The Story of Medieval England: From King Arthur to the Tudor Conquest tells the remarkable story of a tumultuous thousand-year period. Dominated by war, conquest, and the struggle to balance the stability brought by royal power with the rights of the governed, it was a period that put into place the foundation of much of the world we know today. Taught by Professor Jennifer Paxton, an honored scholar and a professor at The Catholic University of America,...

In 48 lectures, award-winning Professor Jennifer McNabb guides viewers through centuries of exhilarating change in Europe, focusing on often-unexplored or overlooked areas, including the role of women in the Renaissance, the lives of the poor and elite, Renaissance home and family life, and the connections between the Renaissance and the Reformation.

Antonius Block is a knight, who along with his squire, are returning home from the crusades. Black Death is sweeping their country. As they approach home, Death appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. Antonius challenges Death to a chess game for his life. Antonius and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval that the plague has caused.