Scotland's Medieval Queens

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scotland’s history is filled with war, betrayal, political intrigue. At the heart of it were powerful Queens; from saintly rulers to strategic alliances, the women behind the throne were anything but passive.

Matt Lewis is joined by historian Sharon Bennett Connolly to explore the remarkable life of Saint Margaret of Scotland, the political challenges faced by Queen Margaret of England, and the resilience of Elizabeth de Burgh, second wife of Robert the Bruce, who played a pivotal role in Scotland’s fight for independence.

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Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. It was edited by Amy Haddow, the producers are Rob Weinberg and Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder,
0:07.7	power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond.
0:13.3	Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians,
0:18.0	as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on
0:22.3	History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries
0:27.2	with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II.
0:33.6	Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:40.2	Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves
0:45.7	into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries,
0:51.5	the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to
0:56.5	the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve
1:02.9	into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here.
1:10.1	Find out who we really were with gone medieval.
1:17.3	The history of Scotland has been dramatic, violent and bloody, and its queens have had to deal
1:24.7	with war, murder, imprisonment, political rivalries, and open betrayal.
1:30.7	Sharon Bennett-Connelly's new book, Scotland's medieval queens, from St Margaret to Margaret of
1:35.9	Denmark, tells the dramatic stories of some extraordinary women who loved and lost, raised kings
1:42.3	and queens, and ruled and died for Scotland. And so I'm delighted
1:47.5	to welcome back to gone medieval, Sharon Bennett Connolly. Welcome back to gone medieval, Sharon. It's
1:56.4	good of you to join us again. Thank you. I have to get you some frequent flyer miles, I think,
2:19.7	soon. Yeah, I was trying to work out how many times it is now and I think I've lost count. Now we're always very welcome back here. And it's always a pleasure to talk with you, Matt. We're going to talk today about your newest book, all about the medieval queens of Scotland. So I thought, rather than try to talk about all of them, because there's quite a few that you cover in the book, I thought we could pick out a few of the highlight.
2:25.3	They're all highlights, aren't they?
	...

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