88. St. Scholastica Riot, Oxford England, February 10, 1355

88. St. Scholastica Riot, Oxford England, February 10, 1355

Author: Anne Brannen and Michelle Butler November 23, 2023 Duration: 42:42
Sometimes students riot, maybe because of tuition hikes, or because a coach got fired for a sex abuse scandal, or because their team won a game, or because their team lost a game, or because the university became integrated, or because the government is moving into authoritarianism, or because the government already was authoritarian but is getting worse, and sometimes because the pub gave them bad wine. In the last case, around 100 people might just end up dead. Welcome to Oxford, 14th Centu...

Ever wonder if human nature has really changed all that much over the centuries? True Crime Medieval, hosted by historians Anne Brannen and Michelle Butler, digs into a thousand years of historical mischief, mayhem, and outright villainy. This isn't just a dry recounting of dates and battles; it's a deep dive into the dark alleyways of the past, where greed, passion, and power led to deeds that would feel right at home in a modern headline. Each episode focuses on a specific case, unraveling the motives, the methods, and the often-surprising social contexts that shaped crime and punishment from the fall of Rome to the dawn of the Renaissance. You'll hear about poisoned chalices, treacherous plots, shocking betrayals, and the long, messy struggle for justice in eras without forensic science. Brannen and Butler blend rigorous historical research with engaging storytelling, treating these ancient scandals with the detailed scrutiny of a true crime investigation. The result is a fascinating podcast that reveals how people have always been capable of astonishingly bad behavior, proving that the drive for wealth, revenge, or love is truly timeless. Tune in for stories where the stakes are life and death, the suspects wear crowns or cowls, and every mystery is a window into the complex world of our medieval ancestors.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

True Crime Medieval
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124. Béla of Macsó is Murdered, Margaret Island, Hungary 1272 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:44
Béla of Macsó was still in his twenties when he went to a meeting on Margaret Island (which is in the middle of the Danube, in Budapest), which wasn't a meeting at all, but a trap. There had been fairly complicated strug…
120. Vikings Besiege Paris, Paris, France 845 and 885-886 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:32
To be fair, the Vikings attacked Paris several times, but it's the major sieges that get remembered -- the one in 845, when they invaded Paris on Easter Sunday, got bought off with a fairly large ransom, and then the one…
116. The Great German Peasants' War, Central Europe 1524-1525 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:19
In the early 16th century, the peasants of Central Europe were being overtaxed, overworked, and underfed, and the lords of the lands kept making things worse. Things worsened, after which they worsened some more, snails…