Not Just the Tudors

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 lethal court factionalism? He ma

Henry VIII's Reign of Terror

**Contains graphic description of execution** What happened when one monarch's personal obsession dismantled an entire international order? How did Henry VIII transform

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 string of tragic pregnancies, He

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 world into which he was born?

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 reshape villages across Englan

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 Tudor was surrounded by scandal,

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 geography and natural history, Capta

Manhattan’s Most Notorious Couple

Who were the scandalous, defiant couple on the margins of Dutch society who became part of the founding story of New York? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Profe

James V: Scotland's Ambitious Renaissance King

Was James V of Scotland a beleaguered child king or a brilliant Renaissance ruler who mastered the performance of power? Crowned before his second birthday, James curbed

True Crime: Mass Murderering Artist Cellini

How did a murderous, swaggering, wildly unreliable goldsmith become one of the most celebrated artists of the 16th century? Does genius excuse monstrous behaviour? Benve

C.S. Lewis & Narnia: Renaissance Origins

Why does C.S. Lewis's Narnia - with its images of winter, sacrifice, kingship and renewal - continue to resonate with generations of readers? How did Lewis weave Renaissa

The Star Chamber: Murder, Witch & Libel Trials

What really happened inside England’s most feared court? Was the Star Chamber a sinister instrument of royal tyranny, or a vital route to justice for those ignored by ord

William Cecil: The Power Behind Elizabeth I

Who really ruled Elizabethan England? For almost four decades, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, guided Queen Elizabeth I through religious turmoil, assassination plots

Witnesses to the French Revolution

What was the French Revolution like for those who lived through it? What can private journals reveal that speeches, pamphlets and official records cannot? From the storm

New Discovery: Who Really Wrote Elizabeth I's Letters?

Was Elizabeth I really as angry and bad tempered as history has always claimed? How did some of her most secret state letters come to be penned by a Spaniard, while Engla

Robespierre & Revolutionary Terror

How did the French Revolution, built on liberty, become ruled by fear? And how did Robespierre - the man who had sent kings, nobles and priests to their deaths - himself

How Protestants Justified Slavery

Was the Protestant Reformation ever truly global? How did radical theology, empire, slavery and missionary ambition collide across the early modern world? The global spr

French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille

What drove a hungry city to storm a fortress? How did the fall of the Bastille become the defining symbol of the French Revolution? In this second episode of our series,

True Crime: Murder & the Popish Plot

Was a London magistrate, found dead in a ditch in 1678, the victim of a Catholic conspiracy, political convenience, or secrets too dangerous to survive? Why did Edmund Be

Who Lit the French Revolution?

How did a kingdom of palaces, privilege and powdered wigs collapse into revolution? What turned hunger into uprising? In this first episode of our series on the French R