The Capetians: The Dynasty That Made Med...

In America’s first hundred years, the animal you were most likely to see was a passenger pigeon. And you saw a lot of them. Flocks were so numerous they literally blotted out the sun for days and their combined weight snapped the branches of entire forests where they roosted. Yet ... Show More

Europe's borders in the Middle Ages were created by one man, and he wasn't even born in the Middle Ages, nor was he Christian. It was Emperor Diocletian, who ruled Rome from 284 to 305. His reforms that chained tenant farmers to land created the blueprint for feudalism. He split ... Show More

Of the estimated 1,500 plays written in ancient Greece, only 33 complete works survive today—the rest were lost because medieval scribes deemed low-brow comedies and mass entertainment unworthy of expensive parchment during the transition from fragile papyrus to durable vellum, p ... Show More

The “Father of Europe”, Charlemagne’s rule as King of the Franks changed the face of Europe, unifying regions that had been at war and spreading Christianity across the continent. As Holy Roman Emperor, crowned by the Pope himself, he founded the Carolingian dynasty. His reign sp ... Show More

<p>Voltaire famously wrote that the "The&nbsp;Holy Roman Empire&nbsp;was in no way holy, nor&nbsp;Roman, nor an&nbsp;empire.” But Dr. Eleanor Janega believes that literally everything about Voltaire’s statement is wrong - in the medieval context.</p><br><p>In this explainer episo ... Show More

<p><strong>On vante souvent la laïcité ou la sécularisation comme des spécificités occidentales, voire françaises. </strong>Elles renverraient à un affranchissement des principes religieux, et permettraient de mieux entériner les principes de la République dans notre société. Or ... Show More

In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that has for a long time been shaped by just one perspective, a European one. The story of how Hernán Cortés and his small army of conquistadors conquered the mighty Aztec Empire, in the heart of what's now modern Mexico Ci ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the changes in the intellectual world of Western Europe in the 12th Century, and their origins. This was a time of Crusades, the formation of states, the start of Gothic architecture, a reconnection with Roman and Greek learning and their Arabic de ... Show More