Illuminating the Middle Ages

Historically, our understanding of the Middle Ages has tended to be coloured by the ‘Dark Age’ label, which casts this as a time of cultural famine and stagnation in contrast to the Renaissance and our Classical heritage. Yet medievalists insist the era has a wealth of thought, art and culture to rival that of any period in history, to such an extent that scholars now talk of the Carolingian, Ottoman and twelfth-century renaissances, emphasising the richness of an era once considered barren. Speakers include Dr Elizabeth Boyle, research fellow, St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge; Albert Fenton, graduate, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Celtic at Cambridge; Lindsay Johns, writer, broadcaster and cultural commentator, Daily Mail online; Dr Levi Roach, lecturer of Medieval History, University of Exeter.