'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages

Richard Abels
  • 4.9 (37)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

  1. 6D AGO

    The Knights Templar, Part 3: From History to Legend (with Steve Tibble)

    Send us Fan Mail This is our third and final episode on the crusading order of the Knights Templar. In today's episode, my cohost Dr. Steve Tibble and I talk about the "afterlife" of the Templars, and how and why a military order suppressed in the early fourteenth century has become the go-to for so many conspiracy theorists. Among the topics discussed in this episode are: Templars and Freemasonry; Sir Walter Scott's shaping of their image in his novels, Ivanhoe and The Talisman;  the (mis)use of the Templar legend by late nineteenth century French Occultists, racist Neo-Templarists and today's White Supremacists, in the videogame, "Assassin's Creed," and in the "non-fiction" best-seller Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and the even better selling novel that drew upon it, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The last seems to have opened the floodgates for conspiracy theories featuring the Templars, including their role in 9/11!  I highly recommend Steve Tibble's newest book, Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood (Yale University Press, 2025).   This episode includes a snippet from the trailer of the 1972 movie "Tombs of the Blind Dead" (which is NOT highly recommended) Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    51 min

  2. APR 16

    The Knights Templar: The Trial and Suppression of the Order (with Steve Tibble)

    Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is the second in a three part series on the Crusading military order of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Templars.  My cohost for this series is Dr. Steve Tibble, one of the foremost military historians of the crusades, whose most recent book is Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood (Yale University Press, 2025).   In our previous episode Steve and I talked about the origin, mission, and activities of the Templars. Today we discuss the most notorious event in the history of the Templars: the arrest and trial of the Templars of France by order of King Philip IV 'the Fair' in 1307 on charges of heresy, idolatry, blasphemy, and sodomy, and the subsequent suppression of the Order by Pope Clement V. Among the topics we cover are: the Templars' role in the futile defense of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the thirteenth century; the mission challenge raised by the final conquest of Outremer by the Mamlukes; why King Philip IV targeted the Templars, why so many French Templars, including the Grand Master, confessed to the lurid charges; and why Pope Clement V, despite doubting the accusations, dissolved the Order.   In a forthcoming third episode, Steve and I will talk about the Templar afterlife: how after its suppression it lived on in popular imagination as a staple of conspiracy theories. Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 8m

  3. MAR 15

    The Knights Templar, Part 1: the Templars in History (with Steve Tibble)

    Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is the first of a two-part series on the notorious Christian military order, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar.  This first episode deals with the historical Templars; the second, with the Templar legend  My cohost for both is a veteran of this podcast, Dr. Steve Tibble whose newest book is Assassins and Templars, A Battle in Myth and Blood (Yale University Press, 2025).  In this episode, Steve and I talk about the evolution of Christian ideas about warfare that allowed for crusading and for military orders such as the Templars; the Templar origin story; the growth, organization, and development of the order; and the Templars' core mission and activities, in war and peace.  The second episode begins with the trial of the Templars in 1307 by King Philip IV 'the Fair' of France, and the subsequent suppression of the order by the papacy.  We then discuss the Templars' "afterlife," their transformation into a mythic secret society beloved by paranoid conspiracy theorists. And, as is the wont of this podcast, we look at how the historical and mythic Templars are represented in novels, movies, and even video games. I hope you will join us! This episode includes quoted passages from St. Bernard of Clairvaux's recruitment letter for the Second Crusade and his treatise on the Templars, The New Knighthood. Both are included in The Crusades: A Reader, ed. S,J. Allen and Emilie Amt, second edition (University of Toronto Press, 2014) It also has a short snippet from the thirteenth-century chant "Dies Irae," performed by Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9qrdrswO8) Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 7m

  4. MAR 4

    Knights, Samurai, and the Myth of Japanese Feudalism: A Conversation with Professor Stephen Morillo

    Send us Fan Mail Until now, "'Tis But A Scratch: Fact & Fiction About the Middle Ages" has dealt with medieval Europe and the Middle East. In this episode, we branch out to a more global perspective by comparing medieval European knights with the samurai of "feudal Japan."  And, yes, we will once again be talking about the medievalist's F-word.  I am fortunate to have as my cohost my good friend Stephen Morillo. Stephen is professor emeritus of History at Wabash College, where he taught medieval, world, and military history. His first book, Warfare Under the Anglo-Norman Kings, 1066-1135,  was published in 1994. His most recent book is War and Conflict in the Middle Ages: A Global Perspective. This pretty much sums up Stephen’s scholarly odyssey from Anglo-Norman military historian to pre-modern world historian. His focus on comparative global military history makes him the ideal person to discuss knights and samurai.  I hope you will join us. Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 9m

  5. FEB 12

    1066 And All That: The Significance of the Norman Conquest (with Dr. Jennifer Paxton), part 2

    Send us Fan Mail It has been several months since I posted the first half of a two part series on the significance and consequences of the Norman Conquest with my good friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Paxton of the Catholic University of America. Despite a number of challenges--not the least being a snow storm--we finally got together to record the second episode. In that first episode, Jenny and I reviewed how historians have interpreted the Norman Conquest through the ages, and broadly outlined some of the changes wrought by the Conquest.  In this one we explain how the Norman Conquest changed England politically, legally, socially, ecclesiastically, and economically--including the impact it had on diet and food custom (the newest area of research on the Conquest). In this episode I quote from: Craig-Atkins E, Jervis B, Cramp L, Hammann S, Nederbragt AJ, Nicholson E, et al. (2020) Correction: The dietary impact of the Norman Conquest: A multiproxy archaeological investigation of Oxford, UK. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0239640. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239640 Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 27m

  6. JAN 24

    Episode 70: What we can learn about medieval people from their bones and teeth. A conversation with Professor Alison Beach

    Send us Fan Mail And now for something completely different! In this episode, we are not going to be talking about kings or popes, crusades, wars, or political events. Instead, we will be examining the life experiences of ordinary medieval people uncovered through analysis of their skeletal remains.  This field of historical research is known as osteobiography. Osteobiography is the reconstruction of an individual's life story from his or her skeletal remains. It treats bones and teeth as a text that sheds light on an individual's health, diet, disease, trauma, occupation, migrations, and social status. This might sound familiar to some of you who remember the television show Bones. But the purpose here is not to solve crimes but to understand lives.  I am very fortunate to have as my very special guest to explain what we can learn about medieval people from their skeletal remains, Dr. Alison Beach, Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Alison is the Principal Investigator and Historical Researcher for “Word of Mouth: Embodied Stories of Premodern Women at Work”—I love the puns—or, as it is more popularly known, TeamNun. She heads a team of historians, archaeologists, and scientists dedicated to reconstructing the lives of medieval religious woman through analysis of their skeletal remains. In this episode, Alison will tell us about two osteobiographies her team is working on. What makes these individuals especially interesting is that they both suffered from disabilities that did not preclude long lives. Apparently, medieval empathy is not an oxymoron! (You can learn more about TeamNun at https://www.teamnun.org/about-1) Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 5m

  7. JAN 16

    The First King of England: Æthelstan (with David Woodman)

    Send us Fan Mail Ironically, the most famous date in Anglo-Saxon history is that of its demise, 1066, which is why when in 1930 W. C. Sellar, a former schoolmaster, and his classmate at Oxford, the humorist R. J. Yeatman, decided to send up English history as taught in schools with a parody survey, they called it  1066 and All That. In a previous episode Dr. Jenny Paxton and I discussed why 1066 is such a significant date in English history. My very special guest, David Woodman, Professor of History at Robinson College, Cambridge, contends that the year 927 should be as memorable as 1066. And he will explain why in this episode on the first king of England. And who was the first king of England?  I would love to say that it was King Alfred the Great, but, as I concluded in my biography of Alfred, his legacy was to create the foundations for the kingdom of England. But if not Alfred, then who?  David Woodman has a clear answer, encapsulated in the title of his recent book from Princeton University Press, The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom.  In this episode David and I discuss the reign of King Æthelstan, and why David believes that 927 should be celebrated as the birthdate of the kingdom of England. Along the way, we discuss sources--or the lack thereof--and commiserate over the challenges faced by biographers of early medieval people. I hope you will join us. Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1 hr

  8. 12/29/2025

    A Florentine Pilgrimage to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in 1384

    Send us Fan Mail This is an addendum to my previous episode with Peter Konieczny. One of my listeners sent me an email asking why we never covered Frescobaldi's, Gucci's, and Sigoli's accounts of their experiences in Jerusalem. As she pointed out, when asked by the Sultan's representative in Alexandria the purpose of their trip, they said that it was to visit the Holy Sepulcher. And she is absolutely right. We ought to have talked about the culmination of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Given that we are three days into the twelve days of Christmas, I decided that I should also talk about their visit to Bethlehem.  I wanted to get this out quickly, so it is a solo effort. It is also one of my shorter episodes. I would suggest that you listen first to Peter and my more general discussion of the three pilgrimage accounts and consider this to be a continuation.  May you have joy and peace for the remaining nine days of the Christmas season!  Quotations are from Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384, trans Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948), posted online at https://fada.birzeit.edu/handle/20.500.11889/9200 This episodes includes musical snippets from Stella splendens (anonymous late 14th century pilgrim’s song), Free Choral Music, edited by Monique Rio  https://test.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Stella_splendens_in_monte_(Anonymous) De Profundis. Ofertorio (Modo II) Coro De Monjes Del Monasterio De SilosCantos Gregorianos (Vol. 2), posted by De Profundis-Gregorian Chant, Catholic Songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwTO6oYDdZs Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                     Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    21 min
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Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

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