Both the Germans and the French trace their origins to Charlemagne and the Franks. But who were the Franks, and how did they have such a powerful effect on the shape of Western Europe? This episode is a family drama gone wild, as the warriors of Charlemagne's family compete for land and status. Blindings, treachery and imprisonment follow. Our story will focus on one warrior in particular, known as Louis the German.

Roger II has played a high stakes game to secure his crown. Now a king, he must face the consequences of backing the wrong Pope. Rebellious barons, treacherous in-laws, and the loss of his beloved wife burden him as Roger continues to fight for his kingdom. Two emperors conspire to jointly attack him, and the Sicilian navy stages an audacious raid at the gates of Constantinople. Roger II defines himself as a ruler unlike any other in Western Europe. His borrowing of statecraft, scholars, and silk makers from the East has his enemies whispering that he has gone full sultan.

Roger II inherits his father’s position as ruler of Sicily and begins to take over parts of Southern Italy as well. Along the way a daring plan leads Norman knights out of a desperate situation, and a Crusader king proposes marriage. Norman state-building in Sicily takes on a unique character, and Norman knights fight armies led by the Pope. When two popes are elected on the same day, Roger II must choose which Pope he will support in exchange for a crown.

The Vikings terrorised coastal Europe in their longboats, plundering and killing as they went. Some of them were offered a deal: they could accept land and settle in France, in exchange for defending the area from other raiders. These Vikings became known as Normans, and while the name changed, the game remained the same. They begin arriving in Italy, and soon become the most coveted military muscle for hire. The Pope himself becomes their hostage and the daughter of a Norman almost becomes the Byzantine Empress. This is a tale of the high Middle Ages, full of pilgrims and pillagers, popes, kings, battles and emperors.

This is the first episode in a series on the Normans in Sicily.

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The Peasants' War was the largest peasant uprising prior to the French Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people organise a labour strike and dare to demand a measure of fairness. They use the ideas of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation to do it. Luther wants nothing to do with the rebels, and supports the German nobles in killing these "mad dogs". The heavy cavalry and the landsknecht armies of the Swabian League are on the march, and this rebellion is about to turn into a war.

This is the story of the biggest peasant uprising prior to the French Revolution. Inspired by the writing of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, it was a shocking challenge to the social order. Serfs occupied castles, executed nobles, and plundered monasteries. Events that lasted less than a year would result in thousands of peasant deaths, and change the direction of the Reformation itself. This episode is the first in a two part series.

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The video version of this episode is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4UK4CtYihQc

In this episode we watch England execute a king. This is the strange tale of how England became a Protestant country, and why the Church of England is the way it is. Along the way we watch militant Scottish Reformers challenge the power of the monarch, and uncover the roots of the Covenanters and Presbyterian churches. The episode culminates in the English Civil War, as competing versions of church and state vie for the future of the nation. Monarchy in Europe will never be the same again!