Terry Jones Gets Medieval

I recently acquired a copy of Terry Jones' mini-series, Medieval Lives. Originally broadcast on the BBC a couple years ago, the series looked at the lives of members of eight different groups of medieval society including the peasant, the damsel, and good Sir Knight. In a piece he wrote for the UK paper The Observer, Jones related why he wrote the book and made the accompanying series:

The distortions, obfuscations and downright lies which they and admirers of the Renaissance ever since have fastened onto the Middle Ages still infect our historical vision. The very fact that we call that period (whatever it is) 'the Middle Ages' is but one example. The idea that it is a limbo between the bright lights of the classical World and the even brighter lights of the Renaissance is enshrined there in the very title.

But the medieval world wasn't a time of stagnation or ignorance. A lot of what we assume to be medieval ignorance is, in fact, our own ignorance about the medieval world.

While it eventually made its way across The Pond to the History Channel, it remains commercially unavailable here in the States.

I bring this up for two reasons. Firstly, because it foreshadows a pitiful entry I am going to write on my foray into the world of DVD authoring; secondly, Jones has a new book out called Terry Jones' Barabrians. Well, it's currently out in the Untied Kingdom, anyway. And like Medieval Lives, there's a TV series to accompany it. In fact, the first episode aired about 3 hours ago on BBC2. Also like Medieval Lives, Jones' new opus takes a rather contrary view to established history and says that the Barbarians weren't such a bad lot after all and, in fact, the Romans were a bunch of cold-hearted and ruthless bastards. From The Independent:

To say that his project aims to cast doubt on the virtue of the Roman Empire and the value of its legacy is rather like suggesting that Queen Boudica of the Iceni - inevitably, one star of this show - had a few tiny contractual niggles with her overlords. After almost two millennia, it's payback time.

This is popular history with an edge, and an agenda. Jones gleefully and wittily takes the side of the maligned Britons and Persians, Goths and Vandals, to argue that "the story of a descent from the light of Rome to the darkness of Barbarian dominion is completely false". The "barbarian" hordes so slighted by victor's history emerge as more sophisticated, humane and resourceful than the Roman killing-machine that marched out to rob and ruin them. Take the quite un-vandalistic Vandals: when they entered the chaos that was Rome in 455AD, "not a single building was destroyed". So there.



No doubt the TV series will be available at the same spot I grabbed Medieval Lives shortly after it has finished airing. Due to some snags with a certain bit of DVD authoring software, I've only watched the first episode of Medieval Lives and it was excellent. It concerned peasants and the worst part of it was that it only lasted twenty some-odd minutes. The show is a mix of Jones lecturing, talking to experts, recreations including Jones in drag, and cartoons all done in a very irreverent manner. He began by explaining that the people in involved in the Peasant Revolt of 1381 were actually quite well-organized with an explicit agenda. He proceeded to drive to the village of Laxton which still had vestiges of the Medieval peasant way of life. The fields were still divided up into strips and still had an elected courtleet(?). Back in the day, the courtleet formulated by-laws, collected rents, and maintained law & order. Today, however, these gentlemen ensure that farmers are adhering to land boundaries.

I highly recommend check out Medieval Lives if you get the chance. For me, it was a no-brainer as I love Monty Python and am a medieval history buff. It was directed at a general audience so no knowledge other than when the Middle Ages were is required.