Gender, Sexism, and the Middle Ages

Ever since her death at the stake in 1431, Joan of Arc has become a powerful symbol. Women fighting for the expansion of the right to vote took her as a potent icon of their movement.

Well-behaved medieval women seldom made history. While medieval women were officially barred from positions of power in the Church, several found ways to make their voices heard nevertheless.

When you walk through a museum, what aren't you seeing? Kit Heyam explores the hidden histories of women and queer people just below the surface of the V&A.

Alijt Bake was a young, passionate, brilliant reformer. So, naturally, she was opposed by the older generation. See how a medieval nun took her critics head on.

Castration is a spectre that looms large in Game of Thrones. But how common were eunuchs in the actual Middle Ages? Does Game of Thrones exaggerate their importance to medieval culture, or simply reveal how central they were?

Medieval women were not illiterate princesses in towers. They read and wrote, and some became literary giants in their time.

Pop-culture vikings are often butch masculine stereotypes. The real vikings were often anything but.

We all know werewolves as legendary figures that periodically fly into an unstoppable rage. What you may not know is that in the Middle Ages this was often a metaphor for domestic violence.

Knight Fight is HISTORY's new reality show where men club each other with pseudo-medieval weapons. What could be wrong with that?