纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 061刘易斯棋子（9）（在线收听）

And sometimes, it is literally the killer instinct. In 1279 an English court record tells us that when David de Bristoll was playing chess against Juliana le Cordwaner, they quarrelled so violently that he struck her in the thigh with a sword, and she died immediately. An early example of chess rage!

There's one piece I haven't looked at yet, but it's perhaps it's the most fascinating figure of all the Lewis Chessmen, and it's one that gives us a crucial insight into the society that made it. It's the bishop, who in medieval Europe was one of the great powers of the state, controlling not only spiritual life, but commanding land and men. The bishops of the Lewis Chessmen are the oldest ones still in existence, and they're powerful reminders that across Europe, the Church was a key participant in the great military campaigns - and this was a Europe hungry for a fight! We all know about the Crusades to the Holy Land and the role that the Church played in them, but at the same time there was also a northern crusade -led by the Teutonic knights - that conquered and Christianised eastern Europe. And in the south, Castile and central Spain were being reclaimed for Christendom from their Islamic rulers.

It's from that Spain, newly Christian but with Muslim and Jewish citizens, that the next programme's object comes. It's the versatile, multi-functional, smart phone of its time ... it's an astrolabe.