When was the word “atheist” first used? How dangerous was it to question the existence of God in the Middle Ages? And how successful were communist regimes of the 20th century at stamping out religion...Show More
Why did Christianity become so deeply embedded across western Europe in the centuries after the end of the Roman empire? To what extent did the old gods of Rome survive? And how did the concept of bei...Show More
Why did medieval people hit the road or the high seas? Was it expensive to travel in the Middle Ages, and what were the biggest risks that a medieval traveller faced? Speaking to David Musgrove, Profe...Show More
As part of our series of conversations with winners of the 2022 Dan David Prize, Dr Kristina Richardson tells Helen Carr about her research into little-studied travelling communities of the medieval M...Show More
I was delighted to be joined by Miri Rubin of Queen Mary University, London. In a terrific new book, Miri has scooped up a seemingly modern topic - migration - and settled it into the bustling town ce...Show More
From dodging deceitful street hustlers and menacing bandits to dealing with the looming threat of food poisoning, sea sickness and even death, medieval travel could be a dangerous business. In today’s...Show More
The Black Death unquestionably wrought a horrific death toll in the mid-14th century, but did it also sweep in social and cultural changes that eventually led to the rise of Europe? Professor James Be...Show More
In the late 1340s, people in cities, towns and villages across the medieval world began to fall ill from a mysterious pestilence. This six part series looks at the how the Black Death shook the Middle...Show More
Over recent years, our understanding of the Black Death has been radically transformed by new scientific developments. In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Professor Monica Green about what the ...Show More
What would it have been like to live through a Black Death outbreak? In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Professor Samuel Cohn about the experiences of medieval people in communities ravaged by...Show More
How do you fight a disease, when you don’t know what causes it? In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Elma Brenner about medieval medical thinking and how it informed responses to the Black Death...Show More
The arrival of a terrifying pandemic made medieval people increasingly preoccupied with death, sin and the afterlife. In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Helen Carr about spiritual responses to...Show More
In the final episode of our series on the Black Death, Professor Mark Bailey and Dr Claire Kennan discuss the medieval pandemic’s dramatic social, political and economic impact. Speaking to Ellie Cawt...Show More
Although medieval Europe was firmly Christian, pagan deities still loomed large in the popular imagination. Rhiannon Davies spoke to Ronald Hutton about four of these divine figures: the powerful and ...Show More
To mark HistoryExtra’s 1500th episode, Jerry Brotton takes Ellie Cawthorne on a whistle-stop tour around the world in AD 1500, from the powerful dynasties of Eurasia and the rich culture of Ming dynas...Show More
Kenneth Austin explores what impact the Reformation had on Europe’s Jewish communities. Historian Kenneth Austin explores what impact the Reformation of the 16th century had on Europe’s Jewish communi...Show More
Today, Tom and Dominic are in 16th century Calvinist Geneva, where Michael Servetus is being condemned for heresy. Execution, imprisonment, treachery and public burnings all feature in this story whic...Show More
The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe. It killed nearly a quarter of all Germans and transformed the map of the modern world. Professor Peter Wilson of Oxford University took me o...Show More
Does the Thirty Years’ War merit its gruesome reputation? Who were the winners and losers of the conflict? And why did a Protestant mob throw Catholics out of a top-floor window of Prague Castle in 16...Show More
In 1848, Europe was wracked by a series of revolutions that turned the established political order on its head. Across the continent populations erupted in revolt, and the shockwaves of these revoluti...Show More
In 1848, a tidal wave of revolution swept across Europe – from Sicily to Paris, Berlin to Vienna. But what sparked this cascade of unrest, and how can we explain its apparent synchronicity? Speaking t...Show More
At the turn of the 19th century, a small university town in Germany became the beating heart of an intellectual revolution. From philosophers and poets to scientists and playwrights, Jena attracted so...Show More
This week we are featuring episode one from our brand new series, History's greatest cities. If you enjoy this episode and want to listen to the rest of the series make sure you follow the feed where ...Show More
What happens to a city when its demographics change completely in the space of a few years? To explore this question, we will take a look at the case of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk) in northern Poland. ...Show More
A history of the Hanseatic League normally begins with the story of the foundation, destruction and refoundation of Lübeck. This series will not do that. For once, we already had a whole episode of th...Show More
“In the monastery of Segeberg there was a man of worthy life, and with venerable grey hair, Meinhard by name, a priest of the Order of Saint Augustine. He came to Livonia with a band of merchants simp...Show More
“on its eastern side the sea breaks through and cuts off the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields each year an abundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the whole sound is apt ...Show More
This week we will kick off with the string of cities along the Baltic Coast from Lübeck up to Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad). Who founded them and why? And why so many?Who were the people who cam...Show More
If like many of you, you are listening to this podcast on your morning or evening commute and you happen to live in London, you may be one of the 20 million souls going through Cannon Street Station e...Show More
By the end of the 13th century the key foundations of the Hanseatic League are laid. The trade routes that connect the Baltic to Western Europe are largely under the control of merchants who had come ...Show More
The Hanseatic League is first and foremost an organisation driven by commerce and commerce rarely sees the necessity of war. But in 1360 the organisation that had only just transitioned from a communi...Show More
The Hanseatic League undergoes a fundamental transformation in the second half of the 14th century. It turned from a guild of merchants trading across the Baltic and the North Sea into an alliance of ...Show More
In 1878 workmen building the Speicherstadt, the magnificent city of warehouses in the harbour of Hamburg made a gruesome discovery. In the mud of the Grasbrook, an island at the entrance of the mediev...Show More
hat was the question king Edward IV asked the representatives of the Steelyard in 1469. And he had a good reason to ask, because tensions between the English and the Hansa had escalated, ships were ca...Show More
This was supposed to be an episode where we talk about the challenges the Hanse was facing after the victory over the Danes and the Peace of Stralsund. But that is not to be. Listeners Mehmet and Nina...Show More
By the end of the 14th century the Hanse is at the top of its game. The Cologne Confederation had shown that they could act in unison if the need arises, can defeat the largest and best run kingdom in...Show More
In 1435 the Hanse can look back at a string of successes. Another war with Denmark won, the patrician regime in Lübeck and elsewhere restored, conflicts with Burgundy and England settled in their favo...Show More
1474-1531 was a time of immense change and upheaval for the Hanseatic League, and not just for them. The Habsburg empire is bedded into being, England’s war of the Roses is over, in the North the Poli...Show More
1531-1535, a period of just 4 years is enough to capsize Lübeck’s position as the diplomatic heart of the Baltic Sea, general secretary of the Hanse, ally of both the king of Denmark and the king of S...Show More
The last two episodes may have left you with a sense of gloom and foreboding about the great Hanseatic cities. But here is the counterintuitive fact, the Hanse may continuously loose political power a...Show More
Bremen was geographically and politically quite different from the other cities, ploughing its own furrow. In response the other Hansards did not trust the citizens of Bremen. There is also the minor ...Show More
Our history of the Hanse has come to an end, not with a bang but with a whimper. Of the things that have remained we have already talked a lot, the ideal of the honourable Hanseatic merchant, the cult...Show More
Professor Carsten Jahnke, one of the leading historians on the Hanse has kindly granted us an interview where we discuss how the Hanse network functioned and how the perception of the Hanse has change...Show More
In the chaos of the end of WWI, the Russian Civil War, and a brief period of Ukrainian independence there occurred a series of massacres of German Mennonites. Sean Patterson's recent book Makhno and M...Show More
Part One: Nestor Makhno: Anarchist Warlord and Book Club Aficionado
Part Two: Nestor Makhno: Anarchist Warlord and Book Club Aficionado
In this episode, host Dan Dyck explores the Mennonite holiday tradition called brommtopp, named for the strange musical instrument used, which can be translated as "rumbling top". This tradition was b...Show More
Dale Hildebrand, an award-winning filmmaker whose work spans genres of documentary, action, drama, and comedy, discusses his latest film. Where the Cottonwoods Grow is a documentary about the 1874 Men...Show More