The Middle Ages: a time of faith and a time of fear. In Hereford monks created a work of art designed to make sense of the unknown. This is Mapa Mundi: a map of the world as it was known around 1300. David Dimbleby, Seven Ages of Britain 2/7: Age of Worship 1170–1400, BBC 2010
As the Middle Ages unfolded a new way of seeing the world emerged that would unite church and crown. It was inspired by heroic tales and ancient legends. They called it Chivalry. ibid.
King Richard II wanted the crown itself to be an object of worship. His vanity and ambition created an era of magnificence. The artistic pinnacle of the Middle Ages. ibid.
In the late middles ages the Catholic Church thought of a diabolical way to bring in more cash ... These sin credits were a big money maker … Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s6e6: Being Green, Showtime 2008
In the late Middle Ages the civilisation of northern Europe seemed designed to last for ever. Rich merchants, self-satisfied guilds, a conveniently loose political organisation, no material reasons for change. And yet in a few years in a single generation came the first of those explosions that were to create contemporary man – what we call the Reformation. Kenneth Clark: Civilisation 6/13: Protest & Communication, BBC 1969
The fifteenth century had been the century of revivalism. ibid.
It was still an age of internationalism. ibid.
He’d [Erasmus] seen enough of religious life to know that the church must be reformed not only in its institutions but in its teachings. It was once the great civiliser of Europe, and now it was aground, stranded on forms and vested interests. ibid.
The first man to take advantage of the printing press was Erasmus. It made him and unmade him ... Erasmus’s Praise of Folly was an outburst of this kind. ibid.
Whatever else he may have been Luther was a hero. ibid.
One fancies that Nordic man took a long time to emerge from the primeval forest. ibid.
H G Wells once made a useful distinction between what he called communities of obedience and communities of will. ibid.
The lady chapel at Ely – all the painted glass smashed ... There wasn’t much religion about it; it was an instinct. ibid.
Luther gave his countrymen words. ibid.
The wars of religion evoked a figure new to European civilisation, although familiar in the great ages of China, the intellectual recluse. ibid.
This story looks at the way a whole series of wars kicked off because back in the Middle Ages people would commit murder to get their hands on anything that would blow your head off. I’m talking about spices of course. Explosive stuff. James Burke: Connections s2e12: Hot Pickle, BBC 1994
For 80% of humanity the Middle Ages ended suddenly in the 1950s; or perhaps better still, they were felt to end in the 1960s. Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes, 1994
‘Those darling bygone times, Mr Carker,’ said Cleopatra, ‘with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How dreadfully we have degenerated!’ Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son
During the Middle Ages, human life was generally held in small respect; various judicial institutions – if not altogether secret, at least more or less enveloped in mystery – were remarkable for being founded on the monstrous right of issuing the most severe sentences with closed doors, and of executing these sentences with inflexible rigour on individuals who had not been allowed the slightest chance of defending themselves. While passing judgment in secret, they often openly dealt blows as unexpected and terrible as they were fatal. Therefore, the most innocent and the most daring trembled ... terrible as these mysterious institutions were, the general credulity, the gross ignorance of the masses, and the love of the marvellous, helped not a little to render them even more outrageous and alarming than they really were. Paul Lacroix, Manners, Customs and Dress During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Period, 1876
Many of the greatest accomplishments of the Middle Ages were either anonymous or the work of countless labourers. Lynn Thorndike, The History of Medieval Europe, 1917
The Middle Ages deserve our attention, partly because they contributed much to our modern civilization and because our study of them helps to explain many existing conditions. Then grew up our modern languages, then began modern literatures and universities, then developed the Roman Catholic Church and the states of France and England, then were discovered the mariner’s compass, gunpowder, and printing. But the Middle Ages also merit our study because they had institutions and ideas which are gone and which are strange to us, but the study of which serves to widen our experience, broaden our outlook, and deepen our sympathies and understanding. ibid.
We live in an age of religious extremism, an age of terror and violent slaughter. We are locked in a bewildering ideological battle with religious fundamentalism. It’s a battle that’s taken most of us by surprise … We’ve been here before, here at home, here at the very heart of our own civilisation. Exactly 500 years ago the breach within Christianity tore Europe, England and the Church apart … The same apocalyptic violence as now. It’s our very own jihad. It’s called the Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was also a political and cultural revolution. It unleashed bloodshed, terror and the destruction of religious art. David Starkey, Reformation: Europe’s Holy War, BBC 2017
A spiritual empire bigger than the Caesars. It’s hard to overestimate the power of the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages. It was a vastly wealthy, bureaucratic machine at the heart of Europe. ibid.
Indulgences were often sold to finance Church schemes … And for one German monk this was an abomination. On 31st October 1517 Martin Luther very publicly denounced this scandal. ibid.
By taking on the power of the Church, Luther has become a local legend, a figurehead for a populist, anti-establishment movement. ibid.
A stream of heretic works followed Tyndale’s New Testament to England. ibid.
Henry himself was left looking for a new policy. ibid.
England was on the road to its Tudor Brexit. ibid.
Thomas More was beheaded in 1535. ibid.
Luther’s Reformation was fuelled by religious fundamentalism and political opportunism. Henry’s was triggered by lust and a hunger for dynastic power. 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, Channel 4 2004
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.
The English defeat at Maldon was just the beginning; for the next ten years it seemed that nothing would stop the Danes. ibid.
In England Canute went native and became more English than the English. ibid.
The Norman Conquest was a defining, arguably the defining event, in English history … It’s left its mark on us right up to the present. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e3: Conquest
The Norman army sliced through southern England … Submit or die. Within weeks William’s victory was complete. ibid.
He [William] marched his army to York, drove off the Danes and then perpetrated the most infamous event of his reign: the harrying of the north. ibid.
William’s violent rule also left a stench in the nostrils of his people. ibid.
William Rufus was a highly competent king … but he added nothing more. ibid.
If any women could pull off that challenge it was Matilda. ibid.
Within a year or two he [Stephen] had lost control of the barons. ibid.
Matilda v Stephen: Norman England’s first civil war was about to begin. ibid.
In December 1154 one of the most charismatic of all kings of England began his reign: Henry II was a star amongst monarchs. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e4: Dynasty
Why the transformation in Becket? ibid.
Henry, King of England, submitted to a public scourging. ibid.
He was defeated in battle by Richard and the King of France. ibid.
Richard ruled the family empire for almost ten years until he was mortally wounded in a siege here in France. But during all that time Richard spent only six months in England. ibid.
But to praise John for being a royal filing clerk … a sign not of strength but of weakness. ibid.
The barons who had come fully armed presented their demands and King John, reluctantly and all ready in bad faith, granted what they wished. The agreement became known as Magna Carta. ibid.