Chalke Talk

The podcast from the Chalke Valley History Festival
Released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings

Chalke Talks for PERIOD: Medieval


  • 13. THE CRUSADES AND MEDIEVAL WARFARE
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    In this talk for senior schools, Professor Jeremy Black gives an insight into the motivations of the Crusaders. In addition to the notion that Jerusalem should be ‘freed’, this period saw the expansionism of European feudal society, a new role for the papacy, and developing commercial opportunities, as well as a desire to protect Constantinople. […]

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  • 109. THE PEASANTS’ REVOLT
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    In 1381, England erupted in a violent popular uprising. The Peasants’ Revolt was the biggest armed rebellion against Church and State in English history and for a short time, it looked as if all would be swept before them. Broadcaster and author, Lord Bragg vividly portrays this epic struggle between the powerful and the apparently […]

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  • 131. DUNKIRK VETERAN
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    Here the remarkable 101-year-old John Hamilton discusses his extraordinarily varied military career with Major General Andrew Cumming. Over the course of 25 years, he was evacuated from Dunkirk, worked as an instructor at the Recce Corps Training Centre in Catterick, took the German surrender in Norway, commanded the A Squadron of the King’s Dragoon Guards […]

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  • 149. THE WARS OF THE ROSES
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    The Wars of the Roses were fought over thirty bitter years from 1455 to 1485, as rival dynasties from the Houses of York and Lancaster repeatedly clashed in a desperate power struggle for the throne of England. Best-selling author Conn Iggulden uses this period of human drama as the backdrop to his novels and here, […]

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  • 152. THE BLACK PRINCE
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    In 1346, at the age of 16, he helped defeat the French at Crécy; ten years later he captured the King of France at Poitiers. Michael Jones illuminates the dramatic story of ‘the Black Prince’, the eldest son and heir of Edward III of England. Using the Prince’s own letters, he paints a memorable portrait […]

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  • 167. FOUR PRINCES: HENRY VIII, FRANCIS I, CHARLES V, SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT AND THE OBSESSION WHICH FORGED MODERN EUROPE
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    The late lamented John Julius Norwich weaves a colourful story of four great princes who were born within a single decade. Henry VIII, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain and Suleiman the Magnificent were sometimes friends, but more often enemies. From the Field of the Cloth of Gold, Francis and Henry’s extravagant pageant, […]

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  • 172. THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE SULTAN SALADIN
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    Few of history’s heroes can rival Saladin in his enduring attraction. In the Muslim world he is revered for reclaiming Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. In the West he is famed for his chivalric virtue, despite fighting off the armies of the Third Crusade. Professor Jonathan Phillips brings alive this extraordinary man’s legacy, offering […]

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  • 186. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL: A MEDIEVAL MASTERPIECE
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    Over 800 years ago, work started on the new Salisbury Cathedral. Tim Tatton-Brown describes how one of Britain’s greatest cathedrals was built, from digging the foundations in 1219 to the completion of Britain’s tallest spire. Drawing on history, geology and his expertise in architecture, he will show the wider context of the building, situating its […]

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