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True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

True Spies Debriefs: Dr. Jenny Benham on Medieval Spycraft

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

SPYSCAPE

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.62.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Historian Dr. Jenny Benham joins Morgan Childs to explore the murky world of medieval espionage. You'll learn about the real 'little birds' who inspired Game of Thrones' Master of Whisperers, and the exiles, slaves and captives who parlayed information for security in a time before formalised intelligence agencies. Dr. Jenny Benham is Reader in Medieval History and the Co-director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at Cardiff University. From SPYSCAPE, the HQ of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:31.7

Hello, this is Matt and McKinley from History Dispatches.

0:37.7

We are the father-son duo bringing you the weird, the wild, the wacky, and the craziest tales from across time.

0:43.3

From the Ice Bowl to the Great Heathen Army.

0:45.9

And the head of Oliver Cromwell.

0:47.6

The same head they kept on a pike for three years?

0:50.2

Yep, all here on History Dispatches.

0:52.8

New episodes every weekday. Find out more at History Dispatches. New episodes every weekday.

0:54.7

Find out more at History Dispatches.com or wherever you get your podcast app.

1:05.8

Hello, true Spies, Moscow.

1:11.4

Hello, true spies listeners. Hello. And you can hear me pick encryption button off the trial.

1:14.4

Hello, true spies listeners.

1:18.3

Welcome back to True Spies, Debrief.

1:26.1

In the early days of espionage, the work of intelligence gathering often fell to seemingly unlikely spies.

1:31.1

During the medieval era, women, slaves, exiles, and even children were tasked with collecting

1:33.7

and sharing secrets.

1:35.8

Professor Jenny Benham, who teaches medieval diplomacy

1:39.4

and international law at Cardiff University,

...

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