Boy Kings of Medieval Europe

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

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.

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1:33.3	Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit. I'm your host for today, Dr. Kat Jarman.
1:39.3	When Charles III became king this September, he was age 73 and that made him the oldest monarch
1:46.8	to be crowned in Britain ever. Now that might not seem so odd to us now but had he been a child
1:53.3	we would certainly erase an eyebrow or two. Today the idea of having a child monarch is rather
1:58.4	unthinkable but throughout history that's not been the case. In the medieval period it was
2:03.5	actually rather common to have a young child on the throne, usually a boy. But what do we know
	...

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