True Crime: Assassination of Henry IV of France
Was the shocking assassination of King Henri IV of France in 1610 the act of a lone fanatic, or a sinister conspiracy within the royal court...
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Society & Culture
Not Just the Tudors
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks about everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower. Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definit...
Episodes
20 of 576 episodesWitchfinder General
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a remote corner of Essex witnessed the most brutally devastating witch-hunt in English history. A dangero...
How Persia Influenced Elizabeth I
Could an ancient Persian drama have stopped Mary, Queen of Scots from being executed? When Queen Elizabeth I faced an agonising dilemma over...
Thomas, Oliver and the Cromwell Dynasty
From Thomas Cromwell's rise under Henry VIII to Oliver Cromwell’s rule as Lord Protector, how did the faith, ambition, and power of one fami...
Gulliver's Travels
Is Gulliver’s Travels just a whimsical children’s adventure story, or is it a scathing satire designed to expose political hypocrisy? From s...
Dark Origins of Fairy Tales
What if the fairy tales you grew up with were never meant for children at all? Long before these stories were transformed into family-friend...
How to Survive Henry VIII
How did one man survive serving Henry VIII as principal secretary when others lost their heads? Why is the mastermind behind the King’s fina...
Britain's Slave Traders
How did a risky 16th-century venture evolve into a national enterprise that fuelled the rise of the British Empire? How did a vast network o...
John Dudley, The 'Wicked' Duke
How did the son of an executed traitor rise to become the power behind young Edward VI? Was John Dudley a visionary patriot saving England f...
How the Americas Transformed Tudor England
In 1588, mathematician Thomas Harriot mapped a doomed colony and drafted the playbook for English empire. But did Indigenous culture reshape...
Earl of Essex: Rise & Fall of Elizabeth I's Favourite
How did a favourite of Elizabeth I go from royal darling to executed traitor? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Alex Gajda and Dr...
Dutch Armada: The Last Invasion of England
Why did the Dutch Republic risk everything to launch one of the boldest seaborne invasions in English history and overthrow King James II? W...
Royal Favourites: The Filthy Earl of Rochester
**CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE & ADULT THEMES ** What really went on behind closed doors in the scandalous court of the "Merry Monarch"? Wh...
The Rotten End of Henry VIII
Death, death, and more death surrounds Henry VIII's final years. What happens when a monarch is trapped by physical decay, paranoia, and let...
Henry VIII's Reign of Terror
**Contains graphic description of execution ** What happened when one monarch's personal obsession dismantled an entire international order?...
Quest for an Heir: Henry VIII, Aragon and Boleyn
In the 1520s, a dynastic crisis loomed behind the brilliance of Henry VIII's court. Desperate for a male heir after Catherine of Aragon's st...
Henry VIII: From Cradle to Crown
How did a dazzling young Tudor prince become one of history's most notorious kings? How much of Henry VIII’s later tyranny was shaped by the...
How to Survive as a Tudor Peasant
What was everyday life like for an ordinary person in Tudor times? How did dramatic changes in population, climate, disease and the economy...
Young Elizabeth I: Princess & Prisoner
How did a child written off by the Tudor court rise to become one of England's most iconic monarchs? Before she became queen, Elizabeth Tudo...
Captain Cook: The Voyage that Changed the World
How did Captain James Cook's scientific voyage of 1768 become a mission for the British empire? While expanding knowledge of Pacific geograp...