tell him, don't worry, Edward, I've got your hand, let's do this together. And what he did by doing that was he destabilized the traditional hierarchy of power in the Middle Ages. You have the king, think of your GCSE feudal pyramid. You've got the king right at the top, then you have the nobility, the immediate nobility with that royal blood pulsing through their veins beneath them. And then you have the serfs all the way down at the bottom. And what Edward did by prioritising favourites like Piers Gaveston, is he took somebody who was just your average squire, who wasn't even English. He was from Gascony, he was a Gascon knight. He brought him up, elevated him, created him Earl of Cornwall, which is putting him power wise and land ownership on the same level as people like the Earl of Lancaster, who was Edward's cousin. This is a grandson of Henry iii. He's putting him on that pedestal and that's going to really irk the nobility. It's going to make them cross. They're saying, hang on a minute, this is really confusing. We're supposed to be supporting you, we're supposed to be, you know, never questioning your judgment and your kingship, but you're sharing your power and you're relying on guidance and the power and the support of this person who we consider beneath us. And so Edward continued to keep making that mistake. He kept pushing his favorites, he kept, you know, destabilizing that very accepted structure of authority that worked, that had been proven to work and that was his greatest mistake.

[Matt Lewis]

It sounds like what Edward II is doing, then, is he's taking that feudal pyramid that we all know so well, whether it's real or not. But the point of the feudal pyramid is it has that broad base that provides support to the top. And what he's doing is narrowing it at the top. He's almost putting a spire on top of it, which makes it, you know, precarious. A spire can blow over in the wind, you know, so he's. Yeah, he's making that stable structure much less stable, which means that he has to be so much better to keep it all together, which he doesn't quite seem to manage to do.

[Alltrails]

No, he doesn't manage to do it. And it doesn't help that he is not a military strategist. He's unable to win battles. I mean, the Battle of Bannockburn was the worst military disaster of the Middle Ages. It's been compared to the Battle of Courtrai in France, which was, you know, Battle of the golden spurs, which is claimed that it was the entire destruction of the flower of French nobility. And the same happened with the Battle of Bannockburn. It completely rendered the northern frontier, the northern borderlands, vulnerable to attack. And Robert Bruce, after that, was able to completely take over the north of England, demanding tribute payments. He made an extraordinary amount of money from people on those northern borderlands just by demanding tribute payment from them. At millions by today's standards, by people just saying, look, I'll pay you, just don't raid me. And that's how he was so successful, because Edward was completely unable to defend the northern border because he had lost at the battle of Bannockburn. So many of those important northern lords who were. Who were supposed to be using their power and their strength, their money, to protect those lands, and they were just. They were wiped out.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. And I think I was struck by. If you deal with those three kings, Edward ii, Edward iii, Richard ii, there's not much of an element of any of the three of them being particularly nurtured to be good kings, and yet you get two bad ones and one good one. None of them really have that training. You said Edward I, not a great dad, big old bully. Edward III is following Edward ii, who is deposed for being an awful king. Richard II comes to the throne as a child and his education as a king is largely ignored. So it suggests that there's a strong element of nature about being a good or bad king rather than nurture.

[Alltrails]

I totally agree. And I think this is the Thing when we think about kings, it's always this idea of, oh, they're a king, therefore they must behave and act in this way and be this sort of person. And actually they're not. They're individuals, they're human beings, and they will come to the role with very different prerogatives. It's interesting that you say the idea that Edward III going on from Edward ii, he wasn't really trained. I think to an extent he was, but not by his father, but by his mother. Some of the major characteristics that you see in the reign of Edward iii, I think, are taken from his mother, Isabella of France, for example, his desire to emulate and recast himself in the image of King Arthur, which was very clever political device, in order to get the masses on board and really get his nobility behind him, creating this sort of fraternity of noble lords. It was absolutely genius. But I think he got that from his mother, who was known to enjoy the Eitherian legends. She and Roger Mortimer used to dress up as Arthur and Guinevere and, you know, have their sort of courtly romances played out in their evenings together. And I think that Edward, he saw all of this and I think he used that side of his mother's very skillful way of presenting herself through legend, through dress. So, for example, when she went over to France and refused to come back, she started to wear black because she claimed that she was a widow because of this Pharisee who had come between her and her husband, her marriage was effectively ended. And so she treated as if she was in mourning for her marriage. It was very, very clever. And I think that Edward, he took all of that on board, but I think also he was bright and he watched everything that went wrong in his father's reign and he saw how important it was to keep your nobles on side. And he knew that the nobility made the country, the realm strong, the nobility supported the king. And so what he did is he created the Order of the Garter, which was initially called the Order of the Round Table. And he had all of his nobles, his friends around him, the people that he wanted also to give him money to fund his wars in France. And he made them part of something. And there's something very clever in that. That's a very human instinct to want to be part of something and feel like you're important. And he knew that, and he did that very successfully. In regards to Richard, I think what's fascinating about Richard is he absolutely had no training for kingship. He was never supposed to be king Supposed to be his father or his brother, but with both of them dead, it fell to him. But Richard was so coddled and cosseted, it's like he's wrapped in cotton wool. He was told from a very early age how important he was, how godly he was. You know, he was born on the feast of epiphany, the 6th of January. This is a sign. This is a potent symbol. You are divine. And so it's no surprise, really, that he sort of carried that onto him into his reign. And where he came up against conflict was because he was there trying to be like, I want to rule, I want to show that I can rule. But he had no idea how to rule. He was tyrannical and he was petulant. It was this. It was like having this sort of gung ho teenager who wants to take your car out for a spin without a driving license. And that's what it was like trying to contain Richard in his late teens. So it's no wonder, really, that this young man who has such a buffed up sense of ego and importance turns out to be how the tyrant that he did.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, I mean, I always think with Richard II that most teenagers think they know better than everybody else and that they're special and the world revolves around them. But you add to that the fact that he's actually been told that the whole of his life by everybody, and that he has the. At least theoretically, he has the power and authority of a king, even if he's not always allowed to wield it. And it's kind of a recipe for disaster, isn't it? It's reinforcing every bad thought that he has and then launching him onto the political stage as the most powerful figure in the country and wondering why it goes wrong.

[Alltrails]

Totally. And you can imagine that moment in the Peasants Revolt where he rides up to the rebels and he's like, I'm your king. And they're all like, oh, yeah, amazing, Richard. You can imagine all the nobles like Gorn up in Scotland being like. Because it's just not helping, you know, this idea that, like, oh, no, but my realm, my people love me. Yeah, he's a funny one. He's a fascinating character, Richard. I find of all the kings. Actually, for me, Edward and Richard are sort of psychologically the more interesting figures.

[Matt Lewis]

And I do, you know, I say quite often, I think we're still trapped In a slightly 19th century, Whiggish view of what makes a good and a bad medieval king, in that, you know, if you go to war with France and you're successful, you're a great king. If you start to build the institutions of government that Victorian England, you know, love to revel in, you're a good king. If you don't contribute anything to that, you're naturally bad without too much exploration of any alternative around them. So it's. It's good, I think, to see Edward II and Richard II place kind of either side of Edward III and their. Their lives considered more fully than just being the bad king that came before and after the great Edward iii. You touched on Isabella of France a bit there. I did want to talk about the queens that are alongside these kings because they're fascinating characters in themselves as well. And I guess the one thing I'm struck by when we're talking about, particularly Edward II and Richard ii, two kings that end up getting deposed, is that the real moments of crises come for them when their wives are gone for differing reasons. But it's Isabella abandoning Edward II that really causes him the final catastrophe. And Richard II seems to change, I think, after the death of Anne of Bohemia as well, almost like she was a calming influence on him. So I wondered what you felt about the influence that the queens had throughout that century, too.

[Alltrails]

Yeah, I think it's Isabella and Edward's relationship is very interesting because through the popular lens, it's this idea that it was a terrible marriage. They never got on. He was always kind of with his men, and she was having affairs left, right and center, and it really didn't look like that early on. When they were first married, she was a child. She was very young. She's, you know, years away from being able to conceive children, but they still spent time together. They still, you know, they seemed to get on. He gave her lots of nice gifts, and he, you know, he acted on her behalf. He asked her advice. And also, I think he seemed to respect her. He respected her as a princess of France. He revered her position. And Isabella also had a very strong sense of her own regality and who she was and her own importance as well. It all sort of seemed to go very well for a long period of time. And they had children. There's this famous example of when they were at her father's court in Paris. Their room, or the room they were sharing one night in the pavilion, actually was set alight. And there was this fire. And Edward, naked, carried Isabella out of the fire. They were both completely naked because they'd been having, like, passion together, and she had burns on her arm. And this is corroborated in her wardrobe accounts. You see her paying for an apothecary to go and sort of get the materials to heal her arm wound.

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[Helen Carr]

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[Matt Lewis]

Something that you might find out in a romantic fiction novel and think this is a bit extreme. You know the yeah to the realm or the king carrying his wife out naked From a pavilion that's on fire. Yeah, it is. It's a strikingly romantic moment in their relationship.

[Alltrails]

Totally. And, you know, there's a. In the same. On the same trip, Edward was late for a meeting with her father because he overslept with Isabella because they'd been sort of, you know, having a great night the night before. It all really went wrong much later on and quite quickly. Even in the time of Piers Gaveston, Isabella and Gaveston spent time together. She seemed to quite like Gaveston. She didn't really have much of a problem with him. The real issue came with Hugh Despenser, Hugh Dispenser the younger. So before Despenser, and in the early years of Despenser, Isabella was on Edward's council. She was aware she acted as a queen with a prom. She did all the right things. She would intercede. Interceding for people was a major part of queenship, where she would go to her husband and say, this person has requested X from me. Please would you consider this as my personal plea on behalf of X? And she also. There was that amazing moment with the siege of Leeds Castle. Isabella was in on this plot to try and capture the Badlesmeres as traitors and really managed to sort of pin the Earl of Lancaster down as a traitor, which all, you know, climax would be an apple of Boroughbridge. Isabella was a major part of that. So she was very eager to step in as Edward's queen and act with authority, with leadership, even military skill. Like, she was fascinating. But it all went wrong after the Battle of Boroughbridge and Edward started to get very paranoid. Hugh Despenser was. He really was a character dripping poison in the ear of the King. And Despenser was also incredibly greedy. He targeted the widows of the Battle of Boroughbridge for their lands. You know, these are women who were left their husbands who were major landowners in England. England killed as. As traitors. And he went after their lands. He's like, I want their lands. I want to be richer and richer and richer. And the opportunity arose for Dispenser to start targeting Isabella when her husband, when Edward had a fallout with her brother, the King of France. And I won't go into that too much because it gets very dull and again, it's just all over homage and Gascony and yada yada. But she. In a nutshell, Edward starts to punish Isabella, basically for being French. So he removes all of the French members of her court, her household. He has many of them arrested and then he also strips Isabella of her Lands in the Earldom of Cornwall, which is the lands she had in Cornwall which were incredibly valuable to her, not because they necessarily generated a huge amount of money. Edward gave her an allowance. I don't think it was so much about the money. It was about her agency and her individuality and her ability to rule in her own, by her own terms, to manage land. It's freedom effectively. It's a woman's freedom. And he took them away. And so she went off to France on behalf of Edward on a diplomatic mission. And I think something shifted there, but really it was that moment where he stripped her of her lands. And she saw. Hugh Despenser is more important to my husband than I am, and he's a dangerous man and he's not on my side. And she writes from France when the Pope is intervening, and also the treasurer, Walter Stapleton, she writes from France that she is too scared to return for fear of the. Of what would happen to her. She fears that dispenser is so vile that he would kill her. He would do something awful to her. And I think. I think that's real. I don't think that's her being dramatic as it might have been depicted in the past. I think this is a woman genuinely afraid of the avarice and the rapaciousness and the true villainy of a very dangerous man. And I think she was aware of it.

[Matt Lewis]

For me, Isabella seems a really good. She gets cast as this she wolf of France later on. But for me, she's a really, really good example of how a queen can leverage her power. She was saying, I'm too scared to come home. What she's saying is, my husband can't protect me. That's casting Shade at Edward in a big way. Wearing black that you mentioned earlier and portraying herself as having been widowed because her husband is. These are all kind of challenges to Edward in a way that people recognize her almost challenging his authority in an acceptable way, which is a hard thing for a queen to do.

[Paige de Sorba]

Yeah.

[Alltrails]

And I think her relationship with Roger Mortimer is interesting on these terms as well. She never made it secret that they were, you know, in cahoots. And. And I believe, you know, there's some. There's some questioning whether they were in a sexual relationship. I mean, I think they. They were, but because Edward, in effect, say so later on. But what is interesting is she's not hiding it, and she's actually showing that Mortimer is with her. They are now 18, whatever that looks like, that is some sort of adultery. But by medieval terms, by her making this an obvious thing. She's shaming Edward because traditionally, by medieval standards, it was often a man that was punished for the adultery of his wife because he couldn't care for his wife. He couldn't be in charge of her enough that she wouldn't go off and be adulterous. And I think that she's using that kind of demasculating rhetoric against Edward. She's making him look weaker by exposing her and Mortimer as something that is a more powerful, cohesive unit.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. And I guess with Edward iii, you see Philippa of Hainault acting as kind of almost an ideal queen. She is beside him, working as a team throughout his reign. They seem like a really successful couple.

[Alltrails]

Yeah. The Victorians loved Philippa of Haynock. She basically just did as she was told and had lots of things.

[Matt Lewis]

Stayed quiet and did as she was told.

[Alltrails]

No, she was great. And she's a wonderful example of intercession as well. At the siege of Calais in 1346, so you have that incredible vignette of the burghers of Calais coming out with the ropes around their neck. And famously, it's the heavily pregnant Philippa who begs her husband to spare the lives of these men. And so intercession is a really important part of queenship. And you see Anne of Bohemia doing that later with Richard II as well. But Philippa was a deeply loved queen. She was loved by her people. She took the role of queenship very seriously. She want. She invested very much in trade and sort of helping things like the wool trade develop and helping people, helping factories grow and emerge so people. So that people in England could start creating their own cloth. She was very invested in that sort of economic development and also academic development in the founding of colleges. And so I think she was a much beloved queen. And I think Edward III really did. I think he really caved in, actually, when she died, you know, you saw a different side to Edward after the death of Philippa. It was like he'd always given up a bit. You had this very successful martial king, so strong, just sort of reduced to this sort of slightly decaying older man, really, who's just sort of staring from his throne, isolated, with his mistress sort of being the only point of interest for him by that point. And Richard, after the death of Anne of Bohemia, is also interesting. I think Anne was a very leveling presence in Richard's life. I think they got on very well. They were very. They were close. I think they were very good friends. I think she was gentle with him and I think she listened to him, and I think that she. She didn't sort of push him. I think she had a very similar space for him as his mother had Joan of Kent. And I think that Joan of Kent was a. Again, a very, very good mediating figure. She was calming, you know, these medieval queens. If only the world was run by them. Right. Wouldn't have all clearly been a much better space.

[Matt Lewis]

I think I'm with you on that because I just. I do think, you know, when Anne of Bohemia dies, you do see a switch. I mean, it's interesting you mentioned, though, it's when Isabella abandons Edward II that things really change for him. Edward iii, you know, almost becomes an old man overnight when he loses Philippa. And Richard's vindictiveness reaches its pinnacle when Anne is no longer there to kind of restrain him. Whether that's with. With soft restraints, you know, that she. She understands him a little bit.

[Alltrails]

It is soft power. These queens are brilliant at exercising soft power, and it's very effective.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. We talked a little bit about it early with the petitions, but I wondered how easy it is to get at some of the stories of more ordinary people, kind of outside of royalty and the nobility, and why it's important to try and do so as well.

[Alltrails]

Yeah, I think. I think that was the danger with Scepterdial, that I didn't want it to end up being a series of potted biographies. I wanted it to feel as if my reader is getting a sense of what the world looked like as well. And I think that I did this through covering some of the more social events of the time, the major sort of social upheavals. So the. Right. At the beginning, you have the great famine, and then you have obviously the Black Death in the middle, and then increasing sort of episodes of war, et cetera, coming through in the. In the second part of the. Of the 14th century. So for the first part, so just covering the famine and the Black Death, there are some great examples in the record, I mean, on more dull terms. And frankly, I mean, I'm sure that I will get some economic historians kind of, you know, getting crossly saying this, but I did look at the manorial accounts and manorial records and. So dull. But it does give you a sense as to sort of what the layman is experiencing in terms of very basic means of sustenance and existence for people in the first part of the 14th century was living off the land. And when you have a famine or you have a moraine of cattle, which is for. Basically, first it was just years of rain. It just didn't stop raining. People were unable to bring in the harvest. And so you can look at what the impact of that was. And then that was followed by a moraine of cattle. So you. A lot of cattle and livestock died from like, effectively a plague on livestock. And so what that caused was famine. And you do read more apocalyptic accounts from the chronicles about people eating, like, you know, unclean things, as they call it. But I can imagine it pushed the point of starvation. People did do some strange things. And I think looking at the impact of these major environmental disasters, how do people respond to that? It's very difficult always to get to the individual. But what you can do is take a more macro look on what these sorts of disasters and how they impact societies as a whole and communities as a whole. So you can look at the way that villages might be abandoned, people moving to more urban areas. What does that mean? You see that a lot after the Black Death. The Black Death, fortunately, as a historian writing now, has been very well documented. There are wonderful collections of source, primary source material that have been collaborated in order to make my life a lot easier. So I can't say that I was there sort of scanning the archive myself, finding all these wonderful little new bits of information about the Black Death. I'm standing on the shoulders of giants when it comes to that. You know, Rosemary Horrocks, the famous collection of her edited volume of all of the Black Death material, I have about two copies, I think, on my bookshelf. It's just a fantastic source. I also found it was very interesting for me in relation to the Black Death, to look at it on a more global perspective. So I was reading accounts from Syria to see how. How it spread. I was looking at more of the epidemiological accounts. So historians like Monica Green writes a lot about it. You know, it's. We write this historians now, and it's like it's not all. We do our own research as well, from primary. From primary material. But a lot of it is, as I say, standing on the shoulders of giants and reading the work of fantastic historians that have been working over the last 50 years and sometimes even beyond. So in regard to understanding more social histories, it's a real case of, yeah, trawling through the record and finding these little nuggets of information that just stand out. They jump out at you, don't they, sort of off the page. And I remember when I was working on the Black Death, one of the sources that I Like to look at just completely between me and the original source was wills. So I did look at a lot of wills and how people responded. I tended to look at mostly from 1349 onwards, because we may as well not bother with 1348. It's not. That's not enough time has been spent really. So we're in the 1350s. You start to see a kind of pattern of behavior, what people are doing, how people are giving away their things that they value, the things they treasure, the material culture, the period. And there were wonderful examples of humanity actually, and love and care and real consideration for one's community in Parish in which these spaces were so important to people in this period and then later on after that to access the voice of more of the masses. I was very interested in the culture. So looking at artistic movements as we kind of move not quite the Renaissance, but closer. So the way that people were depicting death and grief and how they considered their own mortality, I found very interesting. And it does, you know, art gives a sense as to what society is experiencing. It's a mirror image of lots of different things, of politics, of societal norms of the time, of, of what's going on in the world around us. And so, yeah, I think as a historian of the Middle Ages, you have to look at multiple different sources to get a sense of what people were experiencing. And as a historian of emotions, I do work on emotions. One of the ways that we access emotions is treating it as like a. As like a mirror image. So you look at a source, but you have to treat the source like a mirror. What's that source sort of reflecting back. And I think that when you're thinking about your layman and the average person, that's a very helpful way of looking at things. So, yeah, I think, you know, altarpieces, wall paintings, you can still go and see some amazing medieval wall paintings that were painted around this time and does give you a sense of what the world that people were existing in and what they felt about it.

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[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, fascinating. Do you have a favorite person from the century from the book who sticks out for you?

[Alltrails]

Yeah. So I have a favorite king and I have a favorite person. I think I'm really interested in Elizabeth de Bourgh. I think she's fascinating. She wrote this, this brilliant scathing protest against the dispensers which I went to see and read. And she's just, there's this wonderful self defense against her, who she is. They have treated her so badly where she's been so maligned by her uncle the king. And I think she was very strong and just an incredible woman. I mean this is a woman who was expected to go to bed with a man who is not the father of the baby. She had birthed his six weeks earlier because her uncle told her to. And I just think that there's a lot more, more to look into as to the role of noble women in that respect. And I know that's done on more academic spheres. But as a more public historian, I think they often are quite marginalized, these women. So I love Elizabeth de Bourgh. She's fascinating. Love Edward ii. I just think he's, he's really interesting. I think actually he's got this terrible reputation thanks to Mel Gibson and Braveheart. But he was just this sort of fop that he was, you know, only there's this wonderful scene, isn't there, Braveheart, where he's carrying a mirror or a mirror's being carried around Westminster palace and he's there, there sort of, you know, carry on and kind of do drapes and furs and ermine. And I, for me that's not the Edward that actually is was, he was a man who, he really loved his people. He was fascinated with, he loved going, watching people like dig ditches. He loved rowing. He was very active. He's incredibly Generous, he was sporty, he was good looking, he was fun. He was really funny. Like he and Piers Gaveston, you can imagine them just laughing and really just taking the piss out of the nobility. Gaveston had all these wonderful nicknames for the nobility. He called, you know, the Earl of Warwick a burst belly. He called Lancaster a churl, which is effectively like calling him a peasant. And he just. I found actually another nickname when I was looking at the accounts in the record, I found that he called one of his valets, he called him Richard Whiteflesh. That's effectively same as calling him Pasty Face. So he was just. They were just quite funny. They would laugh together. And I think there's a side to Edward that's been definitely misunderstood. I think he's a very complex and nuanced man. So, yeah, I think of the two characters of the book, amongst many, I think those two initially are the ones that jump out to me when you asked me that question.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. And anyone who's a history hit subscriber can find out a little bit more about Edward II from you in a brand new film that's out the same day as this podcast. So hopefully they can tune into this and then tune into that.

[Alltrails]

I'm doing like a history hit takeover.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah.

[Alltrails]

On the 29th. On the 29th of May, clearly.

[Matt Lewis]

Helen Carday.

[Alltrails]

Yeah.

[Matt Lewis]

Do you have a favorite kind of moment in the 14th century? An event or something that was happening that really stood out and you thought that was great. I'd love to have been there for that.

[Alltrails]

Oh, my gosh. I don't know if I'd have wanted to.

[Matt Lewis]

I mean, amidst a terrible century, there's so many things you wouldn't want to be there for.

[Alltrails]

Yeah. Do you know what? There is, I think to be in the court of Edward iii in the 1350s. 1360s would have been pretty cool. Like, you know, this is him throwing parties where he's dressed as a pheasant. This is these incredible jousts and tournaments, you know, they were a spectacle. He knew how to throw a party. And one of the brilliant sources that I looked at in regards to Edward's hedonism and his wife's hedonism, Philippa said this as well, was called these, these jousting letters, which you can. They're not really up in Edinburgh, they're hard to, to access, to go and see, but they're just amazing. And they are these wonderful make believe scenes of queens basically telling all of the men who are entering the joust and sponsoring them and being Like, I'm going to enter this man and I'm going to enter that man. And they're sort of quite flirtatious, that they're quite. There's a lot of sexual innuendo, but it gives a sense of all of the opulence and how women were very much involved in this pageantry and this court mythology. There was this fine line between reality and make believe and it was just such a wonderful, I think, fascinating space to exist in. So, yeah, if I was going to be there, I'd be at one of these jazz.

[Matt Lewis]

They seem like the medieval equivalent of, you know, going to a massive rock concert where it's, you know, what's the light show going to be like? What's the pyrotechnics going to be like? Yeah, it's that kind of, you know, how far is Edward going to go in trying to one up his last tournament?

[Alltrails]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, actually, everyone always talks about. And I always bring this up because I think it's just. I think a. Because it's been given such a bad rap, but I think A Knight's Tale, everyone talks about how anachronistic it is and how incorrect and everything, and it's like, yeah, of course. But what I think it completely nails is the vibe of the period and I think it totally nails the mood. The idea of, you know, this is just total. Everything's going well. We have a great king. Chivalry. Yay for chivalry. Yay for jousting. It's just this wonderful time of just fun with the backdrop of appalling war, of course. But, yeah, it's. It was just a lot of fun, I think.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. You will never hear criticism of A Knight's Tale on Gone Medieval. Definitely not from Eleanor and I. At least one of the greatest films ever, ever made.

[Alltrails]

Absolutely.

[Matt Lewis]

Amidst all of the terrible moments, is there a worst moment? If there was one that you really, really would want to avoid, what would that be?

[Alltrails]

I would want to avoid encountering the Black Death, obviously, but I think I'd want to avoid Hugh Dispenser the Younger, because I think what he did was shocking, even by today's standards, was so appalling. His treatment of women, I don't think I'd ever encountered that before. And these are women who had nothing to do with him. They weren't family within his family, but he had women physically abused to try and coerce them to hand over their land. There's one woman in the record, and this could be exaggerated, but he was either threatened or had had her arms and legs broken. He was a deeply, deeply vicious individual, and I would have wanted to avoid him as much as I'd want to avoid the plague.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. Avoid him like the plague, yeah. He always strikes me as someone who. It's almost universal. With the exception of Edward ii, everyone absolutely despises him, almost to the point where I feel like I would quite like maybe 10 minutes in a room with him just to get a sense of the man. And I feel like maybe after two minutes, you'd be like, oh, yeah, I get it. I'm off now. You are just a vile, vile person. But it's rare to find someone that is so universally despised by absolutely everybody that he was just clearly. You know, we always try, I think, as historians, to look for balance in people, that there aren't necessarily just good and bad people out there. You don't divide people that way. But it's hard to find a redeeming feature for Hugh Dispenser the Younger.

[Alltrails]

Totally. And I think that's the difference. He's often sort of placed in the same kind of bucket as Gaveston. I think they're very, very different, different beasts. Gaveston was a bit feckless and he was a bit arrogant and, you know, he rubbed people up the wrong way and he's a bit rude. But Dispenser was an absolute opportunist. He was cutthroat. He would be sort of, you know, heading up something like, you know, one of the big investment companies in. He's like Wolf of Wall street sort of vibe. He was like, I don't care. I'm gonna walk all over you. I'm gonna do what I want to do. He was just not. He was not a. There was no decent bone in Hugh Dispenser's body. But Matt, he did get his comeuppance, didn't he? Let's say I don't want to ruin. Don't want to ruin the book, but he probably died one of the worst deaths that somebody could in the Middle Ages.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, It's a pretty gruesome episode.

[Alltrails]

Yeah. It is forever.

[Matt Lewis]

And it's hard to say he didn't deserve it. So if you had to give us a kind of a sales pitch for the 14th century. How critical was the 14th century in the evolution of. Of England? It's a century full of catastrophes and setbacks and problems. But do they actually move England forward in a way?

[Alltrails]

Absolutely. I mean, what the Black Death necessitated was a period of, you know, look, it's been called by some historians as a golden age after Black Death. Other historians are saying that obviously it wasn't a golden age, but I think your evidence suggests is there is an element of golden age about it in that what it necessitated was human innovation, the ability to advance technology to better oneself. There was no, there was no longer this sort of fatalistic sentiment that you were born as a serf, you lived as a serf and you died as a serf. People were moving into apprenticeships, people were generating more money, there was more trade, everything was. Things were becoming more global. There was certainly a huge advancement following the Black Death. And then later on into the period, of course, you have the development of the vernacular, so the court language moved from being French to being English. And you start to get some of the English texts being created. Geoffrey Chaucer, obviously the most famous. I think that this century really is accountable for that and to blame for that. So you have this huge movement in development of technology and industry, but you also have a huge cultural boom, which really ties into what was happening on the continent as well with the Renaissance, which was starting to appear in the 30s and 80s, 90s over in Italy.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. I, I think the book does an incredible job of bringing all of that together and explaining the impact that all of those things had on each other. That the great famine leads to social and economic developments and problems. The Black Death is horrific, but creates opportunity in a weird way. And you get the government's difficult reaction to all of that opportunity for people as well. And I, and I think what I took away from the book was this kind of resilience of the institution of the crown. Two kings are deposed, but the crown keeps going. And you've got this increasing self confidence of Parliament is being viewed as the place where you have to go to depose a king. And by the end of the century, with Henry iv, to create a new king, that has to be done in Parliament. And Parliament is still such a core part of the nation today. You see that really beginning to grow in the 14th century. And I think in a more feudal sense, you see the nobles desperately trying to reinforce that pyramid that we talked about, that the load has to be shared beneath the king for a strong foundation to exist to support the king and to be supported by what's below it. So I took away that this is a critical century in the development of what will become England and the United Kingdom. Even though it's a fairly horrendous time.

[Alltrails]

To live, I think that's a really really good point about Parliament and actually I'm really glad that you took that away because the themes within the book are human beings and power and the way power moves and also humanity and how we can understand people as humans. Not just caricatures and. But one of the early sort of pictures of the book and one of the aims that I was going for was this a development of nationhood and that was a theme I hoped had carried through. So I'm really glad that you picked up on that because you're so right. It's a really good point about Parliament. I mean, it was Edward Third that created the Lords and the Commons. You know, that's something that happened in the 14th century that has pervaded into the modern day. There's lots of ideas of nationality and nationalism that have kind of the seed was planted in the 14th century and have come through to the modern day. The Order of the garter, St. George. You know, you still see football fans walking around with the flags of St. George. So ill. Same naive to the fact that St. George is actually not English. No, but the point is there are so many wonderful things and you know, good and bad from this period. And you. Yeah, you're completely right that it's a development of nationalism. I think you see that a lot with Richard as well. Like he had no interest in war. It very much became Anglo centric and it's just. Yeah, I mean, I'm always going to be sing the praises of the 14th century, not so much. And it was such a wonderful kind to be alive. It was quite an extraordinary time to be alive if you made it through.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, fantastic. Well, you've heard the podcast. You can now go and watch the documentary on Edward ii and then you can go and read the book and learn all about the 14th century from the wonderful, wonderful Helen Carr. Thank you so much for joining us, Helen. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you again.

[Alltrails]

Oh, thanks so much, Matt. It's always a pleasure to chat to you.

[Matt Lewis]

Thank you. Helen's new book, Sceptered A New history of the 14th century, is out now if you'd like to get an even better grip on this fascinating period and.

[Helen Carr]

The people who enjoyed it.

[Matt Lewis]

Helen's brand new documentary about Edward II is also available on History Hit right now. If you're a subscriber too, and if you're not, what better reason to give it a go? You can listen to Helen's previous visit to Gone Medieval to talk about her biography of John of Gaunt, the Red Prince in our back catalogue. If you haven't already had your first fill of the 14th century, then you can also find several past episodes covering the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, Helen Castor's visit to talk about Richard II and Henry iv, and a special series that we did recently on the crises of Edward II's reign. There are new installments of Gone Medieval every Tuesday and Friday, so please do come back and join Eleanor and I for more from the greatest millennium in human history. Don't forget to also also subscribe or follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and tell all of your friends and family that you've Gone Medieval. You can sign up to History Hit to access hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a new release every week and all of History Hit's podcasts ad free. Head to historyhit.com subscribe right now and if you're still here, I'd like to take just another moment of your time. Some of you may be aware that my wife recently passed away. This is the first episode of Gone.

[Helen Carr]

Medieval to go out since I began recording again.

[Matt Lewis]

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the incredible team behind Gone Medieval, Anne Marie, Rob, Joseph, Amy and Eleanor, who have offered a huge amount of support, as have the rest of the audio team and everybody at History Hit. I consider myself blessed to work with such fine people. I'd like to say thank you to you, the listeners of Gone Medieval. It's an immense pleasure to work on this podcast. The feedback I get from you is always encouraging and positive. Seeing the audience grow and hearing that longtime listeners continue to enjoy the episode is hugely rewarding. Finally, I'd like to thank my wife. I'll keep it brief, but this could last for hours and still barely do her justice. I'm only here because of the love and support and encouragement that she always gave me to pursue my passions. I know because she told me that she was very proud of what I've achieved. I told her in turn that none of my achievements are mine. Every single one of them is ours. My world has changed beyond my comprehension and I'm struggling to work out how I fit into it. But I remain grateful for Gone Medieval to each and every one of you who listens, to the team that makes it happen, and for all that it meant to my wife. Anyway, I better let you go. I've been Matt Lewis and we've just.

[Helen Carr]

Gone Medieval with History Hit.

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