Medieval

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Pod Hannah Skoda WL

Trial by combat: the real history behind The Last Duel . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 14th-century illustration shows two bishops watching men fight to the death in a trial by combat.

Medieval trial by combat: the real history behind The Last Duel

A medieval miniature depicts a monk and a woman in a bed.

Sex in the Middle Ages: have attitudes really changed?

The fabled ‘Vegetable Lamb of Tartary’ was a plant said to grow sheep as its fruit.

Q&A What was the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?

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Marie Favreau talks to the HistoryExtra podcast

At home with the Mongols . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Pod Kyle Harper WL

Plagues of our past . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight’s (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&A What was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges in the upcoming film 'The Last Duel',

The medieval women who spoke out against sexual violence

A portrait of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York

Like father, like son: Richard Plantagenet and Richard III

Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain in The Green Knight an adaptation of the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

“An intoxicating triumph true to the grandeur of the poem”: a historian’s review of The Green Knight

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John of Gaunt: prince without a throne . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The burgundy cover of a British passport

Q&A When were passports as we know them today first introduced?

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John of Gaunt shown in a c16th-century portrait

John of Gaunt: The man who would be king . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Matthew Stevens tackles listener questions on the history of the Welsh regions during the Middle Ages

Medieval Wales: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.