Marc Fennell

Behind one of the most deadly chapters in human history is something far larger, more complex, and more lavish.

My name is Mark Finnell, and you are about to have the Black Death, completely myth-busted, an epic of war, of wealth, unintended consequences, and no one saw it coming.

This is medieval historian Dr. Eleanor Janager.

And if there's one thing she loves, it's ripping up everything you think you know about the Middle Ages.

So we're kind of going from like the end of the Western Roman civilization up to like the Renaissance, right?

Mm-hmm.

And there is one other thing that Eleanor loves calling out.

It's this idea that the medieval world was just a bit brown and gray and dreary with mud everywhere.

Because in reality, according to Eleanor, it was actually a period bursting with color.

It turns out that idea that medieval people were, as Helena puts it, rolling around in mud, it's a bit of a misconception.

Right, so medieval people are appropriately lathered in soap and dressed in technicolour.

So where does the mud idiot version of history come from?

Well, that actually occurs a few centuries later.

It's the product of a very fancy French writer and philosopher with a big white wig, a velvet jacket and some strong opinions.

And thanks to Voltaire, who was saying all this about 300 years ago, by the way, our view of the Middle Ages today is still pretty warped.

But there is one thing people do get right.

The medieval period was the age of plague.

The Black Death in the mid-1300s is the first full-blown plague, at least that we know of, to rip through populations at this scale.

And you may have an image in your head from movies and novels or history class.

To be absolutely honest with you, whatever you're imagining, the reality was probably worse.