The Gunpowder Plot
On 5 November 1605, a planned assassination attempt on King James I was thwarted. While a group of English Catholics planned to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, the n...
1 Sep 202018min
The Philosophers of Ancient Greece
From the 6th century BCE, philosophy was used to make sense of the world – including astronomy, mathematics, politics, ethics, metaphysics and aesthetics. But why did philosophy flourish in Greek cul...
1 Sep 202031min
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was one of the most feared and most famous warrior kings in history. But how did he rise to power to become the Emperor of the Mongol Empire? How did he unite many of the nomadic tributes...
28 Aug 202023min
Oliver Cromwell
Having led the parliament of England’s armies against King Charles I, and seen to it that the king was executed, Oliver Cromwell went on to rule the British Isles as Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658. ...
25 Aug 202028min
How World War Two Shaped The Modern World
With the end of the Second World War 75 years ago, the task of rebuilding shattered nations had to begin. But the years that followed saw the coming of the Nuclear Age, the Cold War, decolonialism and...
24 Aug 202021min
Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the Holy Land, as well as sites in Europe and around Britain became popular sites for pilgrimage. It was believed that praying at shrines or in front of holy relics could absolve y...
18 Aug 202030min
The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Germany was divided and, as the Cold War escalated, a concrete barrier physically and ideologically divided Berlin. But how did Berlin come to be split by a w...
14 Aug 202033min
Europe's Witch Craze
In 1597, King James VI of Scotland published a compendium on witchcraft called Daemonologie that laid down the kind of trial and punishment these practices merited. But why was there a witch craze in ...
11 Aug 202028min
