Medieval records are brimful of sightings of strange creatures. ibid.
Throughout the Middle Ages people believed things that today strike us as paradoxical. ibid.
Human reasoning, argued [Thomas] Aquinus, derives from God. ibid.
Contact with the Arab world brought more than an introduction to Aristotle. ibid.
Bacon’s vision of a technological future clearly signals a radical shift that was to occur in our attitude to the physical world. ibid.
In the medieval world women are adored but also prompt loathing and disgust. Dr Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind II: Sex
Most parents would have lost one or more of their children. ibid.
Humans beings occupied a position halfway between the animals and the angels. ibid.
The cult of virginity exerted a powerful grip on the minds of many medieval women. ibid.
The Black Death was a fourteenth century apocalypse. ibid.
Between the 10th and 15th centuries the West was dominated by religious and supernatural beliefs. Dr Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind III: Belief
The connection between this world and the next was an everyday reality. ibid.
Relics ... objects of supernatural power, they were to be approached with awe. ibid.
Medieval pilgrimage became a great industry. ibid.
The word of the Church was the word of God. ibid.
Jews were treated with growing intolerance. ibid.
Hostility towards Jews was fuelled by an increasingly intolerant Church and State. ibid.
They wouldn’t return until the time of Oliver Cromwell. ibid.
Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth forbidden to ever speak out against the Church ... The religious landscape of Britain would never be the same again. ibid.
Inequality and oppression were part of the natural order ordained by God. This was a class of staggering extremes. Dr Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind IV: Power
A noble’s life was worth six times a peasant’s. ibid.
Serfs had to work on their lord’s lands ... For most serfs there was no escape. ibid.
Inequality was enforced by law. ibid.
The medieval world was studded with castles – hundreds of them ... It was a symbol of the power of the aristocracy, the centre of their great estates and the foundation of their military might. ibid.
Chivalry was a form of class solidarity. ibid.
The central duty of the knight was to go to war ... War was ennobling. ibid.
John’s brutality was matched by his incompetence in war. ibid.
Magna Carta was the start of an irreversible process. ibid.
The disease scythed through the population ... Half the population of England was dead. The world after the Plague looked dramatically different. Entire villages lay deserted. There was no-one to work the land. ibid.
Those who worked were beginning to taste a new freedom ... Social change was unstoppable. ibid.
According to this legend all fifteen Plantagenet kings of England were descended from the demon Countess of Anjou. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets I, BBC 2014
When the Plantagenets won the kingdom of England it was shattered and lawless. Under their rule it was transformed into one of the best governed states in Christendom. But their story is one of intrigue, conflict and violence. ibid.
Henry’s and Stephen’s armies confronted one another here at Wallingford Castle. ibid.
Henry did battle with the French King, the rebel barons and his own sons for eighteen months. ibid.
The Plantagenet’s future now lay in the hands of Richard, a dynamic and bloodthirsty warrior. ibid.
But John wanted more money: he was determined to fund an army to win back his Plantagenet birth-right. ibid.
Once again the Plantagenets plunged England into Civil War. ibid.
Medieval England reached its peak: Parliament was born, and the clear sense of national identity emerged. Their roots were in France; French was their language. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets II
The Channel was no longer a bridge but a barrier between competing powers. ibid.
Edward the Confessor is the only English king to be canonised. ibid.
De Montfort saw himself as England’s saviour ... De Montfort raised an army against the King. ibid.
De Montford’s parliament of 1265 is often regarded as the forerunner of the modern parliament. ibid.
The Jews became the chief source of credit for the King and his Barons ... Edward decided to expel the entire Jewish population from his realm – some two to three thousand Jews. ibid.
The Welsh surrendered to the English king the crown of King Arthur. ibid.
Around 5,000 English infantrymen died at Stirling Bridge ... Wallace’s defiance shook Edward. ibid.
Roger Mortimer was now Isabella’s lover. ibid.
The English Army was now the most feared in Europe. ibid.
Crecy marked a high point of the Plantagenet dynasty. ibid.
Henry had deposed Richard and installed himself as King ... Plantagenet turned against Plantagenet. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets III
The Peasants’ Revolt – the greatest uprising in the history of medieval England. ibid.
Doubt over Henry’s right to rule cast a shadow over his own heir Henry V. ibid.
Agincourt was just the beginning of Henry’s plan of conquest. ibid.
In just one generation Henry V’s spectacular legacy had vanished. ibid.
The country was divided by the houses of Lancaster and York. ibid.
This once mighty dynasty ended in oblivion. ibid.
To many people today monarchy seems to be merely a corrosive mixture of snobbery, ceremony and sentiment. But it’s far more than that. It’s the natural, universal form of government … We still have our real monarchy. It’s over 1,500 years old which means it is the oldest functioning political institution in Europe. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e1: A Nation State, Channel 4 2004
Rome brought Britain a civilisation, an extraordinary sophistication and refinement … The emperor: he was a god on Earth. ibid.
The scale of the Saxon incursions: perhaps 200,000 people flooded into a native population of only about 2,000,000. ibid.
Bede’s history told us that Readwald ruled in East Anglia as one of several leaders in the new England. ibid.
The life of the typical Anglo-Saxon king remained nasty, brutish and short. ibid.
One of the forgotten heroes of English history, a man who operated on a European scale and dominated the England of his day. His name is Offa, king of Mercia. ibid.
Guthrum knew that for his takeover of the kingdom of Wessex to succeed he had to kill Alfred. ibid.
991: A menacing fleet approached the coast at East Anglia. Nearly a century after King Alfred’s victory over the Vikings the Norse men were back. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e2: Aengla Land
On the landward side there were the forces of the most sophisticated monarchy in western Europe … It was England’s wealth and stability that had enabled Edgar to establish the first British empire. ibid.
English art and literature flourished. ibid.
One of the worst kings ever to wear the crown – his name is Aethelred. ibid.