Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
historyOct 4, 202237:56pending

Boy Kings of Medieval Europe

Gone Medieval

About this episode

Charles III recently became King at the age of 73 - the oldest man ever to become a British monarch. That might not seem so odd to us today, but had he been a child it would certainly have raised eyebrows. The idea of a child monarch is today practically unthinkable; in the Medieval period it was relatively common. But the rule of a boy king did not necessarily mean political disorder. In fact it posed far less of a challenge than having an adolescent king.


In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman finds out why from Dr. Emily Ward, author of Royal Childhood and Child Kingship: Boy Kings in England, Scotland, France and Germany, c. 1050–1262.


The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. 


For more Gone Medieval content, subscribe to our Medieval Monday newsletter here.


For your chance to win five Historical Non-Fiction Books (including a signed copy of Dan Snow's On This Day in History), please fill out this short survey.


If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get every episode summarized

Each time Gone Medieval publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

Boy Kings of Medieval Europe

Gone Medieval

0:00
37:56

More episodes

More from Gone Medieval

View all episodes →