Eustace the Pirate
On August 24, 1217, the Battle of Sandwich, one of the first naval battles England fought, brought to an end the jaw-dropping career of Eustace the Monk. Hated and feared, he was summarily beheaded when captured.
Eustace wore many hats during his life: son of a nobleman, revenger, seneschal, outlawed nobleman, pirate, admiral—and, briefly, monk. Born around 1170, Eustace became a Benedictine monk but left the abbey to avenge his father’s murder—thus setting forth on one of the wildest lives of anyone in the Middle Ages, law-abiding or criminal.
Join us for the rollicking true tale of Eustace the Monk—and the made-up bits added in the verse romance written not long after his death, in which he behaves a lot like Robin Hood. Because his real life wasn’t interesting enough, I guess.
Seriously, this guy deserves a movie.
SOURCES
Burges, Glyn. Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1991. 3-87.
Maurice Keen. The Outlaws of Medieval Legend. London and New York: Routledge, 2000 (revised edition). 53-63.
Ohlgren, Thomas H., ed. Medieval Outlaws: Twelve Tales in Modern English Translation, Revised and Expanded Edition. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2005. 100-150.
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/eustache-the-monk-introduction
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/the-devils-monk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustace_the_Monk
https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/england-s-first-great-naval-victory/
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
The Black Dinner
In 1440, William, 6th Earl of Douglas, eighteen years old, and his younger brother David were invited to dinner by the ten year old King James II of Scotland. The boys, close in age, got along wonderfully. So it was a dreadful shock when a man entered the hall and dropped the severed head of a black bull on the table as a warning of imminent doom to the Douglases, who were then dragged out back and beheaded, despite the wailing pleas of the young king.
Or so the story goes.
This would, indeed, have been a travesty. But it turns out it’s mostly fabrication.
In this episode, we consider the Black Dinner. What actually happened? When did the embellished version emerge and why, even today, it is wildly passed along as fact?
SOURCES
General
http://drcallumwatson.blogspot.com/2018/11/jaime-douglas-sends-his-regards-black.html
https://theweek.com/articles/463588/reallife-events-that-inspired-game-thrones-red-wedding
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Douglas
http://www.robertsewell.ca/living4.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/james_ii/
Hector Boece
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Boece,_Hector_(DNB00)
John Bellenden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellenden
https://digital.nls.uk/publications-by-scottish-clubs/archive/107318116
David Lindsay
https://books.google.com/books?id=FZANAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
David Hume of Godscroft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume_of_Godscroft
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A45112.0001.001/1:7.18?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Tour de Nesle Scandal
In 1314, Isabella—later to be known as ‘The She-Wolf of France’—went to her father, Philip the Fourth, king of France, with her suspicion that two of her sisters-in-law were having affairs. To modern ears, this can seem like NBD, but in the Middle Ages, a time of direct government by kings, this adultery wasn’t just sinful—it was criminal.
The horrific executions of the princesses’ lovers makes how this scandal was uncovered all the more ridiculous. Bad regifting.
You read that right.
The scandal—the crime—that ended courtly love poetry and kicked off the Hundred Year War came to light because of badly handled regifting.
Listen to this episode of True Crime Medieval to discover the background behind the scandal, how Isabella found out, the toll on Philip, what happened to the adulterous princesses, the collapse of the Capetian royal line, and really no end of terrible things that followed in the wake of the Tour de Nesle scandal. As you might expect, this story was irresistible to later writers, so we also discuss its literary afterlives.
SOURCES
The Scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Nesle_affair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwlnxE28mTY&t=133s (explanation of the scandal and its connection to the Hundred Years War)
The Tower itself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Nesle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsfS7FVH-iE (History of the Tour de Nesle itself)
Isabella of France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_France
Literary Afterlives
Dumas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiFxuRHlbPA (filmed stage production of Dumas’ play, in French. Auto-translate into English doesn’t help)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g44a6SwTCfg (1955 movie in French with Russian voiceover—good luck)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8f42FI2Os&t=2072s (1955 movie dubbed into Italian)
Maurice Druon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Accursed_Kings
https://www.amazon.com/Maurice-Druon/e/B000APR81E/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Fra Alberigo
As promised in the podcast, the State Flag of the Great State of Maryland, which apparently takes the Middle Ages very seriously, bless its heart.
In 1285, Friar Alberigo took revenge on his brother Manfred (during an argument the year before, he hit him) by inviting Manfred and his son to a banquet. (By now, you know what’s coming, right?) After the meal, Friar Alberigo has them murdered, just in time for dessert. In fact, his summons for dessert (‘bring the figs’) was the assassins’ cue.
Nothing happened. Friar Alberigo faced no legal or social ramifications for his heinous actions. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling poet. Dante put Friar Alberigo in hell for his crimes. Deep, deep in hell.
In this episode, we consider the crime and its implications (how dangerous was it, exactly, to have dinner with your relatives in the Middle Ages?), Dante’s tricky business of damning someone who wasn’t actually dead, and medieval pasta recipes.
Indeed, as promised in the podcast, here is a recipe for medieval lasagne: Take your thin rolled pasta (either buy flat pasta or roll it yourself), and cook it, as you usually do, in salted boiling water. Layer it with grated cheese (Parmesan or Asiago will work well here), sprinkling ground pepper and cinnamon over each cheese layer. The original recipe doesn’t say so, but why don’t you bake it for about 15 minutes at 350 F. Unless you have made four or more layers, in which case bake it longer. Now! The recipe states, specifically, that then you eat it with a pointed stick. If you do this, please send pictures. Thank you.
Sources
Critical Companion to Dante. Jay Rudd.
The Inferno. Dante. Translated by John Ciardi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Alberigo
http://www.openculture.com/2018/06/visualizing-dantes-hell.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mapping-dante-hell-inferno-satan-divine-comedy
https://theliterarywhip.com/archives/1384
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Els von Eystett
In 1471, Els von Eystett was working in a brothel in Nordlingen, Germany, when rumors began to circulation she had been pregnant but the brothel-keeper and his wife had forced her to drink a concoction to induce miscarriage. Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, this charge of forced abortion was taken seriously by local officials, who opened an investigation.
In this episode we explain how Els von Eystett came to be working in the brothel, along with background information about prostitution and abortion generally at this time. We discuss the crime and the trial, and the important and rare firsthand accounts of prostitution during the Middle Ages that the trial documents provide. For bonus fun we also consider the city of Nordlingen, one of only three cities in Germany to still have its medieval city walls intact.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Els_von_Eystett
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/inside-medieval-brothel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%B6rdlingen
https://www.bavaria.by/visit/noerdlingen/
Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. Ed Vern L. Bullough and James A Brundage. The chapters on ‘Prostitution’ and ‘Contraception and Abortion’ were particularly helpful for this episode.
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
7. Gilles de Rais
On October 26, 1440, Gilles de Rais was executed, having been convicted of torturing and murdering dozens—by some estimates hundreds—of children. It was a stunning fall. He had fought alongside Joan of Arc and been named a Marshall of France. What do we know about his crimes and why he committed them?
In this episode, we explain the brilliant military career of Gilles de Rais and his downward spiral to horrific crimes and execution, including a fascinating step along the way of near-bankruptcy due to sponsoring an enormous, elaborate play. We also discuss perplexing modern efforts to rehabilitate Gilles de Rais.
Nota bene: While we do not discuss details of his crimes, the subject matter of this installment might be not suitable for all audiences, especially children.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais
https://www.celesteh.com/acad/wes/proseminar/pucelle.html
https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/187687
https://www.britannica.com/story/gilles-de-rais-historys-first-serial-killer
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gilles-de-rais-bluebeard
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
The White Ship Disaster
Admission: throughout the episode, Michelle and Anne go back and forth between referring to the ship as a ship and as a boat. We know the difference. “Boat” is just a sort of familiar term; a literal diminutive. Yeah. Let’s go with that.
On November 25, 1120, the White Ship struck a submerged rock and went down, barely out of Barfleur harbor. There was one survivor, but he was not, unfortunately, the only legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England. William the Aetheling perished, along with 250 passengers (including quite a number of his cousins and other noble scions) and 50 crew members. Drunken party gone terribly, terribly (but predictably) wrong? Or political assassination?
In this episode, we consider why a literal boatload of nobles was buzzing back and forth across the English Channel, the repercussions that followed in the wake (see what I did there?) of the disaster, and contemporary and modern theories about the cause.
Sources
www.medievalists.net/2019/12/white-ship-disaster/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_the_White_Ship_disaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adelin
https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/death-and-anarchy-white-ship-disaster
https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhi04ordeuoft
https://archive.org/stream/williamofmalmesb1847will#page/n17/mode/2up
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_White_Ship_(Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti)
https://engpoetry.com/edwin-arlington-robinson/ballad-of-a-ship/
www.medievalists.net/2013/05/was-the-white-ship-disaster-mass-murder/
And here’s a link to the painting done by Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise, which also explains what happened to it; Queen Victoria put the drawings and paintings done by her children into volumes, where this one sits to this day. So, there you are. Not on the fridge downstairs.
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Beatrice Cenci
Correction: Anne states at one point in the episode that all the Cencis, except the youngest, had their heads cut off. This is not true. Giacomo, who was tortured all the way to the execution site, had his head smashed in with a mallet. Sorry. Anne knew better but she was on a roll.
On September 9, 1598, Beatrice Cenci helped murder her father. With her stepmother, older brother, younger brother, and with the help of two hired men, she killed Count Francesco Cenci and unsuccessfully tried to make his death look like an accident. There is no question of her guilt. But do the circumstances justify Beatrice’s (and the others’) actions?
In this episode, we examine the reasons Francesco’s family concluded murder was their best option, how their guilt was determined, and what happened to them. We also consider Beatrice’s growing fame after her death. In the nineteenth century, the Romantics discover Beatrice’s story and retell it endlessly, casting her as a teenage rebel against the corrupt aristocracy. What about Beatrice attracted so much attention from writers and artists?
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Cenci
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Beatrice-Cenci-Italian-noble
https://murderpedia.org/female.C/c/cenci-beatrice.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cenci
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dumas/alexandre_pere/celebrated/chapter2.html
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
The Princes in the Tower
In 1483, twelve-year-old Edward V, would-be king of England, and his nine-year-old brother Richard, were committed to the Tower of London, purportedly for their own safety, by their uncle, the Lord Protector, until it was safe for Edward to be crowned. Instead, they were declared illegitimate and their uncle ascended the throne as Richard III. Neither boy was ever seen again. So, what happened to them?
In these episodes, we explore why and how fifteenth-century England became a place where imprisoning and (probably) murdering children seemed like a political gambit worth trying. The Wars of the Roses—known in its time as the Cousins’ War—raged for decades as two branches of the Plantagenet royal line fought over the throne. In the end, they nearly wiped each other out, clearing the path for Henry the Seventh to claim the kingship. Multiple crimes occurred along the way—we could do a whole True Crime Medieval series of episodes about Cousins’ War atrocities—but best remembered is the disappearance of the princes. Richard III, thanks in large part to Shakespeare, becomes a byword for villainy. Does he deserve such infamy?
Sources
Jones, Dan. The Wars of the Roses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Woodville
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Sweyn III and the Bloodfeast of Roskilde
Bonus recipe! Medieval Danish White Mash! — from the Latin: Take fresh milk and crushed wheat bread and a beaten egg and saffron and cook it until it is thick and put it on a dish and add butter and powdered cinnamon.
Ok, here are some amounts, if you need, and a method. Take about an ounce of white bread crumbs, unseasoned of course. Take about 7 ounces of milk. Beat an egg and add that. Crush up a bit of saffron and add that. Put it on the top of the stove and cook, gently, until it is thick. Put it in a bowl and add some cinnamon on top. That’s it.
On August 9, 1157, three rival claimants to the Danish throne met for what was supposed to be a peace banquet celebrating their agreement to divide Denmark. What actually happened was: Canute dead, Valdemar wounded, Sweyn blamed.
Justified preemptive strike or premediated murder?
In this episode, we explain why twelfth-century Denmark dissolved into political chaos and how three men ended up each claiming the throne. Outside money and forces influenced this struggle, with all sides seeking help from other European princes.
In 1157, the three rivals agreed to split the country among them. But instead of breaking bread together to commemorate this truce, violence breaks out. Canute is killed outright and Valdemar is wounded. Sweyn attempts to sway public support by claiming he knew the others were plotting to kill him, so he had to strike first.
Naturally, the rules of hospitality do not include preemptive attacks.
Sweyn’s forces and Valdemar’s met in battle on October 23, 1157. Sweyn is killed. Valdemar goes on to rule Denmark (alone) until his death in 1182.
Valdemar’s successful, long reign complicates the sources. Unsurprisingly, they all have very nice things to say about him.
So was Sweyn a thoroughly villain who planned to murder his cousins in cold blood? An incompetent opportunist? Is Valdemar as pure as the sources claim?
Sources
Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum
Sven Aggeson’s A Short History of the Kings of Denmark
Helmold’s Chronicle of the Slavs
Olafr Thortharson’s Knytlingasaga
Sverre Bagge. Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation.
“Convivium in Terra Horroris: Helmold of Bosua’s Rituals of Hospitality” and “Feasting with Traitors: Royal Banquets as Rituals and Texts in High Medieval Scandinavia” in Ritual, Performatives, and Political Order in Northern Europe, c.650-1350.
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.
Cangrande della Scala
In July of 1329, the city of Treviso surrendered to the besieging army of Cangrande della Scala. Cangrande entered the city in triumph. Four days later, he was dead.
Natural causes? Or murder?
In this episode we lay out the background for the siege—the ongoing conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines—and the evidence for and against murder.
Cangrande is best remembered now as the patron of Dante but he was a central political figure of his day. Knighted at ten, at twelve he became co-ruler of Verona with older brother Alboino. Seven years later, Alboino died, leaving twenty-year old Cangrande in sole control.
By most accounts, he was a competent, savvy ruler. He had been getting real-life military experience from a young age in the Guelph-Ghibelline struggles. He was reputed to be merciful to defeated enemies, devoted to the Virgin Mary, and a patron of the arts.
The timing of his death, though, invites suspicion. Some accounts say Cangrande drank from a polluted stream before entering Treviso. But his nephew and successor Mastino II executed his doctor for poisoning him.
We know Cangrande was poisoned. An examination of his body in 2004 determined he died of foxglove poisoning. But accidentally, from drinking tainted water? Or deliberately?
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangrande_I_della_Scala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastino_II_della_Scala
http://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/cangrande.english.html
https://www.dantesociety.org/publicationsdante-notes/epistle-cangrande-updated
https://www.press.umich.edu/23334/dantes_epistle_to_cangrande
https://www.paleopatologia.it/articoli/aticolo.php?recordID=64
Credits
Many thanks to Thomas Stobierski, who wrote our music, “Calisia Carnival,” provided by Lynne Music, through NEO Sounds; and to Zencaster, for our ability to double record; and to Audacity, our sound editing software; and to Buzzsprout, for hosting the podcast, and to Bluehost, for hosting our website, and WordPress, for the website software.