Rivers, Silk roads and camels - how did international trade adapt and survive beyond the Roman Empire into the middle ages? In today's episode Cat is joined by author Hilary Green to talk about her debut non-fiction book, "International Trade in the Middle Ages". Together they examine products like wool, silk, spices and salt - items we take for granted now, but materials that were once symbolic of status and wealth. What were the secret routes taken and how do we know about their journeys?

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Join the History Hit Book Club in time for the June and July read of Charles Spencer's, The White Ship. Become part of a community of readers who are passionate about history and its thrilling lessons. Members read a new book every 2 months, and get a £5 Amazon voucher towards the cost of the book, as well as exclusive access to an online Q&A between History Hit presenters and the author in the second month.

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All things must end. This final special episode on the Wars of the Roses deals with a series of endings and considers what finding a date for the end of the conflict means for how we think about this critical period. Lancaster will be revived, only to meet a final end. The House of York seems secure, but would fall, replaced by an unknown Welshman who had lived half his life in exile.

Does the arrival of the Tudor dynasty really mark the end of the Wars of the Roses? Or is that just the story that wanted everyone to believe? What of Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck, the White Roses, and the papal plot to destroy Henry VIII by restoring the House of York? All things must end. The question is how and when did the Wars of the Roses end.

The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. The Producer was Rob Weinberg. It was edited and sound designed by Aidan Lonergan.

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Early medieval royals ate mostly meat, right? Wrong! A new study that’s made headlines around the world has shown that medieval kings were largely vegetarian! To help shed light on this exciting new discovery, today Cat is joined by Dr Sam Leggett of the University of Edinburgh, a bio-archaeologist and the lead author of the study.

For more Gone Medieval content, subscribe to our Medieval Mondays newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store.

Join the History Hit Book Club in time for the June and July read of Charles Spencer's, The White Ship. Become part of a community of readers who are passionate about history and its thrilling lessons. Members read a new book every 2 months, and get a £5 Amazon voucher towards the cost of the book, as well as exclusive access to an online Q&A between History Hit presenters and the author in the second month.

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Part one of this comprehensive trilogy covering the Wars of the Roses left the Yorkist lords attained and in exile. From this point, the 15th century civil wars were transformed into a bitter procession of dynastic clashes between the rival houses of Lancaster and York - the result of which would reforge England's destiny for centuries to come.

In part two, Matt Lewis explains how and why feuding nobles came to contest the very crown of England, explores the rise of the House of York and examines the problems it faced by the end of the 1460s as Edward IV fell out with his powerful cousin the Earl of Warwick - whose name echoes through history as the Kingmaker.

The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. The Producer was Rob Weinberg. It was edited and sound designed by Aidan Lonergan.

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Margery Kempe: mystic, autobiographer…schizophrenic?

In honour of Mental Health Awareness week, Dr Cat Jarman is joined by Dr Alison Torn from Leeds Trinity University to explore the complicated legacy of a woman who is credited as both the first English autobiographer, and case of schizophrenia.

However, how appropriate is it to view Kempe’s life through a 21st century understanding of mental health? Can we remove the cultural frameworks of 15 century England and confidently diagnose a psychosis? 

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The Wars of the Roses is a complex and fascinating period of English history that dominates the second half of the 15th century and leads to the rise of the Tudor dynasty. It’s often characterised as a dynastic struggle between Lancaster and York, but it was much more than that.

In this first part of three special episodes, Matt Lewis details the origins of the conflict and how it erupted into open war. Episodes 2 and 3 will explore the events of the conflict, but this is a chance to get to grips with how, and why, it all began.

The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. The Producer was Rob Weinberg. It was edited and sound designed by Annie Coloe.

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In Norse mythology, the Valkyries determine who lived and who died on the battlefield. Translated as “Chooser of the Fallen” in Old Norse, they’re often depicted as supernatural women who guide the souls of deceased soldiers worthy enough of a place in Valhalla, to feast with the god Odin.

Today, Dr Cat Jarman is joined by Dr Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, a medievalist and literary researcher based at the National Library of Norway. Together they explore who the Valkyries were, the purpose they served in reassuring Viking soldiers to go to war, and what the myths can tell us about the lives of real Viking women.

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In today’s Gone Medieval podcast, Matt Lewis joins Dallas Campbell - host of our sister podcast Patented: History of Inventions - to explore the role of medieval monks in inventing. Seeing scientific and philosophical investigation as a way to get closer to God - despite the threat of being labelled a heretic - monks were considered masters of invention. Together, they explain how monks navigated this balance and tell the story of Roger Bacon, a friar credited with designing the magnifying glass and who also predicted cars, powered ships and manned flight.

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Histories of India usually concern themselves with events and invasions in the subcontinent’s North, while the rest of India’s rich story is often reduced down to little more than dry footnotes. 

Now historian and Indian history podcast presenter Anirudh Kanisetti has brought to light the early medieval period in the Deccan Plateau - between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal - when the region was transformed by the Chalukya dynasty, shaping life in southern India for centuries.

In this edition of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman is at the Jaipur Literature Festival where she meets Anirudh Kanisetti to find out why his work means the history of the subcontinent will never be seen in the same way again.

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The term “Middle Ages” is commonly used but really only applies to a Western European view of history. It was created at the beginning of the Early Modern period in England to categorise what had gone before.

The acclaimed historian Peter Frankopan is widening the geographic focus to understand the period in world history as a whole, and counter a Euro-centric perspective that has dominated and shaped our view of the past.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Peter Frankopan joins Matt Lewis to explore where the real centre of global geography sat then, and why life on our own doorstep is important - but far from the whole story.

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