The Bishop who Took Down Richard II
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.5 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What makes an Archbishop one of the most hated figures in British history? And does Thomas Arundel truly deserve to be branded the greatest villain of 15th-century Britain?
Matt Lewis and Professor Chris Given-Wilson explore the life, power, and legacy of a man whose influence reached deep into the politics, religion, and royal struggles of late medieval England, and ask whether he was truly a villain or a far more complex figure than history has remembered.
MORE:
Richard II vs. Henry IV
Plantagenets at War: A Fight for the Throne
Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. 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. |
| 0:13.2 | 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 |
| 0:56.3 | to the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents |
| 1:02.1 | to delve into rebellions, plots and murders to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got |
| 1:09.3 | here. Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval. |
| 1:16.3 | Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. In 2005, the BBC ran a poll to find out |
| 1:22.5 | the most villainous figure in British history, taking the worst person from each century and playing them off against |
| 1:28.6 | each other. When it came to the 15th century, the result might surprise you. People voted the |
| 1:34.9 | greatest villain of the 15th century in Britain to be Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury. |
| 1:41.1 | Why? We'll find out in a bit. Did he deserve it? We'll explore that too. |
| 1:46.6 | You might also be asking, exactly who is Thomas Arundel? Well, that's what we're going to find out |
| 1:52.2 | right now. To help us, I'm delighted to be joined by Professor Chris Given Wilson, |
| 1:58.0 | Emeritus Professor of History at the University of St. Albans. |
| 2:01.7 | He's the author of numerous fantastic books, including Henry VIII and Chronicles, |
... |
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