Pax Britannica: A History of the British Empire

James VI was crowned king at one year old, and his early life was spent as the puppet of a succession of regencies. When he finally asserted his independence, he faced down a series of rebellions and ...

27 Feb 201933min

Irish lords rise up against English domination, lead by The O'Neill, the Great Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill. England, already at war with Spain, dispatches thousands of troops to try and quell the reb...

24 Feb 201930min

For generations, Habsburg Spain had been a stalwart ally of England, their royal families connected by marriage and kinship, to counter-balance the Auld Alliance of France and Scotland. This had been ...

20 Feb 201933min

Through a range of cultural, economic, and political changes, the old trading relationships that English merchants had enjoyed for centuries fully broke down during Elizabeth's reign. In their place, ...

17 Feb 201934min

In this episode, we hear about the successive attempts by the Tudor monarchs to enforce their authority over their Irish vassals, a complex mix of ethnicities and religions that resisted any policy Du...

13 Feb 201945min

In the first episode of Pax Britannica, we meet the Tudor dynasty; the kings and queens who ruled England, Wales, and Ireland from the end of the 15th century until the start of the 17th. In this firs...

7 Feb 201937min