Not Just the Tudors

Did women really do nothing to shape England’s culture and traditions through centuries of turmoil, plague, famine and religious reform? In her new non-fiction book, best-selling author Philippa Grego...

5 Okt 202341min

In the same way that Shakespeare’s women characters were performed by boys in female costume, African, Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Jewish roles in his plays were taken by white men, deploying a serie...

2 Okt 202328min

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, is often vilified as one of the Tudor century's most unpleasant characters. His was a family marked by treason, beheadings and incarceration - a dynasty whose pride...

28 Sep 202337min

Henry VIII's sixth wife Kateryn Parr was a scholar and a writer in her own right. She was one of the first English women to have works published under her own name, creating a new role as both queen a...

25 Sep 202352min

What did the Tudor age understand about digestion? How did this affect what foods people prepared and ate? Was there such a thing as healthy eating? How did they manage seasonal food changes and seaso...

21 Sep 202351min

In some portraits of Henry VIII there appears another, striking figure. This is Will Somer, the king’s fool, a celebrated wit who could raise Henry’s spirits and spent many hours alone with him. But w...

18 Sep 202346min

In an age when literature was dominated by men, Margaret Cavendish wrote passionately about gender, science and philosophy. She published under her own name, and advocated for women in work. Her 1666 ...

14 Sep 202343min

One of Early Modern Europe’s most powerful families, the Hapsburgs shared a physical trait so distinctive that it came to be regarded as a badge of honour - the large, jutting jaw that was a result of...

11 Sep 202334min