Hello everyone and welcome to the History of England, episode 117, a medieval year.

I read some clever article recently which had an argument about when the middle ages

end and we can call ourselves into the modern age.

Now, I would earn myself the title of Professor of the Blumenth obvious by saying this,

but while such a term, of course, would have had no relevance at all at the time,

my approach has always been the battle of Bosworth.

One day, there were all these medieval blokes trudging on the muddy roads of Leicestershire

towards Bosworth Field.

Richard III gets cut down and bang.

There you go, a bunch of early modern blokes returning to their early modern wives

and bobs your father's early modern brother.

Obviously you'll notice that I'm taking a parochial, Anglo-centric approach to the European

and world history, since outside that almost no one gave it ink as curse about the great

relevance of the battle of Bosworth, but then you are listening to a history of England.

Anyway, onward, this article was being more intelligent with all kinds of suggestions.

But the one that struck me most was the idea that it was the Reformation that really changed

things in places like England.

But up until then, it was the Catholic Church, the rhythm of its saints and seasons and

institutions that meant the most to people, because it was the way they measured the progress

of their lives, it was the framework on which they hung their communities.

It's these things which were really the weft and warp of life for the vast majority

of people, kings and queens and constitutional change would have been super distant.

...