Tudor spymaster: the secret machinations of Robert Cecil

Tudor spymaster: the secret machinations of Robert Cecil

Late Tudor England was a dangerous place, with plots both at home and abroad, and no certainty about who was going to succeed the ageing queen, Elizabeth I. Into this perilous world stepped Robert Cecil, a brilliant but unglamorous statesman and spymaster who played a pivotal role in keeping the country together and ensuring a smooth transition to the Stuart monarchy. Professor Stephen Alford speaks to Rob Attar about this unheralded titan of the Tudor and Stuart courts. (Ad) Stephen Alford is the author of //All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil// (Penguin, 2024). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fall-his-spies%2Fstephen-alford%2F9780241423479. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(2555)

Deadly skies: the WW2 mission to fly over the Himalayas

Deadly skies: the WW2 mission to fly over the Himalayas

During the Second World War, a promise by President Roosevelt to provide supplies to nationalist China led to the creation of an ill-fated air supply route from India, across a perilous stretch of the...

29 Mai 202545min

Royal sisters: the tragic lives of Queen Victoria's granddaughters

Royal sisters: the tragic lives of Queen Victoria's granddaughters

Victoria, Ella, Irene and Alix of Hesse were four young European princesses and granddaughters of Queen Victoria, whose marriages would change the face of early 20th-century Europe. Speaking to Elinor...

27 Mai 202536min

Calamity Jane: life of the week

Calamity Jane: life of the week

Calamity Jane roars into the popular imagination atop the Deadwood Stage with a 'whip-crack-away' and her pistol ready-loaded. A bold and resourceful frontierswoman, Calamity held her own among the me...

26 Mai 202544min

Spiritual showmen: the 1920s occult

Spiritual showmen: the 1920s occult

Tahra Bey became a celebrity with his apparent ability to control his pulse, stab himself without pain and even bury himself alive. Dr Dahesh, meanwhile, was a spiritualist who sparked an entire relig...

25 Mai 202534min

Cheese history: everything you wanted to know

Cheese history: everything you wanted to know

Nothing beats a well-loaded cheeseboard. But while so many of us enjoy a stinky stilton and ripe brie, or chuck a reliable old cheddar into our basket at the supermarket each week, what do we actually...

24 Mai 202538min

Taking sides: how the Civil War turned friends into enemies

Taking sides: how the Civil War turned friends into enemies

As 17th-century Britain edged ever closer to civil war, two friends, Bulstrode Whitelock and Ned Hyde, found their relationship under increasing strain. Minoo Dinshaw tells Ellie Cawthorne about how t...

22 Mai 202529min

Were Roman women done dirty by modern translations?

Were Roman women done dirty by modern translations?

The stories of ancient Rome are littered with despicable women, and those of the Julio-Claudian dynasty are especially infamous. But where do these stories come from? And why have they endured for cen...

20 Mai 202535min

Otto von Bismarck: life of the week

Otto von Bismarck: life of the week

Few 19th-century leaders have a CV quite like Otto von Bismarck's. This formidable statesman's cunning, charisma and eye for an opportunity helped him drive the unification of Germany and engineer a s...

19 Mai 202541min

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