Dan Jones charts the rise of the Mongols in the twelfth century – a sharp and hideously brutal episode, in which an eastern empire achieved fleeting domination over half the world, at the cost of millions of lives. Speaking to David Musgrove, he also looks at other emerging powers in the ‘high’ Middle Ages. He introduces merchants who invented extraordinary new ways to make fortunes, scholars who revived the wisdom of the ancients and founded great universities, and architects and engineers who built the cities, cathedrals and castles that still stand 500 years on.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.