Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

Terry Jones' love of history is well-known, and this book, which seemed to be based on a BBC series of the same name, goes more deeply and detailedly in the richness of late medieval history in English than one would expect. Written with Alan Ereira, parts of pieces of Jones' comedic voice remains in the the text. Separated into the medieval roles, Jones uses these roles to construct a counter-narrative to many of the stereotypes around medieval history through focusing in on specific instances and highlighting specific anecdotes to clarify the his major points.It is clearly organized, and the focus on specific anecdotes are useful, but definitely feel more cinematic than scholarly. However, there are reasons why Jones' did this that are beyond limits based on the BBC series: Jones has a bone to pick with much of the historigraphy around the Renaissance. As he said in an interview "...And I'm sick to death of that ridiculous assumption that that before the Renaissance human beings had no sense of individuality." Jones aims to illustrate that this is clearly a misunderstanding of self-conception of humanity in the medieval period. The anecdotes persalize things on an individual level. Furthermore, Jones' is good a pointing out that our conceptions of the medieval period are often more based on Victorian misconceptions and projecting violence of the Renaissance and the early modern period back unto medieval period.The book is particularly good on the selective criterion for understanding the Plantagent kings as well as omissions from the king's list like Louis the first and last, who was ruler during the first Baron's War. It also is particularly strong in the areas about popular medieval conceptions of women. A close reading of Chaucer would have confirmed a lot of what Jones is saying, but he and Ereira do a particularly good job of finding both historical and literary sources to make their point here. A weak point may be on medieval medicine where Jones seems to think that treatments developed in the medieval period that ther roots of some modern treatments were more effective than they were. He does not mention how dangerous a lot of the medical precedures used by Galen are, and then he justifies it by morality rates in modern hospitals due to infection. The two cases aren't really good analogies for severeal reasons: Most of which having to do with the fact we understand what hospital morality is so high, but medieval doctors didn't understand why so many of their leeched patiences died anyway.While Ian Mortimer's "Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England" show be paired with this as it is much more substantive and should probably be read with this book, Jones light take on history is still substantive enough for the non-specialist to learn significant amounts and for the specialist to be fairly amused.

This rather light-hearted look at the so-called Medieval period of history had something of the feel of a television program about it. And – surprise! – a look at the acknowledgements section reveals that it apparently is, in fact, a companion book to a television series. I’m sorry I missed it.Despite that, however, it is serious history, even if it does constitute a somewhat rapid overview of the period. Their approach is to discuss the lives of eight types of people you might have run into during the almost five-hundred year period of the middle ages (which they define as having lasted in England from 1066 to 1536).One of the constant themes is change – for example, in the lives of peasants. During the period the number of slaves declined as slaves were replaced by villeins – people who were obliged to work a certain number of days a week on their masters’ farms and additionally pay rents in the form of a portion of their crops. Over time the rents began to be paid in cash, and people became more free to move to other parts of the country, or to own small farms on their own. The lives of the other types of people changed over the years too – some improving, some getting now better, now worse (damsels, i.e. higher-class women, for example, were treated more tolerantly at some periods than others, and the changes were not uniformly improvements). Even the role of kings, the last of the types of people covered, changed over the period, but at least in their case many of the changes were initiated by the kings themselves, or were, at any rate, due to such good or bad qualities as they possessed. They also point out how much of our judgements of these kings of the past is due to historical records that may have been manipulated by those who came to power after them, so that those who we think of as ‘good’ kings may not have necessarily been perceived as such by the people of their own times.I learned a lot from this book, and found little in it that contradicted what I have read in much more ‘serious’ histories of the period. If you would like to learn more about the middle ages but are intimidated by long recitals of minute details, this book is a good choice.

The author and Monty Python member is also a screenwriter and actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host (I am incredibly under accomplished). Jones along with co-author Alan Ereira employ an approachable style to a subject that undeniably fascinates them both. I picked it up to help with a popular history of marketing I am penning. It was gratifying to find that their findings are supportive of my own.Most of what resonated with me concerns the sophistication of people at the time regarding their needs and wants. They occupied substantial homes, brewing and imbibing were well underway and French wines were imported. The story of minstrels and their comparison to modern PR men is also great fun as was the aggressively entrepreneurial monks, specifically the Cistercians. The holy men of the period were extremely well off. Records from Westminster Abbey betray a decadence in the consumption of food and drink. In fact, alcohol accounted for 19% of monks' energy intake when ours is roughly 5%.Jones and Ereira and other popular historians of our day are doing a great job making history more digestible and fun. They are also righting wrongs by challenging commonly held beliefs and inaccurate school curriculum. The authors warn us not to be ignorant of our past and use the last line to reinforce the reality that so much of history is propaganda not fact.

As a history teacher; this is fun, witty, and insightful with tons of narratives to add human relevance when conveying with teenagers

I have to say it's a really fun read. I'm about half way through it already, even after a week (some of us still have day jobs!). I'm on the section about religion at the moment and it has facts, history lessons and a good bit of wit. It's not one of those completely tongue in cheek books either, but infuses some wit and sarcasm in through the text so that you're not feeling like you're getting ready for a history exam. They also don't bog down in parts, so it's not like you're dying to go to the next section. I would say the dates bounce around a good bit. I think i'm in the 1100s and on turning the page find it's 1321 and then back to 1001 and the like. Otherwise, I couldn't recommend it more than this. A full 5 stars for me.

I read as far as Jones asserting that Mark Smeaton was hung, drawn and quartered. This is not true. He was beheaded in the same way as his fellows who had also been convicted and sentenced to death. If Terry Jones gets something so basic wrong then it made me wonder how many other inaccuracies the book contains. No excuse for such sloppy scholarship.

Very readable and packed full of interesting stories which help to explain how medieval people viewed many aspects of life (e.g. health) in a very different way from how we understand them today. The book also puts paid to some persistent myths about the medieval concept of chivalry, the supposedly helpless position of women in medieval society and how the Renaissance "saved" the Middle Ages from wrack and ruin. Terry Jones also passes some rather unflattering judgements on the medieval church and the monastic movement in particular.

Wittily written and informative this is the clearest and most easily followed account of the decline of the Roman Empire and the development of medieval Europe that I have come across. Don't expect hugely detailed and forensic analysis of obscure texts or archeological evidence , this is after all a relatively short book covering a vast subject .What it does do is explain who the "Barbarians" were , where thy came from , where they went to and the reasons for the Roman successes and failures in dealing with them .

Brilliant! Terry Jones offers a different and parallel view of the period. Love his comparisons with other periods especially the grandiosity of the Renaissance! Puts this island in context with Europe at this time.Extremely readable and enjoyable, proves learning is best when laced with humour.