Medieval (4th-15thC)

Five hundred years ago Constantinople—long a bastion of the Western world—fell to the armies of the Grand Turk. G.R. Potter gives his account of how the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire finally disappeared.

The site of her oldest university and the home of one of her earliest missionary Saints, St. Andrews holds a special position in the history of Scotland, as Russell Kirk here explains.

The great English king was born on November 13th, 1312.

The eldest son of King John was born on October 1st, 1207.

In the Middle Ages, with the re-emergence of Salic Law, it became impossible for women to succeed to the throne in most European kingdoms. Yet between 1274 and 1512 five queens ruled the Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre, as Elena Woodacre tells their stories.

The medieval holy man was killed by the Danes on April 19th, 1012.

Ivan became Grand Prince on March 27th 1462, following the death of his father.

Otto I was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII on February 2nd 962.

Richard Almond has trawled medieval and Renaissance sources for insights about ladies’ riding habits in the Middle Ages and what they reveal about a woman’s place in that society.

The Maid of Orléans was born on January 6th 1412: she has been an incarnation of French national identity and pride for six centuries.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a masterpiece of Middle English literature, which narrowly escaped destruction in the 18th century. Nicholas Mee examines the poem to discover both its secret benefactor and the location in which its drama unfolds.

Clovis I died in Paris on November 27th 511, aged 46.

David Hipshon outlines the career of the most controversial king ever to have occupied the English throne.