In this talk, Steve Tibble discusses the Assassins and Templars, two of history's most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction showing how they survived...

Steve Tibble explores the hidden world of crime during the Crusades, revealing how violence and lawlessness—driven largely by dislocated young men—were more central to the chaos in the Holy Land than religious conflict.

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives?  Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four who did: Marie de France,...

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe. The Commonwealth had a unique constitution which placed strict controls on monarchical authority. Legislation was administered by a bicameral legislature, with the king bound to comply with the constitutional principles dictated by the Henrician...

In this podcast, Professor Natalia Nowakowska (University of Oxford) discusses the history of late medieval Poland and Lithuania. Beginning with the origins of the Polish-Lithuanian Union in 1385, Professor Nowakowska takes us on a journey that will see the Union become one of Europe's largest political and economic powers, ranging from the...

In this podcast, Gregory Leighton, provides an introduction to the Baltic Crusades (also known as the Northern Crusades).  The Baltic Crusades were campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and also against Orthodox Christian Slavs. From the outset, Christian monarchs...

Normandy originated from a grant of land to Rollo, a Viking leader, in the early tenth century. By the end of that century Normans were to be found in southern Italy, then in Britain and, at the end of the eleventh century, in the near East on the First Crusade....

In 2023, Emerita Professor Helen J. Nicholson (Cardiff University), published her book Women and the Crusades. This book surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570,...

The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political aspect. It resulted in the significant reduction of practicing Cathars and a realignment of the County of...

The Baltic Crusades were Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and also against Orthodox Christian East Slavs. The most notable campaigns were the Livonian and Prussian crusades. In this podcast, Emeritus Professor Helen J. Nicholson (Cardiff University), provides a short introduction to the role...

The Iberian Crusades, often known as the Reconquista or the reconquest of al-Andalus, was the series of military campaigns that Christian kingdoms waged against the Muslim kingdoms following the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The beginning of the Reconquista is traditionally dated to the Battle of Covadonga (circa 718 or 722), in which an Asturian army achieved the first Christian victory over the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate since...

How did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land and the Middle East? In this Virtual Branch talk Levi Roach, author of Empires of the Normans, tells a tale of ambitious adventures...

The Medlicott Medal is awarded annually for outstanding services and contributions to history. This year the Medal went to renowned historian and author Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch who is currently Professor of the Church at Oxford. His 2008 book History of Christianity: the first three thousand years is the leading authority on the history...

The Mongol invasions into the Near East had a devastating effect upon many societies, sultanates, empires and kingdoms. For decades, wave after wave of armies swept across the area, defeating every army sent against them and utterly reshaping the area’s complex political ecosystem. Some powers fell in battle; some submitted...

In this talk Dr Gabrielle Storey discusses the life and times of Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England, lord of Le Mans, and wife of Richard I. Berengaria of Navarre has been inaccurately labelled as the only queen never to have stepped foot in England. This talk will present new analysis...

To give you a taster of the fantastic sessions on offer at the HA's annual conference, we've published one of the sessions from the 2022 HA Conference on Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin.   In many cultures, earth has been used to represent a place...

Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 CE until 751 CE, then later, the capital of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy. In this talk Professor Judith Herrin explores the history of the city, its peoples...

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories...

In this set of podcasts Professor Anne Curry, of the University of Southampton and former President of the Historical Association, provides an introduction to the Hundred Years War, looking at its origin, legacy and the role of Henry V and Henry VI.

An HA Podcasted History of the Vikings featuring Professor Rosamond McKitterick.