History's Toughest Heroes: Margery Kempe: Ministry of Tears

History's Heroes

BBC

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Margery Kempe always tells it like it is. But in Medieval England, such straight-talking can get a woman killed...

In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.

Born in Kings Lynne in around 1373, Margery Kempe was destined for a typical medieval life. But after the birth of her first child, and a terrifying nine months of diabolical visons of the devil and hell which meant she was tied to the bed for her own safety, she had an altogether more soothing experience. A vision of a man with whom she’d fall deeply, passionately in love - Jesus Christ. After that, despite being full of lustful feelings, she swore off sex with her husband and forged her own path – speaking her mind and getting out of endless scrapes thanks to her indefatigable ferocity. A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Producer: Suniti Somaiya Development Producer: Georgina Leslie Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Imogen Robertson Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.5	The party is raging.
0:09.8	Drinks flowing, laughter echoing.
0:12.8	But this isn't your standard night out.
0:17.0	It's all happening inside prison.
0:20.2	Join me, Amber Hack, for a shocking case of forbidden love,
0:25.0	hidden corruption and a million pound drug boss.
0:28.7	You don't think it can happen to you, but it does.
0:31.0	Gangster presents sex, drugs and cell block parties.
0:35.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:43.6	In 1414, an English woman called Marjorie Kemp arrived at the Holy City.
0:45.9	And she sees Jerusalem.
0:48.8	She thanks God in her heart.
0:54.2	She is suddenly overcome with what she describes as a great sweetness.
0:56.3	I mean, she was so moved.
0:57.7	She almost fell off her, don't they?
1:01.4	Now, some other pilgrims run over to help her.
1:05.5	But she explains to them that actually she's not, she's not unwell.
1:10.7	She is feeling very emotional about the fact that she's just arrived in this place where her Jesus
1:12.2	lived and died. After months of dangerous travel, she was finally here. Kemp at all the sights.
1:21.8	This is a kind of a bit like a kind of medieval tourist event.
1:26.2	She prayed all day in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, went on a candle-lit tour of the
	...

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