Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives is a 2004 book by Terry Jones and Alan Ereira, published by BBC Books. It examines a run of familiar ideas about medieval Britain and asks whether they stand up.

Knights on horseback rescuing damsels in distress, kings who were merciless tyrants, and a population sunk in superstition and ignorance all come under scrutiny. The authors argue that medieval people did not think the world was flat, and that this belief was largely invented by an American journalist in the nineteenth century; that nobody burned witches in the Middle Ages, and that this was a refinement of the Renaissance; and that peasants ate and drank from French pottery and fine wine at home. They also pause over smaller puzzles, such as which monks were forbidden to wear underpants and whether outlaws ever wore trousers.

The result is a portrait of the period as a lively, inventive and individual place rather than a stagnant one, and the book sets out to surprise and provoke as much as to inform.