Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Ottoman Empire in the Renaissance
Episode 58
The Ottoman Empire has long been seen as the Islamic-Asian opposite of the Christian-European West. But the reality was very different: the Ottomans …
4 years, 6 months ago
Singing the News in Tudor England
Episode 57
In an age before newspapers and mass media, how did the general public keep abreast of what was going on? How did they find out about the seismic cha…
4 years, 6 months ago
The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn
Episode 56
In the Vatican Library, there survive 17 highly personal love letters, written in King Henry VIII's own hand to Anne Boleyn between 1527 and 1528. Ho…
4 years, 6 months ago
Witches & Puritans
Episode 55
On a remote Massachusetts plantation in 1651, an unpopular local brickmaker was blamed for a wave of animal ailments, children dying and vanishing pr…
4 years, 6 months ago
Massacre of the Huguenots
Episode 54
The royal wedding of Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre on 18 August 1572, was designed to reconcile France’s Catholics and Protestants - or H…
4 years, 6 months ago
Mary I's Husband: Philip II of Spain
Episode 53
Philip II of Spain - the most powerful monarch of the early modern period - was married to Queen Mary Tudor from 1554 until her death in 1558. But Ph…
4 years, 6 months ago
How Catherine of Aragon Learnt to be Queen
Episode 52
The Spanish infanta Catalina of Aragon was raised to be a Queen, betrothed at the age of three to the heir apparent of the English throne, Arthur Pri…
4 years, 6 months ago
The 1549 Kett's Rebellion
Episode 51
In 1549, the Tudor establishment was rocked by a series of popular rebellions, born of deep discontent over the enclosure by wealthy landowners of co…
4 years, 7 months ago
17th & 18th Century Sexual Revolution
Episode 50
For most of western history, sex outside of marriage was forbidden by law, with adulterers even facing the death sentence. The church, the state and …
4 years, 7 months ago
Lady Jane Grey
Episode 49
On a cold February morning in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for high treason. Named as King Edward VI as his successor, Queen Jane had reigned fo…
4 years, 7 months ago