Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens

by David Mitchell

as a result, those centuries are commonly known as the Dark Ages. Academic consensus has turned against that term in recent years because that’s what academics are like. Their favourite thing is saying that previous academics have got it wrong, even if it’s just about the naming of an era. At one point ‘Dark Ages’ was used to refer to the whole medieval period up to when the Renaissance kicked off in the fifteenth century. That is simplistic, as well as being poor brand management of the late middle ages which, I don’t know about you, but I think of as being absolutely slathered with heraldry. Perhaps I’m basing it too much on the eye-bruising Technicolor of Laurence Olivier’s film of Henry V, but it feels like there’s altogether too many shiny trumpety things and maidens with pointy hats and youths with pointy shoes to be dark. Daft maybe, but not dark. Plus there was a lot more going on that we know about by then, so using the term ‘Dark Ages’ about that era speaks more of some people having gone a bit nuts about how amazing the Renaissance was, as if we might as well not bother with any history until Leonardo started doodling helicopters.