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. 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 Plantagenets’ 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 birthright. 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. 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. 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.
The Pope proclaimed a new Holy War against Islam. For control of the most hallowed site in the Christian cosmos – the sacred city of Jerusalem. Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades 1/3: Holy War, BBC 2012
The story of the Crusades is remembered as a tale of religious fanaticism and unspeakable violence. Of medieval knights and Jihadi warriors. ibid.
From the summer of 1096 between sixty and a hundred thousand Christians – men, women and children, set out to walk some two and a half thousand miles. ibid.
The Pope created an anti-Islamic onslaught, peppered with propaganda. ibid.
I think most people joined this Crusade because they earnestly believed that the coming campaign would cleanse their souls of sin. ibid.
The Crusaders decided to divide their army in two. ibid.
Lack of water became a real issue. ibid.
Christian numbers were severely depleted by an epic journey. ibid.
The Muslim world finally appeared to unite. ibid.
The Muslim garrison was thrown into a state of utter confusion, and soon Antioch’s remaining gates were thrown open and the Crusaders poured in. In the half light of dawn a chaotic slaughter began. ibid.
The besiegers had become the besieged. ibid.
They overran the Holy City ... They unleashed a rampaging torrent of barbaric and indiscriminate slaughter. ibid.
The Crusaders were wading through their enemies’ blood. ibid.
In July 1192 Richard the Lionheart, King of England, valiant crusader knight, stood with his Holy Warriors preparing for a strike on Jerusalem. Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades 2/3: The Clash of Titans
Jihad literally means struggle, but in the Middle Ages this could represent a fight against internal impurity or a sacred physical struggle – a Holy War, and its message could be spread by poetry. ibid.
Saladin was quickly becoming the premier Muslim leader in the East ... He united the disparate Muslim factions into a coherent army. ibid.
The Christian army marching in the height of summer was being led into a waterless killing zone. ibid.
Jerusalem was back in Muslim hands. ibid.
In June 1191 Richard the Lionheart sailed down the coast of Palestine. ibid.
The Third Crusade had achieved a categorical victory. ibid.
During Richard’s long absence from home his brother John had been plotting to take control of England. ibid.
Against his better judgment the Lionheart began a second advance having effectively lost control of his Crusade. ibid.
The Lionheart failed to lead the third Crusade to victory. ibid.
Two centuries of religious war. Dr Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades 3/3: Victory & Defeat
These Christian outposts were ruled by bickering warlords. ibid.
The power and wealth of the Hospitallers. This is a monument to rival anything in the Middle Ages ... Like their Templar brethren, they embraced the Crusading ideal. ibid.
Commercial contacts between East and West blossomed. ibid.
Louis was determined to bring Jerusalem back into the Christian fold. ibid.
Louis IX was the perfect Crusader king. ibid.
The Mongols and the Mamluks are the big players. ibid.
The Order had been quietly formed in Jerusalem in 1119, twenty years after the Christians took the City. A French knight founded the Order to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. So how did they end up with fortresses and churches all over Europe with a massive power-base to rival the European monarchs? Trial of the Knights Templar, Channel 5 2008
There were originally only nine Templars. ibid.
The Chinon Parchment adds up to a litany of heresies: the Templars had admitted to homosexuality, denouncing Christ and defiling the Cross. The Templar’s first confession after arrest had been tortured out of them by Philip IV, but had the Pope’s men done the same? Were the Chinon confessions reliable? The Chinon Parchment contains one further revelation: despite people believing for centuries that the Pope had condemned the Templars, in fact he had saved them. He absolved [Jacques] de Molay and the leaders unconditionally. ibid.
But the old warrior had left behind one last Parisian mystery. As the Templars were swept away, their biggest Bank, the Paris Temple, was raided by the King’s men. It was empty. Templar assets in Normandy alone amounted to more than the wealth of England yet nothing was found. Philip IV’s destruction of the Knights Templar had all been for nothing. ibid.
The Knights Templar were the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they participated in the Crusades and rapidly gained wealth, lands and influence and were answerable to none save the Pope himself. In addition to having a fearful military reputation, they were also Christendom’s first bankers, and invented the modern banking system that is still in use today. ibid.
Seventeenth-century England was still stuck in the Middle Ages. (Art & Middle Ages) Waldemar Januszczak, Baroque! From St Peter’s to St Paul’s III, BBC 2013
From the ghouls and demons of the German Middle Ages to some of the most beautiful sculptures ever created. Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Germany: A Divided Land, BBC 2010