September Mailbag 1: Chateauneuf du Pape

folks, we are back to talk about the Early Modern Period and why it was such an awful time to be alive unless you were in the absolute highest upper strata--and even then it wasn't great. we discuss it a lot in very vague terms, so we decided to do more of a deep dive about why it was so awful to live from about 1453-1800, not as a moral judgment of those people who lived at that time but instead because the birth of the modern world was an absolute horror show for the entire planet and you didn't even have modern medicine or air conditioning yet. this is when the Leviathan is born into the worldcover image is a stock photo of an edition of Hobbes' Leviathan

folks, we're back from Halloween with a new mailbag! this time, we answer questions about haircuts, 1066 and all that, the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse as humoral theory, new money, pet peeves, and more. enjoy!

folks, it's time for us to review Sam Raimi's 1992 cult classic Army of Darkness, starring Bruce Campbell. never has a movie that takes place exclusively in the Middle Ages cared so little about the setting but still largely nailed it regardless. set in 1300 CE in England, the movie is largely concerned with letting Bruce Campbell do great facial acting, Raimi's stop-motion fun, and slapstick. the Middle Ages are just a trapping, a setting used to illustrate the fish out of water nature of someone traveling to the distant past. and yet, it all works. Raimi doesn't care about historical accuracy but he does care about making the movie look good and sometimes that's enough. enjoy!cover image is a skeleton playing a bone flute as the titular army of darkness besieges the castle

The hosts of American Prestige and We’re Not So Different join forces to examine one of the seminal events in world history: the Crusades. Season 2 focuses on the Second Crusade, oft overlooked among the first four crusades, requested by the Principality of Antioch–amongst others–in the wake of the fall of the County of Edessa to the forces of Zengi, an existential threat to the survival of the rest of the Crusader States. You’ll follow along with us on the journey from France and Germany to the Holy Land, Iberia, and Northern Europe as new fronts are opened up and the Catholic Church suffers an embarrassing defeat thanks to supposed betrayal and a series of nasty rumors against Eleanor of Aquitaine.Episode 2: Mosul, 1146Two years later, as the Crusaders build up power and alliances in Europe, the Zengid Dynasty of Mosul suffers a massive setback when Zengi, its founder, is assassinated. We take a deep look at how the Muslim forces in the region responded to their loss during the First Crusade, the centralization efforts of Zengi and his son and successor, Nur al-Din, the continued deterioration of the Fatimids, and the state of the Second Crusade’s ultimate destination: Damascus.cover image by James Montalbano

The hosts of American Prestige and We’re Not So Different join forces to examine one of the seminal events in world history: the Crusades. Season 2 focuses on the Second Crusade, oft overlooked among the first four crusades, requested by the Principality of Antioch–amongst others–in the wake of the fall of the County of Edessa to the forces of Zengi, an existential threat to the survival of the rest of the Crusader States. You’ll follow along with us on the journey from France and Germany to the Holy Land, Iberia, and Northern Europe as new fronts are opened up and the Catholic Church suffers an embarrassing defeat thanks to supposed betrayal and a series of nasty rumors against Eleanor of Aquitaine.Episode 1: Jerusalem, 1144The Second Crusade begins in the Levant with Raymond of Poitiers and others calling out to Rome and the Catholic Church for a new crusade to avenge the loss of the County of Edessa to the Muslim forces of Zengi. We will discuss how all the major Christian players in the region, including the Crusader States, Byzantines, and Catholic Church have fared in the four decades since the end of the First Crusade.cover image by James Montalbano

due to technical difficulties, the Army of Darkness review episode will be out next week, sorry about that!folks, we're diving back into the patron mailbag to answer a bunch of questions from our patrons. this time we talk about spooooooky stories, best Medieval D&D dungeon master, Egyptian flood mitigation technology, celestial events, verified relics, and much more.cover image is a statue of Timur in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. to read more about Great Chess or Tamerlane Chess, check this out: https://www.thecollector.com/tamerlane-chess-history/

folks, we are back for part 2 of this woefully short series on Medieval military evolution in the Old World and it's time to talk about gunpowder. probably the single most important invention ever but it didn't follow the normal formula for these things, instead sitting on the shelf as a elixir for eternal life before being adopted for military application by increasingly desperate Chinese states. however, it would be the Mongols who spread the message of gunpowder across all of the Old World and it would change the face of Medieval society along with it.cover image is from a 1398 series by Jean Froissart, this one showing cannons being used during the Battle of Nicopolis

folks, we don't talk about military history all that much on the show except as an aspect of the overall narratives and histories we tell. however, we do sometimes have to talk about it specifically because it is both interesting and necessary to understanding things. it's not the end-all, be-all, most important thing ever as it is sometimes portrayed but, ya know, you can't fully enforce your politics from the throne, now can you? that monopoly of violence is there for a reason. anyway, we start a two-part series talking about the evolutions of Medieval armies in Afroeurasia. this time, we talk about why the size of European armies dropped so drastically following the fall of Western Rome (while Eastern Rome and Asia did not), how was military training accomplished on a macro level, why the Crusades acted as a kickstarter to future European military endeavors, and more! next time: gunpowder! enjoy.cover image is part of an illuminated manuscript by Jean Froissart about the Battle of Crecy

folks, we have referenced it a couple of times but now it's finally time to focus on the Mesopotamian Afterlife, including their underworld and ghosts. we talk about how they formed their conception of the afterlife, what it looked like, the bizarre and unfair punishments received depending on how you die, leaving milk and cookies out for Gilgamesh, the quite beautiful and tender reception that babies receive, the social reinforcement these rules provided, using the Epic of Gilgamesh as a template, and more. Oh, and just one rule: no fires. No but for real, no fucking fires, don't you dare light a single fire ever, I don't care if it's what allows to stay up later at night and cook our food, no goddamn fire, ever! not even once!cover image is something I found on a site called pngtree that said it was free to use

folks, just as the ancient prophecies foretold, we're back for a second September mailbag episode. we dive back into the patrons questions again to talk about the 90's comedy Sister Act, treatments for very small injuries, the survival of the Hungarian language, pipe smoking in the Old World, Medieval home decor, what constitutes a colony, and more!cover image is a promotional image for the 1992 film Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith