Prester John

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2015

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

In the Middle Ages, Prester John was seen as the great hope for Crusaders struggling to hold on to, then regain, Jerusalem. He was thought to rule a lost Christian kingdom somewhere in the East and was ready to attack Muslim opponents with his enormous armies. There was apparent proof of Prester John's existence, in letters purportedly from him and in stories from travelers who claimed they had met, if not him, then people who had news of him. Most pointed to a home in the earthly paradise in the Indies, outside Eden, with fantastical animals and unimaginable riches. Later, Portuguese explorers thought they had found him in Ethiopia, despite the mystified denials of people there. Melvyn Bragg asks why the legend was so strongly believed for so long, and what facts helped sustain the myths. With Marianne O'Doherty Associate Professor in English at the University of Southampton Martin Palmer Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture And Amanda Power Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.0	and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio4.
0:08.9	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:10.7	Hello, in the 1140s, the second crusade was a spectacular failure for the Christians in
0:15.6	the West who had believed so firmly in their success.
0:18.7	They lost ground in the Holy Land and Jerusalem the center of their world was threatened.
0:22.9	Then came a report from the East that promised support.
0:25.9	Quote a certain John King and Priest, I descend into the Mejor who had visited the New
0:31.6	Born Jesus.
0:32.6	Had already won a great victory over the Persians who were said and had been trying to bring
0:36.3	his armies to Jerusalem to help the Christians.
0:39.0	20 years later, a letter emerged apparently from this king, pressed to John, describing
0:43.4	his armies advancing with 10,000 knights, 13 enormous jewel crosses and a hundred thousand
0:50.0	foot soldiers behind each one of them.
0:52.3	He offered hope but never arrived.
0:54.4	It is a missionaries and merchants found elements to support the story of Prestigeon
0:58.0	but never quite met him.
1:00.2	When we discuss the fact behind the legend of Prestigeon, our Marianne Dochety, Associate
1:04.4	Professor of English at the University of Southampton, Martin Palmer, Director of the International
1:08.9	Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, and Amanda Power, Senior Lecturer in Medieval
1:14.3	History at the University of Sheffield, Martin Palmer, was there an extensive Christian
1:19.8	church in the East outside the knowledge of the Christians or even Rome or even Constantin
	...

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