Inside the Medieval Mind

[Foxglove]

People seemed interested in the link I gave to the documentary about medieval peasant life, so I'm going to compile a few more in this thread for those who are interested in learning more, or just gathering some material to enhance their characters or roleplays. The subject line of the thread comes from a season of programmes made by the BBC about the Medieval world. I'll probably add to this list as I hunt out more material.

We start with Inside the Medieval Mind: Power (running time 58 minutes). This one talks about how power was divided and imposed in the Middle Ages. Including the divisions of power between the priesthood, the knights, and the serfs; symbols of power such as castles; and peasant uprisings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM-slEErFtM

Next up is Inside the Medieval Mind: Knowledge (running time 58 minutes). This deals with superstition/the supernatural, religion, and the evolution of Middle Ages science and rational thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SUsKuG1w6k

Inside the Medieval Mind: Belief (running time 58 minutes). Religion, the power of the Church, the supernatural, and religious war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0dVLaT8rsU

Inside the Medieval Mind: Sex (running time 58 minutes). Sex, sin, love, and marriage in the Middle Ages (content warning if you're of a more puritan frame of mind).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSk4HrjuSCw

Next up, we have a more light-hearted take on the Middle Ages, with a documentary series made by Terry Jones (Yes, the Monty Python's Flying Circus Terry Jones), where he talks about the lives of certain classes of Medieval people. Still informative, but much lighter in tone. These are okay if you're looking for a bit of roleplay background material, but you don't feel you can be bothered to sit through the more heavy-weight documentaries above.

Life of the peasant (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg3YDN5gTX0
Life of the monk (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7kixg7E3Pk
Life of the damsel (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL5CviNAhnk
Life of the minstrel (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LyuIVZk5FM
Life of the knight (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhWFQtzM4r0
Life of the philosopher (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTf2EzTd1TE
Life of the outlaw (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9GsccLoLvY
Life of the king (29 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLXlbE6Ly4

Next we have some background for that feasting roleplay you've been planning to write. Ever wanted to know what a medieval king had for dinner? Clarissa and the King's Cookbook might answer that question! (29 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=803rjwGlS-U

Lastly for now, we have two programmes from the Battlefield Britain series - this is for the battle fans and those interested medieval weapons. The first deals with the last great rebellion of the Welsh against English rule, as a 10,000 strong Welsh army invades England. (59 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj7k91AQ3UI

The second is about the Battle of Hastings, the twilight of Anglo-Saxon rule in England when their control is broken by the Normans (59 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rAXH09qRY

That's all for now. If people are interested in these, I'll find more to add to this lot.

[Ironsides]

Wow, this is awesome! I know what I'll be doing on my day off! Add more if you can, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for new things too. There's nothing like a video database to offer new players (and old!) a place to see the history of the era we are playing in, and to get new ideas from things that have already occurred in the past. I saw a documentary on Catherine the Great recently that talked about a peasant guy who launched a revolt against her pretending to be her dead/murdered husband. I wrote that down for later ;D

[Longmane]

Cheers for yet another fine posting Foxglove, as can't wait till I get the opportunity put my feet up and watch them all the way through properly   :D

Here's my own small contribution to the large feast of good stuff you've given us, a few clips from a series on famous sieges I enjoyed watching a short while back on the history/discovery channel

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLb4Aujw26R44LxhDjSag6qmoGmVgpeBZ

[Foxglove]

Here are some more:

She-wolves: England's Early Queens (59 mins). The lives of Margaret of Anjou and Isabella of France. Two French-born queens of England.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmY9TyvgXHE

The next ones are the full series of Weapons that Made Britain, where weapons master Mike Loades looks like he might actually kill someone while demonstrating how medieval people killed each other. Each episode is 48 mins.
The Sword http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As1rGnx9vng
The Longbow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTDHOcWbVLQ
The Lance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJnkH1YXY8E
The Shield http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0moVAG0JDOc
Armour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqoh0okQ6Ho

War Walks is a series by the late Professor Richard Holmes. Each episode runs for about 30 mins and deals with a different battle. This series ran for several years and covers everything from Waterloo to Dunkirk, so I'm only listing the links that deal with medieval battles here.
Battle of Hastings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpIveS0mpoQ
Battle of Agincourt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnjKkOfLA_0
Battle of Bosworth Field http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oOzRseC5KQ

Last in this lot of listings are a couple of episodes of a quirky little series called Time Commanders. This show used the Total War game engine to recreate historic battles while everything is overlooked by military history experts, including the slightly dangerous Mike Loades from the Weapons that Made Britain series. More a bit of fun, really, but an entertaining approach to the history. 45 mins each.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwJdGShUy8I
The Battle of Hastings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMSscVy86gs

[Foxglove]

Henry VII: Winter King (60 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbne91QdCoc

The Crusades: Part 1, Holy War (60 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f15afLIjvRA
The Crusades: Part 2, The Clash of Titans (60 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te78p-bcIxA
The Crusades: Part 3, Victory and Defeat (60 mins).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQDSPaj3I8

[Dishman]

Wow, this is awesome! I know what I'll be doing on my day off!

With the additional links after this post, I have something to do all week. Keep them coming, I might even dredge through my youtube history for something that isn't included.

[Tom]

Over the years, there's been quite a bit of really good links and posts on the medieval times.

Do we have a volunteer who would like to gather them all together into a collection that we can put on a more permanent storage, like the wiki? With full attribution to those who provided us with this great material, of course.

[Miriam Ics]

I can do this. Not sure I can find them all but I will try.

[Vita`]

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Background_Information would be where to find existent info on wiki and any new pages should be linked from there. :)

[anoobowner]

I have watched all of these; I want to thank you for such an awesome collection!

I lurk on your content in the Background (Including medieval farming practices), and I think you do an awesome job at finding things relevant to not only Battlemasteria, but the overworld we exist in.

Keep going!

[Miriam Ics]

Foxglove, I started to put it at wiki.
Would be nice if you look at it and edit if you think something is not right.
I've tried to put it separated by subjects. Take a look, please.

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Background_Information

[Foxglove]

It looks fine so far. Good work  :)

[Miriam Ics]

Ty :) Will continue doing it when I have time.

I believe many of us have the same problem to find names for the estates and Lilwolf just send me this link:

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=realmnamer

It generates some funny names but gave me some good ideas.