What Happened On A Medieval Wedding Night?
We've been tying the knot for thousands of years in one way or another, but what did a medieval wedding look like?
The church had very strict ideas around monogamy and sex in this period, which affected the rituals of a wedding day, AND night.
What happened in the bed chambers of the newlyweds? Why was pleasure so important? And why were divorce courts so humiliating?
Joining Kate today is author and historian Jacqueline Murray, to take us back to the Middle Ages.
This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
Join sex historian Kate Lister on Betwixt the Sheets as she gets intimate with the stories that would make your history teacher blush.
What were the Victorians really like behind closed (bedroom) doors? How did the Black Death favour women in medieval England? And what was Caesar like in the sack?
She'll be bed-hopping around different time periods; from ancient civilisations, to the middle ages, to renaissance and early modern...right up to now.
You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, and you’ll ask yourself how much has actually changed.
So join Kate Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - a podcast from History Hit.
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- Latest episode: 2025-05-13
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