Noble Blood

My Sister the Rockefeller [from Very Special Episodes]

Wherever Sioux singer D.Z. Ironwing performed in New York, the same woman was waiting afterward to say she loved his voice. Seven years later, his phone rang in a freezin

The Last Emperor and Empress at Home in the Forbidden City (with Paul French)

When Puyi was a child, he became Emperor of China. But when China became a republic, he and his court remained in the Forbidden Kingdom, a tiny world of ritual with no po

The Scottish Podcast

Double, double, toil and trouble... Almost everyone has heard of Macbeth, in the context of Shakespeare's famous play. But Macbeth was also a real king, and Shakespeare w

The Secret Lives of Snape Wives [from Very Special Episodes]

Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favor

Introducing: Midnight Radio, A New Horror Fiction Podcast from Ethan Hawke

Hi, Noble Blood listeners! We're excited to share with you a sneak peek at iHeartPodcasts' latest release, Midnight Radio!   Midnight Radio: Starring five-time Academ

Three Henrys Walk into a War...

When the childless King Henry III's brother died, the heir to the throne became a cousin from the Bourbon dynasty. There was only one problem: he wasn't Catholic.  Supp

The Clothes that Make the Queen (with Kate Strasdin)

How does a queen show her power through her clothing? In her book DRESSING THE QUEEN, historian Kate Strasdin traces two hundred years of the most important garments that

Betrayal and a Tudor in Scotland

When she was still a child, Margaret Tudor, sister of the future King Henry VIII, was married to the King of Scotland. But it wouldn't be until her husband's death that M

The Last Plantagenets

During Henry VIII's reign, his dynasty was looking shaky: he had only one son, and if Henry died before his heir came of age, the country would be in danger of a civil wa

The Woman of Canossa Castle

In 1077, the King of Germany and future Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV walked barefoot in the snow and waited three days outside of Canossa Castle. He had been excommunicate

Amelia and Eleanor's Excellent Adventure [from Very Special Episodes]

In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart ducked out of a White House event and commandeered an airplane. The First Lady and the first lady of aviation flew to Baltim

Anne and Religion Askew

In the reign of Henry VIII, religion in England became a minefield of confusing and shifting doctrine. Anne Askew, the daughter of a well-connected courtier, preached her

A Ploughman's 'Uprising' (with Dan Jones)

In the new film Uprising, a ploughman played by Andrew Garfield joins in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt against Richard II of England. Historian Dan Jones served as the mediev

"The Apple is Ripe; Pick It Now Or It Will Rot"

Leopoldina married into the royal family of Portugal, which meant moving to Brazil with her husband. But civil war was bubbling on both sides of the Atlantic, and while h

Lord Kitchener Wants You!

The image of Uncle Sam saying "I Want You!" is one of the most famous poster designs in the world... but it was a copycat of a British original. Their version didn't feat

Frances Duff's Jamaican Inheritance

When Frances was a child, her mother went before the Assembly to petition that she be legally classified as "white." Frances would go on to become a wealthy heiress, and

The Surreal Life of Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiapparelli was the founder of a fashion house which has become known for its sometimes outrageous, always glamorous designs. But beyond fashion, her transatlantic

The Tudor Villainess

She has been called "the most hated woman in Tudor England." Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law to Anne, served five queens. Two of them were beheaded. How much was her fault?

The House of Boleyn (with Tracy Borman)

Where does a woman go when a King is wooing her and won't stop? Dana speaks with Chief Historian of Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman, about her newest historical fict

The King for a Day

In December of 1586, the King of Poland died suddenly and without an obvious successor. King was an elected position, and the noblemen bickered and tried to advance their