21. The Murder of Marguerite Porete, Paris, France 1310

The Place de Hotel de Ville, in Paris
Up until 1802, the Place de l‘Hôtel de Ville, in Paris (in front of the City Hall) was called the place de Grève. Here we see a lovely view of it, from the early 19th century, painted by Henri Courvoisier-Voisin. Isn’t it pretty? Lovely, it is. However, back when it was the place de Grève, it was the place for Parisian executions. Lots of them. Including that of Marguerite Porete, burned at the stake — probably right about where that cart, in the middle of the plaza, is meandering over toward the river. Yeah, about there. It was a versatile plaza back then — people were burned at the stake, beheaded, torn apart by horses — and then there was that guillotine era. Bienvenue à Paris!

Marguerite Porete wrote a book.  One bishop said it was heretical and burnt it. Three theologians said it wasn’t heretical, just really difficult for regular people to work with, on account of in order to follow it, you’d have to be as spiritually ardent as Marguerite Porete, and very few people were. The head Inquisitor of France got a committee together, and they said the book was heretical and she should take it back and say sorry.  She didn’t. They burned her and the book both.  The crowd wept. The book (since not all the copies had been burnt) became very popular, but nobody knew who had written it.  But we know now!  It was Marguerite. In this episode, we explain what she wrote. And Michelle discovers that really Philip IV of France was quite dreadful and she’s sorry she had such pity for him when we covered the Tour de Nesle affair, and really he got what was coming to him.

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20. The Massacre at Abergavenny, Wales, Christmas 1175

Abergavenny Castle
The ruins of Abergavenny castle were picturesque even in the 18th century, as you see above. How imposing the castle must have been, as Seisyll and his compatriots arrived for Christmas dinner! Except of course, the castle didn’t look like this at all in 1175; it was made out of wood back then. Annoyed by the massacre, the Welsh burnt it down. It got rebuilt by the Normans in stone, about 1190. Then King Charles had it destroyed in the Civil War, so it couldn’t be used. Poor castle! But you can get tea and buy excellent souvenirs there now. So, it’s still useful. (The source is http://www.llgc.org.uk/en/, from the National Library of Wales.)

William de Braose invited Seisyll ap Dyfnwal and some other local Welsh leaders over for Christmas dinner, at which they were all going to agree to live in peace and whatnot.  This made sense to the Welsh, who normally wouldn’t have trusted William de Braose any further than they could throw him, because for them, it was the time of reconciliation!  Settling debts! Being nice!  So you can imagine what a shock it was when William had the doors shut and murdered everybody.  Then, because he wasn’t done yet, he went on over to Seisyll’s castle, captured his wife Gwladys, and slaughtered his 7 year old son Cadwaladr. Merry Christmas!  Naturally, the Welsh never forgot this. Anglo-Norman and Welsh relations were set back for decades, and they hadn’t been good to begin with. (Bonus!  Popper the parrot decides to chime in.)

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19. The Murder of Sigebert, Vitry-en-Artois, France 575

medieval illustration of the murder of Sigebert
From the Grandes Chroniques de France, Jean Fouquet’s illustration of a couple of important moments in this Merovingian family. Reading from left to right, we see, within the castle, Clothair dividing up the kingdom among his four sons, thereby assuring decades of war; next, on the right, someplace within that tent, Sigebert is assassinated, after his victory over his brother Chilperic, by assassins sent by Chilperic’s current wife, Fredegunde, who had become his wife after having his first wife, Galswintha, murdered; Galswintha’s sister was Brunhilda, the wife of Sigebert, and she took this amiss and made her husband go to war. Though really he would have anyway on account of the Merovingian divide-up-the-kingdom-amongst-all-the-sons custom.

We go back to the early years of our 1000 year mandate, to discuss some of the Merovingians!  Lots of people murdered each other and got murdered; here, we’re covering Sigebert, who was assassinated by his sister in law.  Also, we include Sigebert’s wife Brunhilda, who managed to do lots of damage before her eventual execution.  And Michelle gets to explain why the Nibelungenlied really has not got much to do with this couple.  She read the whole damn thing, too.  Bless her heart. (Also Anne’s right-left dyslexia causes her to tell you that east is west; but no; Austrasia is the eastern piece of Merovingia.  You should let her drive you around. That’s exciting.)

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18. The Peasants’ Revolt, England 1381

the Death of Wat Tyler
A late 15th C depiction of the Mayor of London whacking Wat Tyler with his sword on June 15, 1381; the young king Richard II watches from his horse, and then calms the crowd (read the painting from left to right). From Jean Froissart’s Chronicles, British Library Royal MS 18.E.i-ii f175

When English commoners marched on London in 1381, killing court officials, Flemish immigrants, and anybody associated with John of Gaunt, it was after they had been through years of social unrest following the Black Death, and several harsh taxes.  The Revolt is well known even now, not because of the peasants’ demands (which they didn’t get — abolishment of serfdom? executions of all of the king’s councilors?  get real), but because John Ball was giving sermons to them (to either rouse their spirits or incite them to riot, depending on how you look at it), and he was preaching the abolishment of class divisions, and the abolishment of private property.  That’s what we remember.  (He didn’t get his demands, either.)

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17. The Murder of Joan of Arc, Rouen, Normandy 1431

Joan's birthplace in Domremy
The birthplace of Joan of Arc, in Domrémy-la-Pucelle (it was just Domrémy when she was there, as she hadn’t made it famous yet) still exists, is a museum, and you may visit it and buy some excellent souvenirs. The villagers who knew her testified at her rehabilitation trial that she was a fine young woman, and that she wasn’t a heretic. She was long dead by that time, though. Because the English and the Burgundians murdered her.

The Burgundians were fighting a civil war with the rest of France; they allied with the English, who were fighting the French in the last section of the Hundred Years’ War; Joan had been causing them both trouble by inspiring the French to fight; the Burgundians captured her and sold her to the English; the English convened an ecclesiastical  court and had her condemned for heresy, on a technicality, so they could burn her at the stake.  That was how they got rid of a prisoner of war who was being led by saints and angels. We explain the process, and Michelle finds reasons to admire both the snow sculptures of Arras and the poet Southey.

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16. Vlad Țepeș Slaughters the Transylvanian Saxons, Wallachia, Romania 1460

Vlad impales the Saxons
A page from the German pamphlet, “Dracole Waida,” printed by Ambrosius Huber at Nuremberg in 1499, depicting Vlad, after impaling all the Transylvanian Saxons he could grab, feasting in the midst of the chaos. This was a very popular image of Vlad. His reputation for cruelty started early and spread quickly.

Vlad Țepeș — Vlad the Impaler, also called Dracula, since he was the son of Vlad Dracul– had a reputation for cruelty even during his lifetime, due to the fact that Germany had the printing press and he had impaled the Transylvanian Saxons after destroying much of southern Transylvania. Nowadays, he’s conflated with Dracula the Vampire, but Bram Stoker made that up. But it was a war crime, even by late medieval standards, to impale an entire population on stakes. In this episode, Anne discusses history and medieval war crimes, and Michelle discusses vampires.  Because of Bram Stoker.

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15. Crimes Against the Jews, Latin Europe 1348-1349

the Old Synagogue in Erfurt
The Old Synagogue in Erfurt, which is one of the best preserved medieval synagogues in Europe, was damaged during the massacre of 1349; after the Jewish citizens were exiled, the city used the building as a storehouse. Later, when the Nazis destroyed the Great Synagogue then in use, during Kristallnacht, 1938, the Old Synagogue, which had over the centuries had many uses, and was both surrounded by other buildings and unrecognizable, survived. It is now a museum of Jewish history in the area. Photo by Michael Sander

Over the course of the Black Death, Christians across Europe carried out massacres, imposed exiles, and confiscated the goods of their Jewish neighbors, though the Pope tried to stop them.  It was the worst wave of massacres of the Jews in Europe before those of WWII.  But the context of the massacres is the hundreds of years before and after, of crimes just as horrific though not as concentrated.  We discuss that background, and focus on two examples: Erfurt and Strasbourg, both in 1349.

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14. Accusations of Witchcraft against Alice Kyteler, Kilkenny, Ireland 1324

Kyterler's Inn
Here we see the front of Kyteler’s Inn, in Kilkenny, where you may purchase witchy things and enjoy an evening out, in, supposedly, the inn established by Alice Kyteler. The amount of misinformation rolling around the globe concerning Alice is quite impressive. As for the pub, there are pieces of it which date back to the 13th century, and it’s possible that Kyteler had something to do with the building. But despite what you’ll be told, she didn’t entertain people at an inn there. For one thing, there wasn’t an inn there until 1639. For another, Kyteler, a member of the Anglo-Norman gentry, didn’t run a pub. Really.

In 1324, Alice Kyteler and several other Anglo-Norman citizens of Kilkenny were accused of witchcraft. Kyteler’s husband had died under suspicious circumstances, and the new bishop was obsessed with witchcraft: perfect storm. What do your hosts believe?  Yes to the poisoned husband. No to the nine red roosters and the four and a half peacocks. And her cohorts, including Petronilla de Meath, who was burned at the stake? Wrong place, wrong time. Oh, and Kyteler got away.

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13. The Murder of Peter of Castile, Montiel, Spain, 1369

Peter of Castile gets murdered
Pedro of Castile is murdered by his half-brother Enrique, who will then be the next King of Castile. From Froissart’s Chronicles, 15th C. All that armor is a total exaggeration, but a nice addition to the composition.

On the 23rd of March, 1369, the noble, worthy Pedro of Castile, the glory of Spain (we’re quoting Chaucer here) was treacherously murdered by Henry of Trastámara, his half brother and rival for the throne. And that is what we were planning on talking about. Promise. But we got sidetracked, Anne by the interesting litany of the murders that Pedro himself committed, and Michelle by the interesting rabbit-hole of a play written in 1818 by Ann Doherty. We cover the murder of Pedro, we really do. It’s in there someplace.

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12. Eustace the Pirate, Battle of Sandwich, England 1217

medieval rendition of the Battle of Sandwich
Here you can see the English using grappling hooks, the longbow, and a hurled missile which we’re going to guess is lime, on the French vessel, where some of their compatriots are slaughtering the French, including Eustace. This is Matthew Paris’s illustration of the Battle of Sandwich, from his Chronica maiora, dating not long after the battle (MS CCC 16, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge).

Eustace the Monk, AKA Eustace the Outlaw, AKA Eustace the Pirate, AKA Eustace the Mercenary, AKA Eustace the Admiral of the French Fleet, led a varied and exciting existence, hired as a pirate mercenary first by the English, then by the French. Everything was great until the Battle of Sandwich, at which he lost his head.

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