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The Murder Capital of Medieval England

New Generation Thinker Hetta Howes discovers the murder capital of medieval England, and it wasn’t London or the medieval capital of York, but the elite university town of Oxford.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ New Generation Thinker Hetta Howes takes her life into her own hands and pays a visit to the murder capital of medieval England. Its location might just surprise you.

According to a new project from the University of Cambridge, the 'Medieval Murder Maps', the most violent city of the era wasn’t London, or the medieval capital of York, it was the intellectual university town of Oxford. And the key culprits were its students, who were notorious for fighting and killing those who lived and worked in the city, as well as each other. The digital project draws on original research by Professor Carl Hammer.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/medieval-murder-maps

So, what made these students so violent? Hetta seeks to discover why Oxford was such a deadly destination in the Middle Ages, and to uncover what traces of its murderous past linger today. Oxford is no longer a dangerous place to visit, but its students, much like at universities across the country, face similar challenges to their medieval counterparts – where to live, how to pay rent, how to make friends and deal with a difficult workload. What support is available for students thrown in at the deep end, enjoying a new level of freedom away from the watchful eyes of their parents and trying to find their tribe amongst their new peers?

Contributors:
Professor Manuel Eisner – Project Lead of β€œThe Medieval Murder Map” at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Hannah Skoda – Associate Professor at Oxford University, and expert in medieval violence
Peter Denley – Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at Queen Mary University of London, and expert in medieval universities
Danial Hussain – Student Union President at Oxford University

Producers: Mohini Patel and Emma Betteridge

Available now

14 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sun 29 Oct 2023 19:15
  • Sun 5 May 2024 19:45

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