The Renaissance Times

We’re still talking about the Great Leper Scare of 1321 – where lepers, Jews, Muslims, and the devil himself are allegedly conspiring to poison the wells and topple Christendom. It’s the juicy tale of how a rumour spiralled into a pyramid scheme of scapegoating that ended with 160 Jews burned alive in a ditch. Today we talk about how it was connected to the Great Famine of the early 14th century and a bunch of Christian teen beggars who decided to force Jews to convert. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post POISON IN THE WELL – The Renaissance #238 (The Witches Part 2) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

We are taking a break from Michelangelo to talk about lepers, Jews and… WITCHES!  Today we start with the 1321 leper panic in France, where thousands of people were burned alive or locked up for life based on tortured confessions of a supposed plot to poison the water supply and take over the world. Along the way we get hot and heavy with the French royal family — adultery, assassinations, a king who reigned for four days, and a woman who may have murdered her own infant nephew with a pin — before connecting it all to the origins of Europe’s first mass segregation program. It’s the archaeology of conspiracy theories.  There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Burn the Lepers – The Renaissance #237 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

On this episode, Michelangelo is done waiting around in Rome — he packs up and heads back to Florence, effectively ghosting the Pope before the Pope can ghost him any harder. Julius II is furious and tries every trick in the book to drag him back, including leaning on Florence’s own leader Soderini, who knows you can’t bully a prima donna and writes the most flattering letter of recommendation in Renaissance history. We end with Michelangelo finally heading to Bologna to face the music — or the Pope, which at this point might be worse. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Ghosting the Pope – The Renaissance #236 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Michelangelo gets summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II — the baddest, most belligerent pope who ever lived — to build the greatest tomb the world has ever seen. Mickey heads to Carrara for six months to find the perfect marble, starts dreaming of flooding Rome with giant statues, and then one of the most famous sculptures from antiquity gets dug out of the ground right in front of him. We also get into why Julius II absolutely despised the Borgias, and Cameron rocks his new Michael Caine glasses throughout. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post The Warrior Pope and the Marble Dreamer – The Renaissance #235 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this episode of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray dive deep into Michelangelo’s three extraordinary marble and painted roundels — the tondos — created during his Florence years between 1501 and 1506. Beginning with the origins of the tondo format itself (those circular domestic artworks that started life as elaborately painted birth trays brought to mothers who’d survived childbirth), the hosts examine what makes Michelangelo’s approach so audaciously different from everyone else’s. In the Taddei Tondo, now housed in the Royal Academy of Arts in London, his signature *non finito* technique — deliberately leaving sections rough and unpolished — makes Baby Jesus emerge luminously from raw marble while John the Baptist lurks in the background in a pose that raises some eyebrows and a great deal of laughter. The Pitti Tondo, now in the Bargello in Florence, features a proud, regal Virgin Mary whose head breaks the boundary of the circle itself — a deliberate choice, since both works were designed to be viewed from below, above a doorway. Then comes the main event: the Doni Tondo, the only surviving panel painting by Michelangelo, which Ray declares — with complete sincerity — his single favourite painting in the world after encountering it unexpectedly in the Uffizi. Cameron breaks down Michelangelo’s use of *cangiante* colour technique — swapping to entirely different colours to create shading rather than using Da Vinci’s smoky *sfumato* — producing something that looks, as Cameron puts it, like it was lit by a social media ring light compared to the gentle atmospheric glow of the Mona Lisa. The hosts also dig into the painting’s contested symbolism: the pagan nudes lounging in the background, the possible Dominican theological argument about Mary’s sanctification at the moment of conception, and the conspicuous placement of Christ’s anatomy. Then there’s the business drama — when patron Agnolo Doni tried to pay 40 ducats instead of the agreed 70, Michelangelo doubled the price to 140 and told him to pay up or hand back the painting. Doni paid. It’s a pivotal moment: the artist as rockstar, commanding the room and rewriting the rules of patronage in Renaissance Florence. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post The Price Just Doubled: Michelangelo, the Doni Tondo, and the Birth of the Artist as Rockstar – The Renaissance #234 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this episode of The Renaissance Times (Episode 225), Cameron and Ray return to Florence to explore Michelangelo’s earliest surviving sculpture, Madonna of the Stairs (Madonna della Scala)—a marble relief carved when he was just fifteen. They marvel at his prodigious skill, discussing how this modest, unfinished piece already reveals his genius for depth, motion, and emotional complexity. Along the way, they detour through Florence’s real estate market of the 1500s (where a thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo was rich enough to buy five adjoining properties), laugh about Renaissance lifestyles, and draw irreverent but sharp connections between theology, symbolism, and art history—from cherubs in the Book of Ezekiel to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction speech. It’s a lively, funny, and deeply informed tour through the early stirrings of one of art’s great minds. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #225 – Teenage Michelangelo: The Buff Baby Jesus and the Marble Prodigy (Michelangelo, part 3) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this episode of Renaissance, Cameron and Ray continue their exploration of Michelangelo’s life and career, digging into the family connections, social structures, and cultural forces that shaped his rise. They trace Michelangelo’s privileged entry into the Medici circle, compare his fortunes to Leonardo da Vinci’s tougher climb, and dive into Florence’s vibrant humanist culture of the late 15th century. The conversation ranges from patronage networks and family loyalty, to the artistic apprenticeship system, to Michelangelo’s sexuality and celibacy, with plenty of irreverent humour along the way. From Giovanni Rucellai’s church facades to Medici palace gossip, this episode paints a vivid portrait of how power, privilege, and art collided in the making of one of history’s greatest geniuses . There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #224 – Privilege, Paint, and Patronage (Michelangelo, part 2) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Cameron and Ray dive into the life and legend of Michelangelo, kicking off what promises to be a long-running series on one of history’s most celebrated artists. Drawing on Vasari’s Lives of the Artists and contemporary sources, they explore Michelangelo’s early years, the mythology surrounding his divine protection, his family’s noble (and possibly invented) lineage, and the role of Florence in shaping his destiny. Along the way, they discuss Vasari’s glowing (and often revised) accounts, Michelangelo’s rockstar reputation, the tragic loss of his mother, and the cultural weight of his name. From divine breast milk to stepping in shit, this episode mixes history, irreverence, and insight in equal measure. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #223 – Mickey The Angel (Michelangelo part 1) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this final instalment of the First Crusade series, Cameron and Ray bring the long march to its bloody climax with the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 1099. They blend dark humour with historical detail as they recount the Crusaders’ desperate conditions, the political and religious fervour driving them, and the brutal reality of the conquest. Along the way, they explore the parallels between medieval crusading zeal and modern Christian Zionism, the strategic blunders and visions that shaped the battle, and the horrifying aftermath as the victorious Crusaders massacred Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The episode closes by reflecting on how this slaughter reshaped Christian-Muslim relations for centuries and teeing up a return to Renaissance art in future episodes. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #222 Thank Christ: The End of the First Crusade (The Crusades part 31) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this penultimate episode of _The Renaissance_’s epic First Crusade arc, Cameron and Ray finally march the crusaders to the gates of Jerusalem — nearly three years and 2,000 miles after they first set off. Along the way, they tackle imperial betrayal, failed negotiations with the Fatimids, the crusaders’ worsening food and supply situation, and the final collapse of faith in the Holy Lance. As always, the boys riff on pop culture (Entourage, The Room, Seinfeld), personal memories (including a tragic Grand Canyon update), and theological absurdities — all while slowly, painfully dragging us through history like Raymond of Toulouse refusing to abandon a failed siege. Expect the usual mix of absurd humour, historical insight, and just enough blasphemy to keep things spicy. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #221 God Doesn’t Do Requests (The Crusades part 30) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this wild, irreverent, and historically sharp episode of _Renaissance_, Cam and Ray tear into the chaotic early months of 1099. As Raymond of Toulouse and the other Crusader leaders fumble their way down the Levantine coast, we get siege fails, castle bluffs, and political drama worthy of a reality TV series. Cam debuts his AI-generated theme song, shares the origin of Valentine’s Day (hint: it involves arrows — and not Cupid’s), and explains why Peter Bartholomew’s fiery trial didn’t end well for either his skin or Raymond’s reputation. Also: Trump analogies, cannibal jokes, Dexter cosplay, and a city that really doesn’t want you to finish first or last. Pure Renaissance chaos. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #220 Valentine’s Day: Blood, Not Roses (The Crusades part 29) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In Episode 219 of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray are diving deep into the next leg of the First Crusade. They follow Raymond of Toulouse as he reluctantly resumes the crusade toward Jerusalem, dealing with infighting, cannibalism fatigue, and logistical nightmares. The episode paints a vivid picture of political fragmentation within the Muslim world at the time — from the Fatimids in Egypt under Al-Afdal to the squabbling Turkish emirs — and highlights the complex, cynical diplomacy that both sides employed. There’s history, yes, but also siege engines, geopolitical realpolitik, sex jokes, and a warning not to be the last guy holding the rope. The Crusaders inch closer to their holy goal, but not without betraying allies, pillaging sheep, and making questionable tactical decisions. As always, Cameron and Ray bring levity, wit, and brutal honesty to a bloody chapter of history. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #219 – Jerusalem or Bust (The Crusades part 28) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this darkly hilarious and horrifying episode, Cam and Ray dive deep into the Crusades—specifically the winter of 1098–1099—where starvation and power games took centre stage. The guys discuss Bohemond’s Machiavellian brilliance in manipulating both Muslims and fellow Crusaders, the siege of Ma’arrat al-Numan, and the desperate, documented acts of cannibalism that shocked even medieval chroniclers. Along the way, they ponder cannibalism’s evolutionary logic, debate its moral context, and detail the fine art of seasoning a human rump roast. There’s also an impromptu history of “giving head,” strategic gift-giving via severed Turkish skulls, and slippery slopes into tyranny and baby BBQs. It’s one of the wildest, funniest, and most unsettling episodes of the Renaissance Times yet. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #218- Eat the Rich (aka the Turkish Prisoners) (The Crusades part 27) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In this episode of _The Renaissance Times_, Cam and Ray dive into the chaos and absurdity that followed the siege of Antioch in 1098. With the Pope’s legate dead, the Crusader princes lose their spiritual leash and immediately devolve into power games, cowardice, and opportunistic violence. We’ve got pandemic panic (complete with medieval nobles doing the ol’ “every man for himself” routine), Christian cannibalism foreshadowing, mass death, military alliances with Muslim rebels, and the wild tale of a captured widow turned war bride—plus a crash course in medieval pigeon-post espionage. Oh, and someone tries to convert a mosque into a Catholic bishopric with the help of the _Orthodox_ bishop. It’s a mess. A bloody, bureaucratic, and occasionally hilarious mess. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #217- Christian Cannibals & Cowardly Crusaders (The Crusades part 26) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

By Christmas of 1097, the Crusaders continued to lay siege to Antioch but it has gone on so long they are running out of supplies. One out of every seven men was dying of hunger. Even a greater percentage of horses were also dying. Because Jesus loved them. Both sides continued to hope for the arrival of reinforcements to turn the tables.   There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES Transcript   100:00:02.080 –> 00:00:15.689Cameron Reilly: Welcome back to the Renaissance Times Podcast my name is Cameron Riley. With me in the Cold Chair in Virginia, is block of ice ray Harris. 200:00:16.059 –> 00:00:18.260Ray Harris: Iced tea. That’s that’s right. That’s right. 300:00:18.260 –> 00:00:21.069Ray Harris: I like that. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you. 400:00:21.590 –> 00:00:22.220Ray Harris: So. 500:00:22.220 –> 00:00:31.899Cameron Reilly: Talking about the siege of Antioch. This is Part 2 of the siege of Antioch during the 1st Crusade, late 1,097 beginning of 1,098. 600:00:32.330 –> 00:00:38.620Cameron Reilly: In our last episode we were talking about how the Crusaders had blockaded Antioch. 700:00:38.840 –> 00:00:40.969Cameron Reilly: Towards the end of 1,097. 800:00:41.540 –> 00:00:46.549Cameron Reilly: But they’re running out of supplies. They’re running out of food. It’s starting to get cold. 900:00:46.720 –> 00:00:56.629Cameron Reilly: They don’t have enough men. They don’t have the siege engines. They need to really take this amazing fortress of Antioch with 400 towers and huge wall. 1000:00:57.040 –> 00:01:00.529Cameron Reilly: Meanwhile Yogi Bear, the governor of. 1100:01:00.530 –> 00:01:01.340Ray Harris: And y’all. 1200:01:01.340 –> 00:01:04.819Cameron Reilly: Doesn’t have enough men to defend. It 1300:01:05.010 –> 00:01:13.859Cameron Reilly: also has to worry about his supply lines. So neither side are really attacking the other side. They’re both waiting for relief forces to arrive 1400:01:14.210 –> 00:01:24.230Cameron Reilly: and just trying to do the best they can to wait the other side out. Whoever gets the relief forces to arrive 1st are going to have an advantage. 1500:01:24.530 –> 00:01:24.859Ray Harris: The exact. 1600:01:24.860 –> 00:01:28.289Cameron Reilly: So that is where we are at. 1700:01:28.580 –> 00:01:50.520Ray Harris: Well again. I think it’s important to realize that the Crusaders they’ve been on a roll. They have just been kicking ass and taking names. They come up to Antioch, and they knew they knew it was going to be difficult. But now they are truly stymied. And you’re right. It’s all about supplies. They’re running low on food. They’re running low on faith, let’s be honest. Some of them are like, you know, it’s gone on our side. I don’t know if he is. 1800:01:50.580 –> 00:02:04.880Ray Harris: he’s a shit teammate. So the point is that they are really starting to struggle, and it’s getting cold, and I don’t know about you, but wearing armor in the cold. That kind of sucks, too. But the point is, it’s become a waiting game, and that you can. You can’t speed up outside events. 1900:02:05.170 –> 00:02:08.479Ray Harris: and their faith starts to weaken. 2000:02:10.130 –> 00:02:21.969Cameron Reilly: When they had 1st arrived outside of Antioch. There were plenty of sheep and cattle in the nearby plains. The granaries of the villages around the area still contained most of the supplies from the year’s harvest. 2100:02:22.130 –> 00:02:32.279Cameron Reilly: Despite the fact that Yogi bear in Antioch had been trying to get as much of that inside the walls as he could, but they had managed to feed well. The Crusaders. 2200:02:32.420 –> 00:02:32.840Ray Harris: To what? 2300:02:32.840 –> 00:02:37.970Cameron Reilly: They had neglected to put away supplies for the winter months. 2400:02:37.970 –> 00:02:38.830Ray Harris: Right. 2500:02:39.010 –> 00:02:49.140Cameron Reilly: Possibly an oversight, possibly thinking it’ll all be done in a week. They’re like George Bush when he was like, you know. 2600:02:49.390 –> 00:02:55.110Cameron Reilly: one and done in and out. 2 weeks mission accomplished, but it drags on. It starts. 2700:02:55.110 –> 00:02:55.450Ray Harris: I’ll jump. 2800:02:55.450 –> 00:02:56.530Cameron Reilly: Drag on. 2900:02:56.790 –> 00:03:13.529Cameron Reilly: Now they had to go foraging over an ever increasing area, which meant they were more likely to get off by the small Turkish sorties that were being sent out of Antioch to cut them down as they were, returned 3000:03:13.530 –> 00:03:20.830Cameron Reilly: humor stragglers coming back from fraudulent parties, you know. They’re hiding. The Turks are hiding in the bushes, jumping 3100:03:20.830 –> 00:03:21.340Cameron Reilly: Yup. 3200:03:22.470 –> 00:03:30.269Ray Harris: yeah, taking what they yeah. So around Christmas time, 1097, the food’s almost gone. The countryside’s bare. 3300:03:30.680 –> 00:03:55.680Ray Harris: And we’re going to say this a couple of times. The princes of the Crusaders. They hold a council, and here’s what they’re going to do. Step one. You get together, and someone gets out the whiteboard. They decide that Bohemian and Robert of Flanders are going to take some troops, and they’re going to go up the Orontes valley towards Hama, another smaller city. They’re going to raid the villages in that direction. Meanwhile Raymond and the Bishop of La Poi, I’m not sure how to say that 3400:03:55.680 –> 00:04:18.559Ray Harris: we’ll conduct the siege because Jeffrey at this point is very ill, so at least they’ve got a plan. We’re going to go try to raid, you know, as God intended us to do. You guys start harassing the walls. And maybe between these 2 things we can actually move the needle a little bit, not the best plan in the world, but it’s something. So Robert and Bohem had sent out set out on December 28.th 3500:04:19.769 –> 00:04:21.559Cameron Reilly: With about 20,000 men. 3600:04:22.190 –> 00:04:26.509Cameron Reilly: And of course Yogi Bear knew immediately about their departure from. 3700:04:26.510 –> 00:04:26.949Ray Harris: Have the fact. 3800:04:26.950 –> 00:04:36.619Cameron Reilly: Word, getting back into his camp. So he waited until they were out of sight, and then, on the 29th attacked across the bridge 3900:04:36.810 –> 00:04:41.519Cameron Reilly: and fell onto the Crusaders, who were camped north of the river. 4000:04:41.870 –> 00:04:42.280Ray Harris: Yes. 4100:04:42.280 –> 00:04:52.700Cameron Reilly: The attack was not expected, but Raymond’s quick thinking saved the situation. He quickly rounded up a group of knights, charged out towards the Turks. 4200:04:52.700 –> 00:04:53.310Ray Harris: Damn right. 4300:04:53.310 –> 00:04:57.750Cameron Reilly: Turned and fled back across the bridge. 4400:04:57.970 –> 00:04:58.370Ray Harris: Yes. 4500:04:58.370 –> 00:04:59.580Cameron Reilly: Hooray! Success. 4600:04:59.580 –> 00:05:03.010Ray Harris: But it gets better except 4700:05:03.010 –> 00:05:28.049Ray Harris: well, except and yet it almost gets better. Remember when they 1st got there, Raymond is like, Okay, who wants to attack. Now who’s with me? And sadly, no one else was raising their arms when they chased this Turkish party back to the gates. They almost get there before the gates were closed. This could be it. This could be the thing that turns the entire battle. Maybe Raymond was right the entire time. 4800:05:28.230 –> 00:05:36.939Ray Harris: however, and I’m not blaming God, I’m not saying God had anything to do with this but one of the one of the nights Horace throws his rider. It’s dark. 4900:05:36.940 –> 00:06:02.669Ray Harris: There’s a lot of confusion. There’s a lot of panic. They don’t know what’s going on. Did the horse throw him? Was he knocked off by an attack, they start to panic, and they retreat, and now they are being chased back by the Turks to their camp. But the good news is, when the Crusaders get back to their camp. They turn, they start to fight. The Turks know that they can’t take them, so they go back to the walled city. But the point is. 5000:06:03.120 –> 00:06:19.500Ray Harris: they almost got inside one of the gates. But it but it doesn’t happen again. It was a close run thing, but this is what they’re doing. They’re literally pricking each other, just taking as many men out of each side as you can, trying to weaken their overall force. 5100:06:21.450 –> 00:06:31.889Cameron Reilly: And when the horse throws the rider and turns back onto the bridge it creates panic and confusion in the Crusaders cavalry. A lot of them end up in the water. 5200:06:31.890 –> 00:06:32.330Ray Harris: Oh, shit. 5300:06:33.145 –> 00:06:35.590Cameron Reilly: And the the 5400:06:35.820 –> 00:06:44.419Cameron Reilly: dead lost horses lost cavalry, so lives were lost on both sides, but especially among the Crusaders. 5500:06:44.730 –> 00:06:49.330Cameron Reilly: Meanwhile Bohemond was riding south with Robert of Flanders. 5600:06:49.550 –> 00:07:08.190Cameron Reilly: totally ignorant that a huge relief force was moving up towards him of Damascus, had left his capital with Yogi Bear’s sons, and a huge army at Hama. The Emir joined them with his forces. Oh. 5700:07:08.190 –> 00:07:08.680Ray Harris: Shit. 5800:07:08.680 –> 00:07:21.499Cameron Reilly: On the 30th of December they learned that the crusading army was close by, and they immediately marched on them and came upon the Crusaders. The next morning, at a village called Albara. 5900:07:21.830 –> 00:07:34.709Cameron Reilly: Now the Crusaders were taken by surprise, and Robert, whose army was a little ahead of Bohemians, was nearly surrounded, but Bohem being the Badass, that he was. 6000:07:34.710 –> 00:07:35.420Ray Harris: Right. 6100:07:36.220 –> 00:07:40.570Cameron Reilly: Quickly reacted, kept the bulk of his troops in reserve. 6200:07:40.730 –> 00:07:49.570Cameron Reilly: waited until the moment that the Muslims thought that they had won, and then attacked from the rear. 6300:07:49.730 –> 00:08:01.070Cameron Reilly: and manages to inflict such heavy losses on the army from Damascus that they retreated and fell back to Hama. 6400:08:01.490 –> 00:08:06.919Cameron Reilly: So it was sort of a win for the Crusaders. 6500:08:06.920 –> 00:08:07.490Ray Harris: Additionally. 6600:08:07.490 –> 00:08:08.170Cameron Reilly: Lost! 6700:08:08.170 –> 00:08:08.550Ray Harris: Right. 6800:08:08.550 –> 00:08:09.189Cameron Reilly: Lot of people. 6900:08:09.590 –> 00:08:27.889Ray Harris: Right. But here’s the thing. So again, Bohemon is a brilliant tactician. He’s using psychology here. He’s like, I’m going to wait. They’re attacking. The Turks are attacking Robert’s men. I’m going to wait to. The enemy thinks that they’ve won. Then I come in and I charge, and I save the day I freak them out. 7000:08:27.890 –> 00:08:52.879Ray Harris: They panic, however, because of the injuries, the deaths that the Crusading army has suffered. They are now not strong enough to keep going. So they sack a village or 2. They don’t get much out of it. They return to camp again. It was a decent plan, but because they’re weakened just enough. They’re no longer an effective fighting force, and when they go back they don’t have much to show for it again. The troops are still starving. 7100:08:53.680 –> 00:09:01.340Cameron Reilly: Yeah, and you know, to be fair to Bohem and Robert I mean. Their troops were probably already hungry, tired, cold. 7200:09:01.340 –> 00:09:02.180Ray Harris: Yes. 7300:09:02.180 –> 00:09:06.909Cameron Reilly: In the 1st place, not the best conditions for an army to be in, but so they return 7400:09:07.090 –> 00:09:08.920Cameron Reilly: more or less empty, handed. 7500:09:09.180 –> 00:09:09.650Ray Harris: Yeah. 7600:09:09.650 –> 00:09:14.600Cameron Reilly: And then discovered that they’ve lost a lot of the cavalries. Been sort of a 7700:09:14.700 –> 00:09:23.649Cameron Reilly: minor crisis and disaster while they’re away. The army camped inside of Antioch, is expecting them to come back with food. They come back with nothing. 7800:09:23.860 –> 00:09:26.790Ray Harris: So the Christians are starting to. 7900:09:27.670 –> 00:09:33.549Cameron Reilly: Second guess themselves. They’re like Jesus, God, not really. 8000:09:33.820 –> 00:09:34.200Ray Harris: Yeah. 8100:09:34.200 –> 00:09:37.990Cameron Reilly: You just take the wheel. Give it back, please. Yeah. 8200:09:37.990 –> 00:09:39.260Ray Harris: Me that fucking wheel? 8300:09:39.370 –> 00:09:42.339Ray Harris: Right? Yeah. Yeah. Who let Jesus drive. 8400:09:42.340 –> 00:09:42.830Cameron Reilly: Can help. 8500:09:42.830 –> 00:09:43.590Ray Harris: Woo. 8600:09:43.890 –> 00:09:45.110Cameron Reilly: Who thought it was that. 8700:09:46.030 –> 00:10:09.680Ray Harris: And while they were gone it wasn’t any better for the guys that stayed behind again on the 29, th when they were attacked. That did not go well, as we said the next day, there’s an earth tremor, and this isn’t just a little. Oh, look! The curtains are shaking, honey! This is felt as far away as Odessa. The other guys fuck what’s his name? The other guy who runs that place now? So this is a 8800:10:09.680 –> 00:10:20.859Ray Harris: there we go. So this is a big thing. And that evening the aurora borealis lights up the sky. I mean, God is sending them signals left and right. It’s like God. Just if I shouldn’t 8900:10:20.960 –> 00:10:32.379Ray Harris: ignore my wife and bang this 18 year old. Just give me a sign, and the earth shakes, and the aurora Aurora boles, lights up the sky, and then the guy goes. Just any sign. God! Just tell me I shouldn’t do this. 9000:10:32.840 –> 00:10:46.759Ray Harris: And then heavy rains come for weeks, and all the while it’s getting colder they’re cold. They’re shivering. They’re hungry, this sucks. And then Stephen of Blois has had it, and he’s like, you know. Maybe God isn’t. 9100:10:47.090 –> 00:10:51.620Ray Harris: He either isn’t all-powerful or He’s not on our side. What do you think. 9200:10:53.220 –> 00:11:02.069Cameron Reilly: Yeah, these people being primitive Christians. And I think that’s a redundant term. Just. 9300:11:02.070 –> 00:11:02.940Ray Harris: Christians should. 9400:11:02.940 –> 00:11:13.730Cameron Reilly: Believe in bronze Age mythologies, then, as now, see these things as signs, and the Bishop of Lapoy 9500:11:14.300 –> 00:11:22.440Cameron Reilly: declares that they have to fast for 3 days, and they’re like motherfucker. I haven’t eaten in a week like really like. 9600:11:22.440 –> 00:11:24.409Ray Harris: Gonna put a name on it. Now, okay, yeah. 9700:11:24.410 –> 00:11:29.429Cameron Reilly: What difference does it make? We’ve been fasting for weeks 9800:11:30.460 –> 00:11:33.690Ray Harris: I am an expert faster at this point. Yeah. 9900:11:33.690 –> 00:11:34.440Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 10000:11:34.440 –> 00:11:35.250Ray Harris: They’re like you. There. 10100:11:35.250 –> 00:11:35.670Cameron Reilly: So. 10200:11:35.670 –> 00:11:40.499Ray Harris: New pants, their belt they had to tighten their belts, you know it’s it’s just. It’s just. 10300:11:40.500 –> 00:11:41.300Cameron Reilly: Darling. 10400:11:41.420 –> 00:11:53.919Cameron Reilly: they’re starting to think that maybe God is not pleased with them, and instead of just turning around and going home, saying, Look, maybe this was the bad idea from the get. Go. 10500:11:53.920 –> 00:11:54.650Ray Harris: Bad juju. 10600:11:54.650 –> 00:12:02.160Cameron Reilly: They’re like, maybe we just need to not eat. Continue not eating for a few days. That’s really what he wants, because. 10700:12:02.290 –> 00:12:11.650Cameron Reilly: you know, I don’t know about you as a loving father, but for me, whenever I’m displeased with Fox, I starve him for a week, because that’s what loving. 10800:12:11.870 –> 00:12:13.919Cameron Reilly: that’s what loving parents do 10900:12:14.780 –> 00:12:16.389Ray Harris: It’s a lesson. It’s a lesson. 11000:12:16.390 –> 00:12:16.890Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 11100:12:16.890 –> 00:12:17.600Ray Harris: Yeah, yeah. 11200:12:17.600 –> 00:12:27.660Cameron Reilly: Lock him in a basement, chain him up and starve him for a week, because I think that’s how I show my love. That’s the Christian way of showing my love. 11300:12:27.660 –> 00:12:28.040Ray Harris: Right. 11400:12:28.040 –> 00:12:32.229Cameron Reilly: Extreme torture. I waterboard him, of course. 11500:12:32.230 –> 00:12:33.440Ray Harris: Right? Well, yeah, that’s. 11600:12:33.440 –> 00:12:34.260Cameron Reilly: During that period. 11700:12:36.100 –> 00:12:37.420Ray Harris: Because it’s. 11800:12:37.420 –> 00:12:37.980Cameron Reilly: With the water. 11900:12:37.980 –> 00:12:39.360Ray Harris: Yeah. 12000:12:39.690 –> 00:12:42.900Cameron Reilly: The rod ruin the child, or whatever it is. 12100:12:43.420 –> 00:12:50.279Ray Harris: I have a slightly different approach, whereas you starve him to death. What I do for my children is, I charge them 12200:12:50.580 –> 00:12:55.030Ray Harris: for the food. I know you can eat, but but your ass is paying. So charge. 12300:12:55.030 –> 00:12:59.250Cameron Reilly: Here’s the bill, if I have to, if I have to, on up. 12400:12:59.250 –> 00:13:08.060Ray Harris: No, so slowly. Slowly, some of the Armenian monks start sending supplies. Some of the Christians, Armenians, and Syrians 12500:13:08.220 –> 00:13:16.700Ray Harris: scrap just whatever they can get together, and they start to send it to the to the Crusaders, and as they get there the Crusaders are going. Thank 12600:13:16.750 –> 00:13:43.020Ray Harris: thank you. Thank God! Thank Christ! They’re like, up, up, up, not so fast. You are Crusaders. You’ve been sacking towns left and right. You got cash, so we got food. You got cash. Hmm. Maybe we can work something out, so they say, for one donkey load of supplies it will cost you 8. Is that bizance again? This is a decent amount of money. The Christians 12700:13:43.120 –> 00:13:55.220Ray Harris: hate giving up any kind of cash, but they do because they’re starving. The problem is only the wealthy soldiers can afford this. So, as as is normal in human history, the wealthy eat. 12800:13:55.390 –> 00:14:06.970Ray Harris: poor, starve, the horses start dying, and pretty soon they’re only down to 700 horses, but so so other Christians come to help them, but it comes at a price literally. 12900:14:08.590 –> 00:14:22.610Cameron Reilly: Well, we said a few episodes ago about a Byzant. A Byzant was a gold coin used widely across the Byzantine Empire, Byzant, Byzantine Empire. So that’s where the word comes from. 13000:14:23.530 –> 00:14:28.640Cameron Reilly: Weighed roughly 4 and a half grams of nearly pure gold. So 13100:14:29.130 –> 00:14:36.059Cameron Reilly: one Byzant, back in the day the purchasing power was enormous. You could. 13200:14:36.290 –> 00:14:41.059Cameron Reilly: It was a small fortune, a single bazette. You could buy supplies for an army 13300:14:41.290 –> 00:14:43.169Cameron Reilly: with a single bazant or. 13400:14:43.170 –> 00:14:43.669Ray Harris: Do you stay? 13500:14:43.670 –> 00:14:45.889Cameron Reilly: In a family for months. 13600:14:45.890 –> 00:14:46.640Ray Harris: Right. 13700:14:46.640 –> 00:14:48.260Cameron Reilly: So. 13800:14:48.260 –> 00:14:50.089Ray Harris: 8 pizettes. 13900:14:50.090 –> 00:14:50.720Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 14000:14:50.720 –> 00:14:51.660Ray Harris: Frolic. 14100:14:51.660 –> 00:14:54.560Cameron Reilly: Converted into 14200:14:55.770 –> 00:15:08.199Cameron Reilly: modern currency. The estimate that I came up with using Chatgpt a few months ago was a single Byzant would be worth somewhere between 10 to 15,000 Us. Dollars a single Byzant. 14300:15:08.200 –> 00:15:09.609Ray Harris: Jesus Christ. 14400:15:10.270 –> 00:15:15.589Cameron Reilly: So these guys are selling a donkey’s worth of food for, let’s say, 100. 14500:15:15.850 –> 00:15:16.350Ray Harris: Rogers. 14600:15:16.350 –> 00:15:18.169Cameron Reilly: Grand. How about do you want it. 14700:15:18.170 –> 00:15:19.959Cameron Reilly: grand for one donkey’s worth of food? 14800:15:19.960 –> 00:15:20.310Ray Harris: Yeah. 14900:15:20.310 –> 00:15:21.639Cameron Reilly: Yeah, they’re like, Hey. 15000:15:21.640 –> 00:15:22.400Ray Harris: What’s it worth to you. 15100:15:22.400 –> 00:15:24.740Cameron Reilly: Capitalism, bitch, yellow. 15200:15:24.740 –> 00:15:26.700Ray Harris: The way gone, intended, so. 15300:15:26.700 –> 00:15:41.659Cameron Reilly: That’s it. Don’t blame me. Jesus invented capitalism at the point. I don’t think you mentioned this, but one out of 7 men was dying of hunger, not to mention the horses. 15400:15:41.660 –> 00:15:42.779Cameron Reilly: Yes, this is real 15500:15:42.780 –> 00:15:51.819Cameron Reilly: dying at a greater rate, because they were getting none of the food, and then they were eating. The horses, like Napoleon’s troops, had to do in the retreat from Russia in 1812. 15600:15:53.550 –> 00:16:02.980Cameron Reilly: So, and, unlike Napoleon’s troops, these guys didn’t have gunpowder to put on the horse meat to. 15700:16:03.330 –> 00:16:07.630Ray Harris: Hide the taste right fuck 15800:16:09.520 –> 00:16:11.619Cameron Reilly: You know your your heart up when. 15900:16:11.620 –> 00:16:12.090Ray Harris: When you. 16000:16:12.090 –> 00:16:17.440Cameron Reilly: Gunpowder is what you’re using to hide the taste you want to. 16100:16:17.440 –> 00:16:19.529Cameron Reilly: That’s your name. 16200:16:20.870 –> 00:16:24.129Cameron Reilly: It’s not the best of spices. 16300:16:24.180 –> 00:16:48.839Ray Harris: When I bite into a raw or cooked horse leg. The 1st thing I say is, you know what you know, what this could use. This could use some fucking gunpowder. That’s what I’m saying, you know, just to finish off the taste. But no, so they are truly hard up. Men are dying. But again, it’s all for religious reasons. So I like to think they’re going right to heaven. I don’t know I wasn’t there, but it’s bad. It’s bad. 16400:16:50.580 –> 00:17:14.389Cameron Reilly: So they’re sending envoys further and further away, as far away as the Taurus Mountains to try and get some food. But it’s still very, very tough, I think. At this stage there are only about 7 between the disaster, with the attack on December 29th and the horses dying of starvation. 16500:17:14.410 –> 00:17:21.680Cameron Reilly: There’s only about 700 horses left, so their cavalry now is down to 700 riders. 16600:17:21.680 –> 00:17:31.270Ray Harris: Yeah, I was going to say, if you’re a knight, do you need a horse if you don’t have a horse? Are you still technically a knight, or could you use 2 coconuts? I mean what 16700:17:31.460 –> 00:17:32.640Ray Harris: horses import. 16800:17:32.640 –> 00:17:33.669Cameron Reilly: No, I dish. 16900:17:33.670 –> 00:17:34.690Ray Harris: I did. 17000:17:34.690 –> 00:17:35.460Cameron Reilly: Good night. 17100:17:35.460 –> 00:17:36.420Ray Harris: Night, light. 17200:17:36.420 –> 00:17:39.779Cameron Reilly: Nightlight, nightlight. 17300:17:40.010 –> 00:17:40.620Ray Harris: Oh, fuck! 17400:17:40.620 –> 00:17:41.160Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 17500:17:42.730 –> 00:17:44.540Ray Harris: Anyway, it sucks to be. 17600:17:44.540 –> 00:17:49.180Cameron Reilly: You stand in front of the enemy and go. Listen. I just want you to close your eyes. 17700:17:49.180 –> 00:17:50.090Ray Harris: Picture. 17800:17:50.090 –> 00:17:52.390Cameron Reilly: Breathe deeply. Picture this. 17900:17:53.040 –> 00:17:56.319Cameron Reilly: I want you to imagine for a moment, if you wish. 18000:17:56.890 –> 00:17:58.290Ray Harris: Right, right. 18100:17:58.960 –> 00:18:01.740Cameron Reilly: That we’re all riding fearsome mounts. 18200:18:01.740 –> 00:18:04.020Ray Harris: Steeds. Yes. 18300:18:04.020 –> 00:18:08.830Cameron Reilly: Over the course of the next few hours battle. Can you please just ignore the fact 18400:18:09.030 –> 00:18:15.149Cameron Reilly: that we’re using coconuts? It would be great if you could accommodate us in this fashion right. 18500:18:15.150 –> 00:18:16.149Ray Harris: That’s only fair. 18600:18:16.587 –> 00:18:17.900Cameron Reilly: Genuinely appreciate it. 18700:18:17.900 –> 00:18:27.249Ray Harris: Or even better, if you could just go ahead, hop off your horse, and that’s a fair fight, because because you got a god, and I got a god. It’s a fair fight. 18800:18:27.250 –> 00:18:27.950Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 18900:18:29.280 –> 00:18:38.189Cameron Reilly: Now, fortunately, the Bishop of Lapoy had been able to establish contact with the former patriarch of Jerusalem, a guy by the name of Simeon. 19000:18:38.420 –> 00:18:45.770Cameron Reilly: who had retired from Jerusalem when things got a little bit too hairy there, and was now in Cyprus. 19100:18:45.770 –> 00:18:48.589Cameron Reilly: Yes, just in the middle of the the 19200:18:49.070 –> 00:18:53.260Cameron Reilly: Mediterranean Sea. I think it still is at that point. Right. 19300:18:53.260 –> 00:19:08.109Cameron Reilly: And he was sending them now the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Not a big fan of the Catholic Church. But you know he Christians, you know, enemy of 19400:19:08.260 –> 00:19:20.809Cameron Reilly: my enemy, is my friend. Sort of thing. He’s like, okay, he’s going to send them stuff from Cyprus, all of the food and wine that yeah, he could spare. But even that wasn’t really enough. 19500:19:21.170 –> 00:19:31.549Ray Harris: Wasn’t doing it. Yeah. So he actually sends a report with the Bishop of La Poi back to the West, how the Christians are doing. 19600:19:31.550 –> 00:19:54.020Ray Harris: And yeah, like you said, he’s gathering everything up. He’s letting Europe know what’s going on. But as we showed earlier with the two-year delay, it takes time for war to get there. It takes time for them to do something about it if they’re going to do anything about it, and it takes time to come back. So again, it’s about surviving right now. But still you do what you got to do, but you also have to survive in the moment. 19700:19:56.220 –> 00:20:02.890Cameron Reilly: So people are abandoning the army. They’re like fuck 19800:20:03.290 –> 00:20:05.690Cameron Reilly: the horse that he rode in on. 19900:20:05.690 –> 00:20:06.730Ray Harris: Because I ate it. 20000:20:06.910 –> 00:20:09.300Cameron Reilly: I hate God’s horse. Yeah. 20100:20:11.270 –> 00:20:12.130Ray Harris: And. 20200:20:13.100 –> 00:20:19.579Cameron Reilly: 2 of the people who deserted were Peter the Hermit. 20300:20:19.750 –> 00:20:20.250Ray Harris: Yeah. 20400:20:20.250 –> 00:20:24.540Cameron Reilly: The guy who led the People’s Crusade, which got destroyed. 20500:20:24.540 –> 00:20:25.330Ray Harris: Right. 20600:20:25.330 –> 00:20:25.810Cameron Reilly: And then he. 20700:20:25.810 –> 00:20:26.230Ray Harris: Oh! 20800:20:26.260 –> 00:20:33.800Cameron Reilly: Fled back to Constantinople, and now has joined and had joined the Prince’s crusade, you know, second time. 20900:20:34.040 –> 00:20:34.410Ray Harris: Yeah. 21000:20:34.410 –> 00:20:35.310Cameron Reilly: Second time. Lucky. 21100:20:35.310 –> 00:20:43.309Ray Harris: I think his settling point was, Hey, I’m a good luck, charm. Take me with you. It’s gonna. 21200:20:43.820 –> 00:20:48.729Cameron Reilly: He’s like, I’ve got it. Okay. I fucked up the 1st time. I’ll be the 1st person to admit that. 21300:20:49.020 –> 00:20:50.770Cameron Reilly: but I figured out what I did. 21400:20:50.770 –> 00:20:51.170Ray Harris: Papa. 21500:20:51.170 –> 00:20:52.059Cameron Reilly: I there you go! 21600:20:52.060 –> 00:20:52.549Ray Harris: I’ve got. 21700:20:52.550 –> 00:20:54.430Cameron Reilly: My family all out. Yeah, yeah. 21800:20:55.770 –> 00:21:01.540Cameron Reilly: And he was a accompanied by a guy called William the Carpenter. 21900:21:01.730 –> 00:21:02.879Ray Harris: I don’t think we’ve. 22000:21:02.880 –> 00:21:03.450Cameron Reilly: We? 22100:21:04.030 –> 00:21:10.099Cameron Reilly: I don’t think we’ve talked about him before, but he was the viscount of a place called Meloum. 22200:21:10.320 –> 00:21:19.839Cameron Reilly: which was in France these days. It’s sort of on the outskirts of Paris. French nobleman, 22300:21:21.120 –> 00:21:23.640Cameron Reilly: Was part of the 1st Crusade. He 22400:21:23.830 –> 00:21:27.619Cameron Reilly: was known for his strength in battle, which is why. 22500:21:28.563 –> 00:21:30.579Cameron Reilly: the carpenter. He was just 22600:21:30.940 –> 00:21:36.140Cameron Reilly: chopping them down like they were trees and blocks of wood. 22700:21:36.140 –> 00:21:37.320Ray Harris: Look, look. 22800:21:37.580 –> 00:21:51.350Cameron Reilly: According to the 12th century, Monk Guibert of Nogent. William was powerful in words, but less so in action. A man who set out to do things too great for him. 22900:21:51.540 –> 00:21:52.420Ray Harris: Oh, pike! 23000:21:52.420 –> 00:21:54.349Cameron Reilly: That’s true, right. 23100:21:58.210 –> 00:21:58.960Cameron Reilly: He. 23200:21:59.910 –> 00:22:15.780Cameron Reilly: you know he he had a reputation back home. He was accused of criminal looting of the countryside. Oh, he. When he joined the 1st Crusade, he took from his poor neighbours the little they had 23300:22:16.000 –> 00:22:29.899Cameron Reilly: to provide himself shamefully with provisions for the journey. He took part on the attacks of the Jews and mines. You know he was. He was. 23400:22:29.900 –> 00:22:30.610Ray Harris: Opportunist. 23500:22:30.610 –> 00:22:36.139Cameron Reilly: Yeah, he wasn’t the nicest of Christians. 23600:22:37.050 –> 00:22:41.960Cameron Reilly: So, anyway, he decides, fuck this bullshit I’m out of here. 23700:22:42.250 –> 00:22:48.579Cameron Reilly: and he runs off with Peter the Hermit, and they try and escape. In the middle of the night. 23800:22:48.920 –> 00:23:11.919Ray Harris: But no one quits God again, I think that’s 1 of the commandments. Something like that. So Tanker, Mr. Gentle, and others are sent out to bring them back. They are grabbed up, they are brought back, and I’m going to let you tell the story. But Peter the Hermit, I guess he had a better Pr team, or whatever it’s like, you know, everybody kind of knows him. So we’re going to take it easy on this guy. 23900:23:12.220 –> 00:23:21.219Ray Harris: Not so much the other one. But but we’re going to get Peter a pass. And he became known as Peter the past. But the point is, they got to punish them somehow. 24000:23:22.200 –> 00:23:23.020Cameron Reilly: Hmm! 24100:23:23.540 –> 00:23:29.740Cameron Reilly: Well, Peter the Hermit gets pardoned. 24200:23:30.050 –> 00:23:38.439Cameron Reilly: He’s sort of still along with the Bishop of Lapoy. Who’s the Pope’s representative? Peter is still sort of. He’s the mascot. 24300:23:38.590 –> 00:23:44.940Cameron Reilly: They dressed him up in like a chicken outfit. It was a goose. It was the holy goose that he had on his. 24400:23:44.940 –> 00:23:46.639Ray Harris: There we go! There we go! 24500:23:46.640 –> 00:23:57.830Cameron Reilly: They dressed him up as the goose. He’s sort of like the holy mascot of the Crusade, so they don’t want word to get out that the most faithful of the faithful. 24600:23:57.830 –> 00:24:01.030Ray Harris: Bangs, Peter this and tried to ski 24700:24:01.030 –> 00:24:02.849Ray Harris: slap Peter around. Yeah, you can’t. 24800:24:02.850 –> 00:24:05.270Cameron Reilly: He was wearing the rock hard for Peter. Are you Rock? 24900:24:05.270 –> 00:24:10.450Ray Harris: You can’t touch him if he’s wearing that. I think we all agree on that one. 25000:24:10.450 –> 00:24:12.759Cameron Reilly: He? He couldn’t really. 25100:24:12.870 –> 00:24:18.449Cameron Reilly: He didn’t want to make that known too publicly. But William the carpenter, on the other hand. 25200:24:18.450 –> 00:24:19.070Ray Harris: Fuck him! 25300:24:19.070 –> 00:24:30.989Cameron Reilly: According. Yeah, according to one of the sources, he spent the whole. After he was captured he spent the whole of the night in Bohemian’s tent lying on the ground like a piece of garbage. 25400:24:31.900 –> 00:24:32.810Cameron Reilly: Bohemian 25500:24:32.810 –> 00:24:39.899Cameron Reilly: made him wait all night, and then rebuked him as a wretched disgrace to the whole Frankish army 25600:24:40.330 –> 00:24:47.259Cameron Reilly: mentioned how he had deserted the French army in Spain in 1087. 25700:24:47.260 –> 00:24:49.040Ray Harris: Oh! Oh! 25800:24:49.328 –> 00:24:51.920Cameron Reilly: So he had a. He had a history of. 25900:24:51.920 –> 00:24:52.590Ray Harris: True. 26000:24:52.590 –> 00:24:55.250Cameron Reilly: Other leaders asked Bohemian to spare him. 26100:24:55.620 –> 00:25:03.919Cameron Reilly: and he suffered no further punishment and then deserted the army. 26200:25:05.630 –> 00:25:07.279Cameron Reilly: He promised not to. 26300:25:07.280 –> 00:25:08.890Cameron Reilly: June of 1098. 26400:25:08.890 –> 00:25:21.020Ray Harris: But he had his fingers behind his back. So I think we all know promise doesn’t count. So currently, it’s January 1098, right in the middle of fucking winter again he promises never to leave again. 26500:25:21.570 –> 00:25:39.189Ray Harris: and then he leaves again. So you know. But again the army is starving. There are other deserters. This just sucks again. The Bishop of La Poi is sending out more requests to the West for reinforcements, and again, it’s just a shit time to be a part of this crusading army. 26600:25:40.750 –> 00:25:51.199Cameron Reilly: Interestingly, when the Bishop of Lapoy is sending requests back to Europe for support, he’s writing them in the name of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. 26700:25:51.520 –> 00:25:52.090Ray Harris: Hmm. 26800:25:52.090 –> 00:25:54.710Cameron Reilly: We would imagine, with his. With his permission. 26900:25:54.870 –> 00:25:56.100Ray Harris: When would that? 27000:25:56.500 –> 00:26:07.710Cameron Reilly: It’s fascinating, because obviously the Bishop of Lapoy, Adamah is part of the the Pope’s brigade. He’s the Pope’s representative. 27100:26:08.649 –> 00:26:13.920Cameron Reilly: The Pope’s a Catholic. Don’t know if anyone I don’t know if you knew that. But 27200:26:14.480 –> 00:26:19.600Cameron Reilly: your brief time as a Catholic, you might have heard about that the Pope is a Catholic, supposedly. 27300:26:19.600 –> 00:26:21.980Ray Harris: I did something something, anyway. 27400:26:21.980 –> 00:26:36.489Cameron Reilly: A lot of Catholics aren’t very happy. I know Catholics who are not happy with the current Pope at all. They’re trump supporting Catholics who think the Pope is a complete tool because he criticizes trump. 27500:26:36.490 –> 00:26:37.470Cameron Reilly: don’t yeah. 27600:26:37.733 –> 00:26:41.650Cameron Reilly: And then the real truce know? Yeah. 27700:26:41.650 –> 00:26:42.230Ray Harris: Closer to God. 27800:26:42.230 –> 00:26:43.340Cameron Reilly: Yay 27900:26:45.000 –> 00:27:01.960Cameron Reilly: and the Patriarch was the Pope of the East. Basically, of course, the Eastern Church schismed from the Western Church. Their rivals. They both consider themselves the leader of Christianity, but he’s appealing on behalf of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, which is an interesting dance to do. 28000:27:02.380 –> 00:27:02.930Ray Harris: Good point. 28100:27:03.445 –> 00:27:12.350Cameron Reilly: And at this point in time the Crusaders, they’re starving and they’re starting to become 28200:27:12.530 –> 00:27:14.750Cameron Reilly: conspiracy theorists. They’re all. 28300:27:14.750 –> 00:27:18.779Ray Harris: Oh, yes, all the conspiracy subreddits. 28400:27:18.780 –> 00:27:24.750Cameron Reilly: They’re watching fox news. There’s some Qanon update. 28500:27:24.750 –> 00:27:25.570Ray Harris: Yeah. 28600:27:25.993 –> 00:27:26.840Cameron Reilly: They’re blaming. 28700:27:26.840 –> 00:27:27.340Ray Harris: 1 million dollars. 28800:27:27.340 –> 00:27:29.720Cameron Reilly: Fauci exactly blaming 28900:27:29.720 –> 00:27:46.040Cameron Reilly: China. They believe that Bill Gates is putting computer chips in their head that 5G cell towers are causing cancer and autism. They’re, you know, they’re starting to lose their damn minds. 29000:27:46.040 –> 00:27:58.820Ray Harris: Well, they’ve got too much time on their hands, I mean an idle army. I think history shows it can be very dangerous to the surrounding area and to itself. And there’s nothing good going on, and they just got time to sit around and 29100:27:59.120 –> 00:28:02.720Ray Harris: make up shit. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. 29200:28:03.680 –> 00:28:12.560Cameron Reilly: And they’re starting to blame the Emperor Alexius back in Constantinople for all of their problems. What happened is early in February. 29300:28:12.810 –> 00:28:24.180Cameron Reilly: so they’ve been here since November. Yeah, late October, early November early February. Nothing’s happened. They’re still just sitting there with their dicks in their hands. 29400:28:24.180 –> 00:28:24.540Ray Harris: Did you. 29500:28:25.610 –> 00:28:33.799Cameron Reilly: The Emperor’s representative, Titychius suddenly leaves and goes back to Constantinople. 29600:28:34.210 –> 00:28:34.880Ray Harris: Hmm. 29700:28:34.880 –> 00:28:35.540Cameron Reilly: Now. 29800:28:35.540 –> 00:28:36.080Ray Harris: Hmm. 29900:28:36.240 –> 00:28:46.819Cameron Reilly: He had a small staff with him that had joined them in Nicaea, mostly guides and engineers, people who knew the lay of the land. He’d been on good terms with the leaders. 30000:28:47.180 –> 00:28:54.800Cameron Reilly: Now, when he gets back to Constantinople, the story he tells the Emperor is that Bohemian 30100:28:54.940 –> 00:29:01.999Cameron Reilly: had called for him one day told him that the 30200:29:02.180 –> 00:29:08.410Cameron Reilly: it was known inside the army that the Turks had troops coming to support them. 30300:29:08.770 –> 00:29:17.990Cameron Reilly: and that the leaders, the other leaders of the Crusader army believed that the Emperor was encouraging the Turks 30400:29:18.540 –> 00:29:21.539Cameron Reilly: because he hated the Crusaders, and he. 30500:29:21.540 –> 00:29:21.960Ray Harris: Right. 30600:29:21.960 –> 00:29:29.169Cameron Reilly: Was talking behind their backs with the Turks plotting to destroy them. That’s why he hadn’t sent them 30700:29:29.780 –> 00:29:37.070Cameron Reilly: supplies. It’s why he hadn’t sent them siege engines. It’s why he hadn’t sent them, you know more men, more troops. 30800:29:37.590 –> 00:29:45.839Cameron Reilly: and that Tatychius believed these stories enough to get the fuck out of Dodge. 30900:29:46.040 –> 00:30:02.789Ray Harris: Oh, I’m in danger. I better get the hell out of there. But as a I don’t know if you want to call this a gesture of goodwill or cuntiness. I’ll let the listener decide. But when Tacticus leaves as a gesture of goodwill, he leaves his small staff behind, to which I’m sure they said. 31000:30:03.140 –> 00:30:29.630Ray Harris: thank you. But the point is, he leaves, and this is how bad it’s gotten. Tacticus can’t win for losing as soon as he leaves Bohemian’s captains and some of the other royals go. Aha! See! He fled. He fled, because he’s either a fucking coward, and you know God doesn’t like fucking cowards, or it proves his treachery. So again, they are just willing. They’re at the point where they’re just believing the worst 31100:30:29.850 –> 00:30:49.220Ray Harris: and their own allies. But here’s the kicker, and you’ve got to love this. I don’t know if this is a Christian thing. I don’t know if this is a capitalist thing or a Christian capitalist. But they said, Wait a minute, wait a minute, let’s take it the next step. If the Emperor is betraying us, then that breaks our oath to him. So if if 31200:30:49.540 –> 00:30:53.649Ray Harris: God is on our side and God is good, if we do take Antioch. 31300:30:54.200 –> 00:31:07.419Ray Harris: doesn’t that mean we don’t have to give it to him. So they’re able to take this paranoia delusion whatever, and they can still turn it to their economic advantage. You’ve got to fucking love that. 31400:31:09.230 –> 00:31:11.369Cameron Reilly: Yeah, they’re like, well. 31500:31:11.550 –> 00:31:21.010Cameron Reilly: fuck our oaths to Alexis that we would hand over any territory we captured to him. That’s done. Now. Anything that we got is now. Of course. 31600:31:21.370 –> 00:31:31.439Cameron Reilly: they had already intended to do that, as we know, and Alec Baldwin had already taken Odessa and gone fuck the Emperor. So this is just a good way of justifying 31700:31:31.670 –> 00:31:37.679Cameron Reilly: their treachery against the Emperor, which had been the intention all along. Next 31800:31:37.900 –> 00:31:41.909Cameron Reilly: Bohemon decides the time is right. 31900:31:41.910 –> 00:31:47.050Cameron Reilly: Yeah, they weakened. They’re demoralised. People are deserting. Tatychius has left 32000:31:47.640 –> 00:31:56.210Cameron Reilly: that. It’s time for him to start spreading a rumor around the camp that he also was thinking of departing. The. 32100:31:56.210 –> 00:31:57.670Ray Harris: It’s time. It’s time. 32200:31:57.670 –> 00:32:00.920Cameron Reilly: He had. He had to get back home. He had things to take care of. 32300:32:01.150 –> 00:32:03.650Ray Harris: I got shit to do right. 32400:32:03.650 –> 00:32:05.650Cameron Reilly: I just realized I left the gas on. 32500:32:07.010 –> 00:32:07.840Ray Harris: I better get. 32600:32:07.840 –> 00:32:09.320Cameron Reilly: Back and take care of it. 32700:32:10.199 –> 00:32:12.530Cameron Reilly: Why would he spread? 32800:32:12.530 –> 00:32:14.180Cameron Reilly: That’s a story, Ory. Do you think right? 32900:32:14.180 –> 00:32:17.490Ray Harris: Oh, my God! I I think 33000:32:17.700 –> 00:32:23.249Ray Harris: now that they’ve officially well, not officially. Now that the nobles, the royals have, said 33100:32:23.440 –> 00:32:45.950Ray Harris: Fuck Alexios, we’re not giving him shit now he’s really. I guess he wants to make his move, or the next step into getting ready. So if they do take Antioch, it will be him. So he’s like, you know, I gotta go. I got too much shit. I gotta go. This isn’t working out. However, however, if if you give me Antioch. That will compensate me enough. 33200:32:46.080 –> 00:32:51.619Ray Harris: and I’ll stay, and I’m kind of like the military genius here. Now all the other nobles are like 33300:32:51.730 –> 00:33:21.239Ray Harris: fuck this guy, I mean, they can see right through it. But the commoners, the poor, the average soldier. They fall for this. He gets a lot of sympathy. He gets a lot of support. But the point is is, he’s setting up the conditions that if they should take Antioch and he makes a claim for it. He’s already like it’s like a trial balloon they’re all like. No, no, he should. He should have it, because, remember, he was going to leave, and this was the only way we could get him to stay. So give him Antioch. It’s a brilliant political move 33400:33:21.680 –> 00:33:23.100Ray Harris: if it works. 33500:33:23.370 –> 00:33:25.620Ray Harris: That’s yeah. That’s what I think he’s doing. 33600:33:25.620 –> 00:33:28.760Cameron Reilly: Yeah, clever strategy exactly. 33700:33:28.760 –> 00:33:29.720Cameron Reilly: Meanwhile 33800:33:29.850 –> 00:33:41.610Cameron Reilly: the Turks are still waiting for their relief forces to arrive. But they, du Kock and his guys from Damascus have decided. Yeah, fuck that shit. They’ve gone home. They’re not. 33900:33:41.610 –> 00:33:42.260Ray Harris: Yeah. 34000:33:42.480 –> 00:33:43.290Ray Harris: New. 34100:33:43.290 –> 00:33:48.270Cameron Reilly: So Yogi Bear turns to his former boss, Ridwan of Aleppo. 34200:33:48.960 –> 00:33:55.239Cameron Reilly: who by now seems to have regretted not coming in to support him. In the 1st place. 34300:33:55.240 –> 00:33:56.130Ray Harris: Yeah. 34400:33:56.130 –> 00:34:01.499Cameron Reilly: And he forces Yogi Bear to bend the knee 34500:34:02.250 –> 00:34:14.819Cameron Reilly: and swear again an oath of loyalty again, and he sends a troop to come to their rescue. 34600:34:15.040 –> 00:34:21.660Cameron Reilly: assisted by his cousin Sukuman, the Ottokid, and his father-in-law, the Emir of Hama. 34700:34:23.830 –> 00:34:34.110Cameron Reilly: And by early February they’re ready to attack the Crusaders camp. Now. When the Crusaders heard about this, they held another prince’s council. 34800:34:34.280 –> 00:34:41.880Cameron Reilly: It was there that Bohemians suggested that what they have left of infantry, 700 or so guys 34900:34:42.989 –> 00:34:53.129Cameron Reilly: should make a surprise attack on the invading army whilst the infantry stayed to protect the camp. 35000:34:53.460 –> 00:35:21.810Ray Harris: Right. I think you meant the cavalry of 700. Yep, cavalry will go attack the no, the cavalry will attack the relief force. The infantry will stay here to keep the soldiers in the city in check, and if we can surprise them, then maybe we can wipe out this relief force. And again, it’s not really going to help us have food. But again, we’re not going to die so. And again, this is a pretty solid plan. So they all agree. So on the night of February 8th the Frankish cavalry 35100:35:21.980 –> 00:35:48.850Ray Harris: sneak out. They cross the bridge of boats, which is not the main road, and they’re able to sneak around. And yeah, the next morning they’re able to lay in wait. The Turkish relief force comes into view. The knights attack right away. And normally, what would happen at this point. And we’ve all seen this a billion times in movies. Certainly. Think of Ashincourt or Braveheart that normally you would line up the Turkish army would line up there. Many numbers of archers 35200:35:49.210 –> 00:35:53.449Ray Harris: throw a whole bunch of arrows into the air, and just come down on the knights. 35300:35:53.560 –> 00:36:08.639Ray Harris: but they don’t have time. The crusading cavalry are coming too quickly, and they’re able to hit the Turks before the archers could line up. And now they’re the ones who are panicking. So again, this plan has worked brilliantly so far. 35400:36:09.930 –> 00:36:16.160Cameron Reilly: Yeah, I think the Turks were also advancing across the iron bridge when the Crusaders attacked. 35500:36:16.160 –> 00:36:16.570Ray Harris: So. 35600:36:17.030 –> 00:36:23.970Cameron Reilly: You know they can’t get into formation. All of that kind of stuff is going on. Some of them are on the bridge, anyway. A large number of them. 35700:36:24.100 –> 00:36:25.200Ray Harris: Right, so. 35800:36:26.118 –> 00:36:42.019Cameron Reilly: The the cavalry attack the Turks. They can’t break them, though, and they withdrew, but in doing so lured the Turks into the battleground that they had chosen, where they had a lake on the left and the river on the right. 35900:36:42.270 –> 00:36:56.010Cameron Reilly: It prevented the Turks from being able to outflank them. And so the knights charge again, this time in full force, and this time the Turks broke and fled. 36000:36:56.150 –> 00:36:59.600Cameron Reilly: spread confusion in the lines behind them. 36100:36:59.740 –> 00:37:02.640Cameron Reilly: and the whole of Ridwan’s army 36200:37:02.910 –> 00:37:06.500Cameron Reilly: is in full retreat back to Aleppo. 36300:37:06.990 –> 00:37:28.879Ray Harris: It’s just chaos. And the garrison they had taken over they had reconquered and set men there, joined them on their way back. And, like you, said they literally panic all the way back to Aleppo. So this is another relief force that is defeated by brilliant tactics, desperate but brilliant tactics. Again. It doesn’t change the overall board. 36400:37:28.880 –> 00:37:42.000Ray Harris: It doesn’t create food out of nowhere. But the point is, it worked so the infantry. So the cavalry is starting to come back. But meanwhile the infantry still at camp has their own drama going on. 36500:37:43.310 –> 00:37:48.520Cameron Reilly: Yeah. But like, just for a second, let’s give Bohemian. 36600:37:48.520 –> 00:37:51.780Cameron Reilly: Oh, yeah, you like stuff cavalry. 36700:37:52.010 –> 00:37:52.440Ray Harris: Yeah. 36800:37:52.440 –> 00:38:04.109Cameron Reilly: To break this army and send them back like Bohemian with his tactics, waiting till they’re on the bridge, attacking, then drawing them, then like running away. 36900:38:04.110 –> 00:38:04.789Ray Harris: Yeah. Run away. 37000:38:04.790 –> 00:38:12.389Cameron Reilly: Them back to a battleground that you’ve chosen, where they can’t outflank you with their greater numbers, and then just hit them with the full force of your cavalry. This is. 37100:38:12.390 –> 00:38:12.710Ray Harris: Brilliant. 37200:38:12.710 –> 00:38:18.500Cameron Reilly: Alexander or Napoleon level genius. This guy 37300:38:18.620 –> 00:38:20.450Cameron Reilly: knew what he was doing. Like. He was. 37400:38:20.450 –> 00:38:21.200Ray Harris: Is really. 37500:38:21.700 –> 00:38:22.860Cameron Reilly: Badass. 37600:38:22.860 –> 00:38:23.230Ray Harris: Yes. 37700:38:23.230 –> 00:38:40.600Cameron Reilly: Of using smaller numbers to defeat a greater force by picking your battleground, picking your tactics, hitting them at the right time in the right place in the right way. The guy deserves the sort of 37800:38:41.070 –> 00:38:48.679Cameron Reilly: credit that history gives him for being a tactical military genius. 37900:38:48.680 –> 00:38:54.979Ray Harris: Yeah. And just deception is a wonderful ploy to use in battle, and he does it brilliantly. 38000:38:55.570 –> 00:39:08.790Cameron Reilly: Yeah, he’s he’s studied the best he knows what he’s doing. So meanwhile, with the cavalry away, Yogi Bear saw his chance and attacked the camp. The infantry who remained there had 38100:39:09.550 –> 00:39:13.879Cameron Reilly: put up a brave battle. But we’re beginning to lose ground 38200:39:14.070 –> 00:39:28.080Cameron Reilly: when, late in the day, a bit like at the battle of Waterloo. Their troops return, and as they get closer, Yogi Bear understands that his relief army was beaten. 38300:39:28.770 –> 00:39:29.150Ray Harris: Right. 38400:39:29.150 –> 00:39:33.430Cameron Reilly: His men back within the walls of Antioch. It’s like Napoleon at Waterloo. 38500:39:34.210 –> 00:39:40.059Cameron Reilly: Late in the day. It’s 4 o’clock. He’s thinks he’s won. He’s defeated. 38600:39:40.550 –> 00:39:40.890Ray Harris: Yeah. 38700:39:40.890 –> 00:39:47.500Cameron Reilly: Wellington in the British, and it’s all tied up nice and neatly with a bow and. 38800:39:47.500 –> 00:39:48.720Ray Harris: Right. 38900:39:49.580 –> 00:39:50.700Cameron Reilly: The fucking process. 39000:39:50.820 –> 00:39:52.889Ray Harris: To come in last minute. 39100:39:52.890 –> 00:39:54.230Cameron Reilly: And he’s like, Oh, fuck! 39200:39:54.320 –> 00:40:12.169Ray Harris: I had this, I had this. But but yeah, that’s what it’s about. So now that this attempt well, one, the relief force, is removed to the troops. The Turkish troops coming out of the city are checked. They’re sent back into the city. So the entire situation goes back 39300:40:12.170 –> 00:40:41.819Ray Harris: to the question of supplies. So supplies are still coming in by ship. But again, there’s like that 12 mile road from the coast to the camp. The Turks are watching it. They try to raid as these supplies are coming in, and not only that, but Yogi Bear is still able to get his own supplies in through the gate of St. George. So again, because no one can win an overall outright military victory, it now it reverts back to being about supplies. 39400:40:43.550 –> 00:40:50.180Cameron Reilly: Yeah, the Crusaders have had a couple of victories, and so morale is lifted. But they’re still starving. So 39500:40:50.520 –> 00:40:55.270Cameron Reilly: that’s not good. However, at this time 39600:40:55.660 –> 00:41:05.680Cameron Reilly: supplies are still coming in from Cyprus, also coming in from maybe to Tichius, sending stuff from Constantinople. 39700:41:06.870 –> 00:41:21.319Cameron Reilly: But the road down to the sea, where the supplies are coming in from Cyprus, and and maybe from Constantinople, getting raided by parties that are slipping out of Antioch through the unguarded gate of St. George 39800:41:21.440 –> 00:41:31.129Cameron Reilly: across the fortified bridge. But then, on the 4th of March, 1098, a fleet, manned by Englishmen. 39900:41:31.920 –> 00:41:41.990Cameron Reilly: commanded by the exiled claimant to the throne. Edgar Atheling, sail into St. Simeon. 40000:41:42.230 –> 00:41:45.759Cameron Reilly: How much do you know about Edgar Atheling? 40100:41:46.030 –> 00:42:15.160Ray Harris: I don’t know much. I know that he is the son of Edward the exile, who himself is the son of King Edmund Ironside, which is a pretty cool, fucking name. So when Edmund Ironside dies, Edward the exile, our Edgar’s father, gets refuge in Hungary, and he was actually made. Excuse me. He was elected the King by the Witten, the council of King of the Anglo-saxon government, but he’s never crowned. 40200:42:15.160 –> 00:42:25.010Ray Harris: and the Danish king, Knut, in 1016 is able to take the English throne. So the point is, he was technically, it’s almost like 40300:42:25.030 –> 00:42:36.760Ray Harris: I was going to make a Bush gore joke. But anyway. So he technically he was voted in by one council to be king. But he’s never crowned, and I guess, what is he just looking to make his way in the world, being a king 40400:42:37.020 –> 00:42:38.450Ray Harris: who’s not a king. 40500:42:40.810 –> 00:42:44.339Cameron Reilly: He had an interesting relationship with the Normans. 40600:42:44.800 –> 00:42:51.800Cameron Reilly: Sort of exiled there at 1 point, and then fought against them. Sort of 40700:42:52.040 –> 00:43:02.770Cameron Reilly: had a deal with William the Conqueror that went sour. And yeah, so he sort of had sort of fractures, relationships with the Normans. 40800:43:02.980 –> 00:43:03.490Ray Harris: Right. 40900:43:03.980 –> 00:43:10.369Cameron Reilly: But now he turns up with an English fleet to support them. 41000:43:10.760 –> 00:43:12.000Ray Harris: Now. 41100:43:12.360 –> 00:43:17.790Cameron Reilly: When it arrives it not only brings men. 41200:43:18.260 –> 00:43:29.119Cameron Reilly: They had pilgrims from Italy that were on their way. He had stopped at Constantinople, placed himself under the orders of the Emperor and the ships, the fleet, probably 41300:43:29.380 –> 00:43:34.459Cameron Reilly: because of Tacticus saying to the Emperor, Hey, these guys are going to fail if we don’t help. 41400:43:34.460 –> 00:43:34.880Ray Harris: Right. 41500:43:35.430 –> 00:43:42.940Cameron Reilly: It had been loaded with siege engines, siege materials, and mechanics who arrived so finally. 41600:43:43.100 –> 00:43:51.590Cameron Reilly: Yes, the Crusaders have siege engines. The thing that they’ve needed for how many months now is like December? 41700:43:52.080 –> 00:43:54.120Cameron Reilly: Doesn’t February. 41800:43:54.120 –> 00:43:54.590Ray Harris: 5 months. 41900:43:54.590 –> 00:43:58.570Cameron Reilly: 4, 4 and a bit months they’ve been sitting there. 42000:43:58.570 –> 00:43:59.600Cameron Reilly: Yeah, we did. 42100:43:59.600 –> 00:44:01.100Cameron Reilly: Thanks in the hands. Now. 42200:44:01.100 –> 00:44:03.859Ray Harris: Had stage agents now, and this. 42300:44:03.860 –> 00:44:07.710Cameron Reilly: Were provided by the Emperor, exactly tried them. 42400:44:07.710 –> 00:44:08.710Ray Harris: Right. It’s it’s. 42500:44:08.710 –> 00:44:09.570Cameron Reilly: Sort of like. 42600:44:09.570 –> 00:44:10.030Ray Harris: It’s complicated. 42700:44:10.030 –> 00:44:12.930Cameron Reilly: Yeah, wow, yeah, let’s let’s let’s we don’t 42800:44:12.930 –> 00:44:17.689Cameron Reilly: say who sent them. Let’s just you don’t do sent them really. 42900:44:17.690 –> 00:44:20.069Ray Harris: Right if you think about it. Was it was God. 43000:44:20.070 –> 00:44:25.949Cameron Reilly: You think about it? Yeah. So should we reswear our oaths of loyalty to the Emperor who saved the day. 43100:44:25.950 –> 00:44:28.840Ray Harris: No fuck. No. 43200:44:29.150 –> 00:44:46.280Ray Harris: but you’re right between between the siege materials and the mechanics who are the ones who will be operating this. This is really good news. In fact, this is such good news. Raymond and Bohemian make up Nope. That’s actually not true at all. They still fucking hate each other. In fact, they don’t trust each other so much. They both 43300:44:46.280 –> 00:45:09.140Ray Harris: go to the coast one. They want to recruit some of the men who are on these ships and 2. Obviously they both want to bring their own men to escort these materials and the mechanics back to the camp again. They’re literally keeping an eye on each other because they don’t trust each other, and in early March, on March 6th they’re on their way back to camp. But, as we said before. 43400:45:09.250 –> 00:45:11.089Ray Harris: the the troop 43500:45:14.280 –> 00:45:18.419Ray Harris: carrying Turkish units who have come out of the city once again. 43600:45:19.850 –> 00:45:20.720Cameron Reilly: Yeah. 43700:45:21.530 –> 00:45:36.430Cameron Reilly: so they get attacked. They are taken by surprise. The troops fled in panic, leaving all of the siege engines and everything else in the hands of the Turks. 43800:45:36.430 –> 00:45:38.280Ray Harris: Fuck, right. 43900:45:38.280 –> 00:45:46.569Cameron Reilly: Few stragglers rushed into camp and spread the rumor that both Raymond and Bohemon had been killed. 44000:45:48.240 –> 00:45:48.700Ray Harris: Oh, shit. 44100:45:48.700 –> 00:45:56.490Cameron Reilly: Godfrey, who had not been well. We haven’t heard much from Godfrey for a while, but Godfrey prepares his troops to go out. 44200:45:56.490 –> 00:45:56.990Ray Harris: The run. 44300:45:56.990 –> 00:46:00.460Cameron Reilly: What’s left of the left of the army. 44400:46:02.070 –> 00:46:02.880Ray Harris: Right. 44500:46:03.710 –> 00:46:05.349Cameron Reilly: While he’s going out. 44600:46:05.350 –> 00:46:05.670Ray Harris: Yeah. 44700:46:05.670 –> 00:46:06.600Cameron Reilly: Defend them. 44800:46:06.840 –> 00:46:12.040Cameron Reilly: Yogi Bear makes a sudden attack from the city against the camp 44900:46:12.200 –> 00:46:19.300Cameron Reilly: to provide cover for the raid party who are now returning with the siege engines and the rest of the booty. 45000:46:19.700 –> 00:46:20.290Ray Harris: Going, for. 45100:46:20.290 –> 00:46:32.970Cameron Reilly: His men are already armed. So they’re about to, you know. Go off to sort of support their guys. They’re able to hold back the attack as they’re doing that Raymond and Behemond appear. 45200:46:33.490 –> 00:46:34.880Cameron Reilly: But she was dead right. 45300:46:36.380 –> 00:46:37.330Ray Harris: Not today, betch. 45400:46:37.330 –> 00:46:37.819Cameron Reilly: That’s what. 45500:46:37.820 –> 00:46:38.200Ray Harris: Right. 45600:46:38.200 –> 00:46:39.480Cameron Reilly: Greatly exaggerated. Yeah. 45700:46:41.150 –> 00:46:42.429Cameron Reilly: Come back with their. 45800:46:42.580 –> 00:46:44.200Ray Harris: Surviving forces. 45900:46:44.850 –> 00:46:53.969Cameron Reilly: They’re weakened, but they’re able to help Godfrey drive the Turks back into the city. Then they united to intercept the raiders that have the. 46000:46:54.220 –> 00:46:55.030Ray Harris: Yes. 46100:46:55.150 –> 00:46:57.700Cameron Reilly: Booty and the right right. 46200:46:57.700 –> 00:47:02.960Cameron Reilly: and who aren’t able to move quickly because they’ve got the booty. So then they’re out manoeuvred. 46300:47:02.960 –> 00:47:03.360Ray Harris: Right. 46400:47:03.360 –> 00:47:11.579Cameron Reilly: And massacred as they try and reach the bridge. So the siege engine materials are recovered by the Crusaders. 46500:47:11.790 –> 00:47:17.359Cameron Reilly: It said that 1,500 Turks were killed, many of them drowned, trying to cross the river. 46600:47:17.610 –> 00:47:23.749Cameron Reilly: and among the dead were 9 Emirs. So a lot of the leadership of the Turks are dead. 46700:47:24.280 –> 00:47:31.410Cameron Reilly: and I like this story. That evening members of the Turkish garrison crept out to bear. 46800:47:31.410 –> 00:47:31.820Ray Harris: Right. 46900:47:31.820 –> 00:47:37.670Cameron Reilly: Dead in the Muslim cemetery that was on the north bank of the river. The Crusaders watched them and didn’t. 47000:47:37.670 –> 00:47:38.170Cameron Reilly: Right. 47100:47:38.170 –> 00:47:40.990Cameron Reilly: Yeah, see respect morning. 47200:47:40.990 –> 00:47:42.560Ray Harris: Respect! Oh! Oh! 47300:47:42.560 –> 00:47:43.240Cameron Reilly: All respect. 47400:47:43.240 –> 00:47:44.330Ray Harris: Sorry. 47500:47:44.510 –> 00:47:45.850Cameron Reilly: They were just tired. 47600:47:46.010 –> 00:47:48.210Cameron Reilly: The next morning they went out and. 47700:47:48.210 –> 00:47:48.620Ray Harris: Brook. 47800:47:48.620 –> 00:47:50.490Cameron Reilly: Up the corpses. 47900:47:50.490 –> 00:47:51.650Ray Harris: Look, and stole. 48000:47:51.650 –> 00:47:52.340Cameron Reilly: Can’t be right. 48100:47:52.340 –> 00:47:56.799Cameron Reilly: Gold and silver ornaments that they were buried with, because, you know, fuck. 48200:47:57.910 –> 00:48:17.379Ray Harris: Fuck a follow-up question, if I may, when Stan and Barry write the script because this is fucking awesome this right here this night alone, the fight, the going back and forth when the movie comes out in 2026, should this part of it, where they’re literally digging up corpses looking for 48300:48:17.510 –> 00:48:20.009Ray Harris: gold and silver on their bodies. 48400:48:20.190 –> 00:48:42.989Ray Harris: Do we include that? Do we feel like maybe that will get us a tougher rating? I don’t know but this is going to be. This is going to be a kick-ass movie. I just can’t wait. So they literally dig up the corpses to look corpses to look for this. So the point is, remember, way way back, when Raymond said, Hey, we should build a fortress to kind of, you know. Check some of these other gates they went well, dumbass. We don’t have any material 48500:48:42.990 –> 00:48:54.899Ray Harris: now. They’ve got materials. Now they’ve got mechanics, so they’re going to build a fortress to control the approach to the fortified bridge. So again, not a ton of food. But things are looking up. 48600:48:56.290 –> 00:49:00.909Cameron Reilly: And they called it this fortress La Mahomeri. 48700:49:01.060 –> 00:49:16.410Cameron Reilly: which was from the old French word for mosque, because it was quite close to the mosque and the burial ground as we’ve just mentioned, but it was unofficially known as the Castle of Raymond, because it was Raymond’s idea. Now I believe that’s what your house is called. 48800:49:16.560 –> 00:49:17.990Cameron Reilly: It is the conflict. 48900:49:17.990 –> 00:49:19.319Ray Harris: Payment right? 49000:49:19.320 –> 00:49:29.299Ray Harris: I used to, but the land around it is called Heather’s Hills. We don’t have to go into that, but it’s something I’m very proud of, and the Castle of Raymond was. 49100:49:29.300 –> 00:49:33.659Cameron Reilly: And, as we know, when you 1st got together with it, took you 5 years for you to. 49200:49:33.660 –> 00:49:34.559Ray Harris: You mount those hills. 49300:49:34.560 –> 00:49:35.060Cameron Reilly: Valley. 49400:49:35.060 –> 00:49:38.600Ray Harris: But I made it unlike these Crusaders. 49500:49:38.600 –> 00:49:39.169Cameron Reilly: Was it worth it. 49600:49:39.170 –> 00:49:40.180Ray Harris: I’ve been. 49700:49:40.180 –> 00:49:40.990Cameron Reilly: Betha white. 49800:49:41.230 –> 00:49:54.880Ray Harris: I’d say, Yeah, I’d say, Yeah, we’ll go into that later. I’ll show you some videos. But the point is, the Castle of Raymond was built, and it was finished by March 19.th So not in the dead of winter anymore. But food is still an issue. 49900:49:55.990 –> 00:49:59.179Cameron Reilly: Well, it’s they’re in spring now, and. 50000:49:59.180 –> 00:49:59.700Ray Harris: Forgetting. 50100:49:59.700 –> 00:50:09.460Cameron Reilly: It’s getting a little bit easier to go and forage for food. They’ve got a castle to defend themselves, to stop raiding parties coming out from the city 50200:50:09.510 –> 00:50:30.419Cameron Reilly: prevented any access to that gate out of the city. The bridge gate, but the gate of St. George, the one that backs onto the mountains is still open, so they decide to build a castle on that side of Antioch. There’s an old convent on the hill that they take over and turn into a castle. It was completed in April. 50300:50:30.760 –> 00:50:31.370Ray Harris: Yeah. 50400:50:31.370 –> 00:50:33.269Cameron Reilly: And entrusted to Tanker. 50500:50:33.420 –> 00:50:37.290Cameron Reilly: So from that moment on, by April 1098. 50600:50:37.560 –> 00:50:37.950Ray Harris: Yes. 50700:50:37.950 –> 00:50:51.730Cameron Reilly: No convoys of food are able to reach the city. Its inhabitants couldn’t send their flocks out to pasture outside of the walls on the mountainous side. Individual raiders could still climb over the walls or get 50800:50:51.730 –> 00:50:52.110Cameron Reilly: yeah. 50900:50:52.110 –> 00:51:01.219Cameron Reilly: the narrow iron gate. But there’s no longer any way for them to send out organised sorties to attack 51000:51:01.440 –> 00:51:11.980Cameron Reilly: foraging parties for the Crusaders, or to attack the Crusaders themselves. They’re locked in. The Turks are locked into Antioch. They can’t get support. They can’t get food. 51100:51:12.090 –> 00:51:15.320Cameron Reilly: they begin to suffer from hunger. 51200:51:15.590 –> 00:51:21.450Cameron Reilly: as the Crusaders are starting to be able to forage more and more with the arrival of spring. 51300:51:21.580 –> 00:51:29.429Cameron Reilly: Yeah, so. And soon after that there’s a huge consignment of food that was destined for Antioch. 51400:51:29.610 –> 00:51:32.470Cameron Reilly: Ming can fade by Christian merchants. 51500:51:33.530 –> 00:51:40.379Cameron Reilly: Tanker is able to capture that hell. Yeah, he’s like, and he’s not paying a beez it for a donkey. Now. 51600:51:40.380 –> 00:51:40.910Ray Harris: Thank you. 51700:51:40.910 –> 00:51:41.889Cameron Reilly: Which is. 51800:51:41.890 –> 00:51:42.650Ray Harris: You got a sword. 51900:51:42.650 –> 00:51:53.030Cameron Reilly: The in and the out. He’s like Motherfucker. No one else is buying your food, so either you sell it at reasonable prices, or we just kill you and take it, anyway. 52000:51:53.240 –> 00:51:53.660Ray Harris: Exactly. 52100:51:53.660 –> 00:51:59.249Cameron Reilly: So they’re in a Crusaders are in a good position. However. 52200:51:59.520 –> 00:52:12.080Cameron Reilly: at this point they still believe that Kurboga of Mosul is on his way with a huge army that he has been gathering all the way from Iraq. 52300:52:12.350 –> 00:52:22.139Cameron Reilly: So that is still the big issue. They got a little bit more food. They’ve locked down Antioch, but they still need to worry about. 52400:52:22.260 –> 00:52:24.960Cameron Reilly: and we will talk about what happens next. 52500:52:25.200 –> 00:52:27.839Cameron Reilly: In the next episode.   The post Renaissance #210 – Jesus Starves (The Crusades part 19) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Kerbogha, the governor of Mosul, with a massive coalition army he’d built, on his way to relieve Antioch, paused to eliminate Baldwin in Edessa. One of his new allies was Ridwan of Aleppo, who relied heavily on the Shi’a ‘Order of Assassins’, led by Hassan-i Sabbah, to stay in power. And Sabbah was friends with the Persian polymath Omar Khayyam. So let’s go down some rabbit holes. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #208 – Omar Comin’ (The Crusades part 17) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

This episode finds the Crusaders marching through the Anatolian desert, doing deals with French pirates, selling their armour and watching pack animals sliding down wet mountain paths, until finally reaching the city/fortress of Tarsus – where they immediately turn on and kill each other, before eventually moving on towards Antioch. This was less a unified Christian army and more a coalition of competing interests, with each leader vying for their own piece of Muslim territory. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #204 – A Coalition of Competing Interests (The Crusades part 13) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

On his way to Constantinople, Bohemond attacked a village of Christian heretics, because having different opinions should not be tolerated. When he arrived at the Byzantine capital, he met with Alexios but didn’t trust his cooking. After he left, he was quickly followed by Count Raymond of Toulouse, who thought he should be in charge of the allied invasion and had a knack for building barricades… out of corpses. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #200 – Raw Meat (The Crusades part 9) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

The failure of the People’s Crusade didn’t stop the overall appetite in Europe for pillaging the Holy Land. They still had the Prince’s Crusade. A bunch of rich young men, their vassals and hired mercenaries set out to pillage Jerusalem and anything else appetising along the way. Even, perhaps Constantinople. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #197 – The Prince’s Crusade (The Crusades part 6) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

At the end of April in 1096, a priest by the name of Volkmar, a monk called Gottschalk, and an army from the Rhineland led by a Count Emich set off on the First Crusade with tens of thousands of soldiers and enthusiastic pilgrims… following a goose that had been inspired by God… and a holy goat. Their first order of business was to kill as many Jews as possible. Why? Because something something Jesus. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post Renaissance #195 – The Holy Goose and the Holy Goat (The Crusades part 4) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Our guest today, Toby Lester, has worked as a refugee affairs officer for the United Nations, helped with programmes in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, undertaken Peace Corps work in Yemen. He has written also extensively for national publications, including the Smithsonian, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The American Scholar, The Wilson Quarterly, BBC Magazine, and the London Times. He also worked at The Atlantic in a variety of editorial capacities: including as the managing editor. Today he serves part-time as a senior editor for Harvard Business Review and edits books for writers, but he is himself a writer of two wonderful history books, The Fourth Part of the World (2009) and Da Vinci’s Ghost (2011) which is about Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post #138 – Toby Lester, Da Vinci’s Ghost – Leonardo da Vinci Part 27 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Taking a short break from Leonardo, our guest today is Julia Charity, an official Vatican tour guide! Julia, who originally hails from the UK, tells us how she ended up as a Vatican tour guide and about some of her favourite art on display in the Pope&#8217;s fortress, including &#8220;The Last Judgment&#8221; by Michelangelo, the &#8220;Transfiguration&#8221; by her &#8220;Renaissance husband&#8221;, Raphael, and the Borgia Apartments. If you want to book a Vatican tour with Julia, you can email here at theacharity[at]gmail.com. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES <div class="whooshkaa-widget-player" data-episode-id="938350" data-theme="light" data-height="190" data-enable-volume="true" > The post #136 &#8211; Julia &#038; The Vatican appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Curtis Wong has had an incredible career. He has produced critically acclaimed educational CD-ROMs at Corbis and the Voyager Co., as well as the definitive editions of feature films for the Criterion Collection. He ran  the Content Group at Intel, and was granted many patents at Microsoft Research. Today he joins us to tell some stories from his career, including his groundbreaking work with Bill Gates to produce the digital version of Leonardo da Vinci&#8217;s Codex Leicester. <div class="whooshkaa-widget-player" data-episode-id="821297" data-theme="light" data-height="190" data-enable-volume="true" > The post #120 &#8211; Leonardo da Vinci Part 13 &#8211; Curtis Wong appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

We chat with one of the world&#8217;s leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci &#8211; Matthew Landrus from Oxford University, author of Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow. &nbsp; The post #118 &#8211; Leonardo da Vinci Part 11 &#8211; Matthew Landrus appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

If you&#8217;re wondering &#8220;where are rest of the episodes?&#8221;, they are on our website as part of our membership program. The post Where are rest of the episodes? appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

&#8220;Extraordinary power &#8230; conjoined with remarkable facility, a mind of regal boldness and magnanimous daring.&#8221; That&#8217;s how Vasari described Leonardo da Vinci. But how much do we really know about the world&#8217;s most famous artist? And how much of what we think we know is myth? The post #108 &#8211; Leonardo da Vinci Part 1 &#8211; A Complete Bastard appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

With Charles out of the picture, Piero de Medici figures it’s time to return to Florence. He marched into Tuscany with a force of four hundred lancers, light cavalry, and foot soldiers. Unfortunately, nobody shows up to welcome him and he went back into exile. But his attempt to return sets off a series of political assassinations in Florence, supported by Savonarola. Civil tensions increase until a Franciscan friar challenges Savonarola to trial by fire. When this doesn’t work out as planned, the people are furious and Savonarola gets thrown into prison. &nbsp; The post #105 &#8211; Savonarola Part 12 &#8211; Trial By Fire appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Savonarola’s predictions that God was going to punish the Florentines seem to be coming true when, in 1494, King Charles VIII of France invades Italy to take control of Naples. On his way south, he also threatens to attack Florence. When Piero de Medici tries to negotiate a settlement, it’s a complete failure. So the Signoria send Savonarola to meet with the king instead. &nbsp; The post #99 &#8211; Savonarola Part 6 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In 1492, Lorenzo The Magnificent died. His heir was his eldest son, 20 year old Piero de’ Medici, a useless turd. The Pope died soon afterwards and was replaced by the corrupt Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI. Savonarola proclaimed that the “Sword of the Lord” would soon descend upon Florence to punish it for its wicked ways. In this case, the sword would soon be carried another 20 year old ruler &#8211; King Charles VIII of France. &nbsp; The post #98 &#8211; Savonarola Part 5 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

After Lorenzo de Medici’s death in 1492, Botticelli gave up painting, abandoned his humanist studies, and became a hardcore fundamentalist Christian. As did a lot of Florentines. The reason? They all fell under the spell of the original fire and brimstone preacher. He wasn’t rich. He didn’t have an army. He wasn’t of the nobility. He wasn’t sent by the pope. In fact, the Pope hated him. But he managed to do what so many rich men with armies had failed to do for decades. He overturned the government of Florence, kicked out the Medici family, and took control of the city. And&#8230; to top it off, he was a precursor of the Reformation. He is famous for the Bonfire Of The Vanities. His name was Girolamo SAVONAROLA. &nbsp; &nbsp; The post #94 &#8211; Savonarola Part 1 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

During Lorenzo de Medici’s life, no fewer than three of the outstanding artists of the Renaissance are thought to have spent at least a brief formative period of their early lives in the Palazzo Medici: Leonardo and Michelangelo and the one we&#8217;re going to talk about for the next few episodes &#8211; the great Sandro Botticelli. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post #89 &#8211; Sandro Botticelli appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

When the Inquisition came to your town, they would grant you 30 days to confess to being a heretic. This was known as the &#8220;Edicts Of Grace&#8221;. If you confessed, you might get a hefty fine, but at least you wouldn&#8217;t end up in prison or burned at the stake. Of course, many conversos decided it was the smart move to confess &#8211; whether they actually were a crytpo-Jew or not. The post #86 &#8211; Edicts Of Grace appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

On this episode we discuss the artist Poliziano, who popularised the new sophistication and learning expected of a gentleman; Mirandola, who at age 23 decided to debate the entire world; and the magnificent breasts of Simonetta Vespucci. The post #81 &#8211; Introducing The Gentleman appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Early in his rule, Lorenzo de&#8217; Medici cracked down on the town of Volterra, resulting in rampage, murdering, looting and raping. Meanwhile, in Milan, on the day after Christmas 1476, Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, was stabbed by three noblemen as he entered church. And Larry upsets Pope Sixtus IV over a loan request, which leads to an assassination attempt in 1478 on both Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano, also while attending church. It&#8217;s known as The Pazzi Conspiracy. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. FREE EPISODES The post #78 &#8211; The Pazzi Conspiracy appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Lorenzo de&#8217; Medici throws himself a jousting tournament to take Florence&#8217;s minds off the fact he&#8217;s marrying a Roman girl. The ‘Queen of the Tournament’ was Lucrezia Donati, a Florentine hottie who Lorenzo was writing love poetry about, even thought she was married to someone else. His bride, Clarice Orsini, arrived in Florence a while later, and they were married just before Piero died. The marriage wasn&#8217;t altogether happy, but at least they did produce Pope Leo X. But then the troubles started. Florence&#8217;s enemies, many of them exiled by Lorenzo&#8217;s father and grandfather, think they can take this 20 year old kid. They are in for a surprise. The post #77 &#8211; The Marriage Of Lorenzo appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

It’s been a while since we have caught up with Cosimo de Medici. Four years after his return to Florence in 1434, he secured a huge opportunity for Florence, that would have far reaching effects on the Renaissance &#8211; hosting the Ecumenical Council between the East and West churches. This saw a contingent of 700 Greek scholars and theologians come to Florence for an extended stay. They brought with them knowledge and documents that would change Florence forever. The post #71 &#8211; The Greek Invasion appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In 1453, when the Turks took Constantinople, Pope Nicky 5 wanted a crusade and authorized the sale of letters of indulgence—religious documents that released the buyers from penalties for their sins. And guess who printed them? Then he finally got around to working on his masterpiece and the book he is most remembered for &#8211; the “42-line Bible,” aka the Gutenberg Bible. But just before the printing of the bibles was finished, his investor, Fust, took him to court and sued him for overdue repayment of the investment. And Gutenberg was ruined. He eventually recovered and printed an even more complicated work &#8211; The Catholicon, a Latin grammar and a very detailed dictionary. But the, in the early 1460s, an outright war between two contenders for the seat of archbishop of Mainz got in the way. And Gutenberg was ruined yet again. He died in 1468, his contributions to printing pretty much forgotten. The post #70 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 6 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Commercial opportunities for a printing press went beyond books. One of those was the Fall of Constantinople. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire lead by 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II defeated the army of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine Emperor. To tell this story we also need to talk about The Great Schism, how and why Christianity split into east and west camps. Because there&#8217;s nothing Jesus loves more than a little bit of Christian on Christian violence. The post #69 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 5 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Hand carving a piece of metal type for a printing press would take a skilled craftsman an entire day. Just setting one page of the Bible would take 2600 pieces of type. So Gutenberg needed to come up with an efficient way to manufacture type – which is a lot harder than it sounds. He also needed to invent the printing press. On this episode we go through how he did those things – and then talk about how it was all ripped out from underneath him, just as he was about to have his big victory. The post #68 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 4 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

One of Gutenberg’s partners died, and the guy’s brothers wanted in on the secret project. Gutenberg refused, so they took him to court. Then in 1444, Gutenberg left Strasbourg and went… where? We don’t know. He disappeared for three years. Some interesting conspiracy theories about where he might have gone. We also talk about the people who invented movable type before Gutenberg… the CHINESE! CHINA CHINA CHINA! The post #67 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 3 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In 1428, Gutenberg moved to Strasbourg where he would live for the next 20 years. It was there that he had his first big business venture—making holy healing ray containment devices. He brought on investors who later became suspicious that he was holding out on them. He had a secret project that he was working on. And they wanted in. The post #66 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 2 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Today we begin a series about the man without whom our podcasts would not exist because there would be no books. And you know we get all of our knowledge from books. The man who invented movable type and the printing press (or did he?). Johannes Gutenberg. The post #65 &#8211; Gutenberg Part 1 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Born 1401 as Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, &#8220;Masaccio&#8221; (his nickname) was regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, he was the best painter of his generation. The first painter in the Renaissance who really understood linear perspective. He died age only 26, in 1428. “Masaccio,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “showed by perfect works that those who are led by any guide except Nature, the supreme mistress, are consumed in sterile toil.” His masterpiece was the Holy Trinity fresco in the Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The post #64 &#8211; Masaccio appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Born Guido di Pietro but known to us as Fra Angelico which means the &#8220;Angelic friar&#8221;. Despite his early talent for painting, at age 12 he entered the Dominican order and spent the rest of his life in convents, painting their walls. Admired by Cosimo de Medici and extremely influential to the early Renaissance artists, he was one of the first to start to incorporate linear perspective. We also talk about Pope Nicholas V, the first humanist Pope. Born into relative poverty, he spent most of his adult life in Florence as an assistant to an Archbishop and a Pope, while hanging around with the humanists, until his surprise election to the top job. He decided to Make Rome Great Again, by bringing as many of the top scribes, translators, architects, painters and sculptors to work for him as he could ge this hands on &#8211; including Fra Angelico and Leon Battista Alberti. He&#8217;s also the guy who created the vision for the modern Vatican Palace and the Vatican Library. The post #63 &#8211; Fra Angelico &#038; Pope Nicholas V appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

The first written work of art theory, produced during the Renaissance was “De Pictura”, or “On Painting”, written in 1435 by Leon Battista Alberti but not published until 1450, in which he explained the science behind linear perspective. He was a humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, mathematician and cryptographer. He also wrote the first autobiography since St Augustine. A true polymath and the first Renaissance Man, who inspired every Renaissance artist who followed him. The post #62 The First Renaissance Man appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

After returning to Rome to work for the Vatican, Poggio Bracciolini starting making some serious money of his own. Enough to get married and buy a big house. He served as chancellor of Florence for five years. After he died, Lucretius kept working its magic on the people of Europe. Forty years later, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola ruled Florence for several years as a strict “Christian republic&#8221; and tried to ban the book. And he wasn&#8217;t the last Christian to try to have it banned or at least scorned. But it kept influencing people. On the London stage in the mid-1590s, Mercutio teased Romeo with a fantastical description of Queen Mab: She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomi Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep . . . (Romeo and Juliet, I.iv.55–59) The post #61 That New Car Smell appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

In 1419, a couple of years after he lost his papal secretary job and discovered Lucretius, Poggio did what everyone does when they are shit out luck and scraping the bottom of the barrel. He moved to England. He accepted the post of secretary to Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester and uncle of Henry V. Poggio hoped to find some intelligent life in England and maybe a valuable ancient manuscript. He was disappointed on both counts. So in 1422 he returned to work for the Vatican again, or, as he liked to call it, &#8220;The Lie Factory&#8221;. Meanwhile he kept trying to get Nicky to send him a copy of Lucretius so he could read it. Once back in Rome, he starts to make money &#8211; and illegitimate children. LOTS of illegitimate children. The post #60 The Lie Factory appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Nicky the Nickster was one of the most influential people in Florence in the early 1400s. He was the unofficial minister of culture and probably the guy who influenced Cosimo de Medici to support the humanists and artists. Obsessed with antiquity, he spent his entire family fortune on buying ancient manuscripts, sculptures and other artefacts. He was also a master of Latin and quite the dilettante. When he died, he had built the largest private library of ancient books in Italy. Early German printers used his cursive handwriting as the basis for italic typesetting. The post #59 Niccolo de Niccoli appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

When Christians banned other religions and philosophies in the late 4th century, Plato and Aristotle, pagans who believed in the immortality of the soul, could ultimately be accommodated by Christianity; but Epicureanism could not. The Epicureans believed life was about seeking pleasure and, if there was pain, it would end with death. Christians, on the other hand, thought life should be difficult, pleasure was evil, and pain could last for eternity. Therefore they had to wipe out all memory of the Epicureans and change the meaning of the term into someone who is a glutton. Here&#8217;s a short clip from the show: The post #58 How The Christians Wiped Out Epicureanism appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Let’s get deep into some Lucretius, the Roman Epicurean philosopher poet. Today I want to read from &#8220;On the Nature of Things&#8221;. * As our Alexander listeners will know, Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher * 341–270 BCE * established his own school, known as &#8220;the Garden&#8221;, in Athens around 300 BCE * In the period after Alexander died * Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects, and he openly allowed women to join the school as a matter of policy. * An extremely prolific writer, he is said to have originally written over 300 works on various subjects, but the vast majority of these writings have been lost. * Only three letters written by him and two collections of quotes have survived intact, along with a few fragments and quotations of his other writings. * Most knowledge of his teachings comes from later authors, particularly the Roman poet Lucretius, the biographer Diogenes Laërtius, Dickero, and the philosophers Philodemus and Sextus Empiricus. * For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear— and aponia—the absence of pain— and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. * He taught that the root of all human neurosis is death denial, and the tendency for human beings to assume that death will be horrific and painful, which he claimed causes unnecessary anxiety, selfish self-protective behaviors, and hypocrisy. * According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared. * Likewise, Epicurus taught that the gods, though they do exist, have no involvement in human affairs and do not punish or reward people for their actions. * Like Aristotle, Epicurus was an empiricist, meaning he believed that the senses are the only reliable source of knowledge about the world. * He derived much of his physics and cosmology from the earlier philosopher Democritus (c. * 460–c.370 BC). * Like Democritus, (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), Epicurus taught that the universe is infinite and eternal and that all matter is made up of extremely tiny, invisible particles known as atoms. * All occurrences in the natural world are ultimately the result of atoms moving and interacting in empty space. * Epicurus deviated from Democritus in his teaching of atomic &#8220;swerve&#8221;, which holds that atoms may deviate from their expected course, thus permitting humans to possess free will in an otherwise deterministic universe. * Epicureanism reached the height of its popularity during the late years of the Roman Republic, before declining as the rival school of Stoicism grew in popularity at its expense. * It finally died out in late antiquity in the wake of early Christianity. * Epicurus himself was popularly, though inaccurately, remembered throughout the Middle Ages as a patron of drunkards, whoremongers, and gluttons. * Democritus himself was supposedly a student of Leucippus (5th cent. BCE) who was the earliest Greek to develop the theory of atomism * Although there’s some doubt as to whether or not Leucippus actually existed * So &#8211; Lucretius didn’t invent atomism * But he articulated it beautifully in poetry * And I want to read some of it * * He starts off the book with a fairly traditional ode to the goddess Venus: * Mother of Aeneas’ sons, joy of men and gods, * nourishing Venus, who beneath the stars * that glide across the sky, crams full of life * ship-bearing seas and fruitful lands—through you * are conceived all families of living things * which rise up to gaze upon the splendour * of sunlight, and when you approach, goddess, * winds and sky clouds scurry off; for your sake, * artful earth puts forth sweet flowers; for you, * smooth seas smile, calm sky pours glittering light, * and once day’s face reveals the spring, winds blow * freely from the west, bringing fertility, * and air-born birds whose heart your power strikes * give first signs of you, goddess, and your approach. * But before long he he starts talking about gods and religion and how miserable people are, trying to work out what the gods want from them. * And then he gets into how to rid ourselves of superstition by using reason. * And so this terror, this darkness of mind, * must be dispelled, not by rays from the sun * or bright shafts of daylight, but by reason * and the face of nature. And we will start * to weave her first principle as follows: * nothing is ever brought forth by the gods * from nothing. That is, of course, how, through fear, * all mortal men are held in check—they view * many things done on earth and in the sky, * effects whose causes they cannot see at all, * and so they assume that such things happen * because of gods. Hence, once we understand * that nothing can be produced from nothing, * then we shall more accurately follow * what we are looking for, how everything * can be created and all work can be done * without any assistance from the gods. * Then a little later he explains that if all matter broke down endlessly over time, nothing would exist. * The world is so old, everything would have disappeared by now: * Thus, there is no substance * which is reduced to nothing—but all things, * once dissolved, go back to material stuff. * So something remains throughout time which is used to build other things. * And then a little later he explains how things which are invisible to the naked eye can still carry a powerful force: * First of all, the power of wind, once roused, * lashes harbours, annihilates huge ships, * scatters clouds. Sometimes in swift, whirling storms * it sweeps across the plains, covering them * with giant trees, and assaults mountain tops * with blasts that splinter wood—that’s how fiercely * the wind howls out in passionate anger, * screaming and threatening with a frantic howl. * And therefore we can have no doubt that winds, * although invisible, are bodies, too. * They sweep sea and land as well as sky clouds, * jolt and ravage them with sudden whirlwinds. * They rush on ahead and spread destruction, * just as water, whose nature is delicate, * suddenly carried in a flooding stream * gorged with massive run-off from heavy rains * down towering mountains races on, hurling * broken branches of the trees together, * whole trees, as well—strong bridges cannot stand * against the sudden power of the flood * as it charges on. In that way, swollen * with so much rain, the river then attacks, * with its massed, violent force, foundations * of the bridge—with a mighty roar it spreads * devastation, rolling immense boulders * underneath its waves, obliterating * whatever blocks its flow. And that, therefore, * must be how blasts of wind are carried, too. * When, like powerful rivers, they swoop down * any place they wish, they drive things forward * and pummel them with repeated onslaughts. * Sometimes they seize things in a twisting whirl * and carry objects instantly away * in a spiraling vortex. That is why, * to make the point again, winds are bodies, * although unseen, for in the way they act * and in what they do, we find they rival * great streams, which clearly are material stuff. Then, too, we sense the different smells of things, * yet never glimpse them coming to our nostrils. * Our eyes do not perceive a fiery heat, * nor can they see the cold. As for voices, * we are not used to viewing them. But still, * all must consist of corporeal stuff, * since they can strike our senses, for unless * there is bodily substance, no object * can touch or itself be touched. Moreover, * clothes hung up on a beach with breaking waves * get wet, but these same garments, once spread out * dry off in sunlight, yet no one has seen * how water moisture makes its way to them * or how, by contrast, influenced by heat, * it escapes again. The moisture, therefore, * is broken up in tiny particles * our eyes cannot through any means make out. * Then he starts to logic how everything must be made of small, invisible things: * with many yearly solar orbits, * a ring worn on the finger, through long use, * wears out underneath, and dripping water * falling from the eaves hollows out a stone; * and on a ploughshare, the blade’s curving edge, * though composed of iron, when used in farm land, * thanks to some concealed effect, gets smaller. * We know people’s feet wear down paving stones, * and bronze statues beside the gates reveal * that their right hands are being eroded * by people touching them so frequently, * when they salute them and then walk on by. * So we see these things are getting smaller, * as they are rubbed, but the jealous nature * of our vision prevents our noticing * at any moment matter moving off. * Finally, whatever material stuff * time and nature little by little add * to things, forcing them gradually to grow, * the sharpness of our straining eyes can see * none of it, nor, once more, what wastes away * through old age and decay. Nor can you see * what rocks hanging by the sea and eaten * by corrosive salt lose in each moment. * Hence, nature works with unseen particles. * Next he logics how all objects, no matter how solid they appear, must contain empty space: * And then, why do we see some things weigh more * than other things, when there is no difference * in their size? For if in a ball of wool * there is just as much matter as in lead, * they should weigh the same, since material stuff * has the property of pushing all things down, * but, by contrast, the nature of a void * continues on without weighing anything. * And so, the object which is just as large * and yet seems lighter clearly demonstrates * that it contains in it more empty space; * whereas, the heavier object indicates * that it has more material stuff inside * and far less void. Thus, there can be no doubt * the thing which we, with our keen argument, * are seeking out, what we describe as void, * exists, mixed in with substantial matter. * And so he summarises: * we shall prove that there are seeds, * primary elements of matter, from which, * in the grand total of created things, * all objects now are made. * Furthermore, * if material stuff had not been eternal, * all things would have been utterly reduced * to nothing long ago—and things we see * would have been reborn from nothing. * But since, * as I have previously explained, nothing * can be produced from nothing and, further, * what has been produced cannot be reduced * to nothing, then first elements must be * made of everlasting stuff, into which, * when its time is over, every object * can be dissolved, so matter is produced * for the renewal of things. * * And that’s just the beginning of Book One! * There are FIVE books! * He talks about the gods being separate from man and our universe, he talks about free will, soul, love, and magnets work &#8211; you name it. * And obviously he gets a lot of stuff wrong. * But also a lot of stuff right. The post #57 Lucretius &#8220;On The Nature Of Things&#8221; appeared first on The Renaissance Times.