We experience the birth of a barbarian empire in the Franks, as Merovius, a legendary leader said to be half-man, half-monster descends upon Gaul, setting the stage for his sons' conquest over both Roman and Visigoth armies

Travel with the Saxon pirates as they ravage the British coast. In an orgy of pagan worship, the early Saxon leaders sweep across Britain, facing the Christians and their barbarian brothers in a bloody rivalry for power and land.

We join the Vandals as they infiltrate the Roman borders in northern Gaul, and sweep into Spain, burning and pillaging everything in their path.

Explore the primal pagan rites of the Lombard's, as they fight for land and for a barbarian bride. We travel with the brutal Lombard leader, Alboin, as he breaks through the Roman defenses in Italy.

The Roman Empire, rotten to the core by the fifth century, lay open to barbarian warriors. Europe was beset by famine, plague, persecutions, and a state of war.

In this two-hour special historian and weapons expert Mike Loades will take us on a high energy, action filled, fact rich rampage through the medieval world. Along the way Mike will separate myth from reality and find out what it was really like to live, work, and fight through this extraordinary time.