How the English took Manhattan
How did the English take Manhattan from the Dutch in the 17th century without firing a single shot? Speaking to Elinor Evans, historian Russell Shorto explains a many-layered colonial history, includi...
27 Apr 202544min
Troubadours: everything you wanted to know
Composing songs of courtly love and war in the High Middle Ages, the troubadours were the poet-musicians of western and southern Europe – especially southern France. But were they really the lovesick ...
26 Apr 202539min
The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry
Historians have counted lots of things in the Bayeux Tapestry – animals, ships, hands and plants. But nobody had counted the number of penises it contained until Oxford historian Professor George Garn...
24 Apr 202533min
The great siege of Malta: Knights Hospitaller vs the Ottoman empire
In the summer of 1565, the might of the Ottoman empire faced off against a few hundred Knights Hospitaller and their allies on the island of Malta. The outcome might have seemed inevitable but the eve...
22 Apr 202535min
Joanna Plantagenet: life of the week
Richard the Lionheart is well-known for his travels to distant lands, time on crusade, and wrangling with international politics… But, less well known is the fact that his sister, Joanna Plantagenet (...
21 Apr 202551min
Suleyman the Magnificent's bid for world domination
Henry VIII lorded it over England. Francis I dominated France. Charles V was the main man in central Europe. Yet arguably none was as powerful as Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent – a true heavy...
20 Apr 202535min
The Etruscans: everything you wanted to know
Lasting from the ninth century BC right up until Roman conquest in the first century BC, the Etruscans were a powerful ancient civilisation who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, and rubbed shoulders...
19 Apr 202552min
Lexington and Concord: 250 years on
On 19 April 1775, American militia and British regulars clashed at Lexington and Concord in what would become the first battles of the Revolutionary War. But, as historian George Goodwin reveals, the ...
17 Apr 202541min
