Helen Castor on Medieval Power and Personalities
About this episode
Helen Castor is a British historian and BBC broadcaster who left Cambridge because she wanted to write narrative history focused on individuals rather than the analytical style typical of academia. As someone interested in individual psychology and the functioning of power, Castor finds medieval England offers the perfect setting because its sophisticated power structures exist in "bare bones" without the "great apparatus of state," bringing individual power plays into sharper relief. Her latest book, The Eagle and the Hart, exemplifies this approach by examining Richard II and Henry IV as individuals whose personal choices became constitutional precedents that echo through English history.
Tyler and Helen explore what English government could and couldn't do in the 14th century, why landed nobles obeyed the king, why parliament chose to fund wars with France, whether England could have won the Hundred Years' War, the constitutional precedents set by Henry IV's deposition of Richard II, how Shakespeare's Richard II scandalized Elizabethan audiences, Richard's superb artistic taste versus Henry's lack, why Chaucer suddenly becomes possible in this period, whether Richard II's fatal trip to Ireland was like Captain Kirk beaming down to a hostile planet, how historians continue to discover new evidence about the period, how Shakespeare's Henriad influences our historical understanding, Castor's most successful work habits, what she finds fascinating about Asimov's I, Robot, the subject of her next book, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded April 2nd, 2025.
Help keep the show ad free by donating today!
Other ways to connect
- Follow us on X and Instagram
- Follow Tyler on X
- Follow Helen on X
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Join our Discord
- Email us: [email protected]
- Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.
Photo Credit: Stuart Simpson
Get every episode summarized
Each time Conversations with Tyler 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 episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from Conversations with Tyler
Michael Moritz on Origin Stories, Exile, and Obsessive Curiosity
Conversations with Tyler
Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Catholicism, and the Age of Social Contagion
Conversations with Tyler
Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite
Conversations with Tyler
Julia Ioffe on Russian Women, Missing Men, and the Roots of Autocracy
Conversations with Tyler