Not Just the Tudors

Life in Tudor England was risky. In addition to the outbreaks of plague, the threat of poverty and the dangers of childbirth, there were social risks - of not fitting in, of social death. How was a pe...

11 Jan 202435min

For anyone studying the politics of the 1570s-80s, it would be hard to avoid Elizabeth I’s ‘spymaster’ Sir Francis Walsingham, who seemingly rose from nowhere to become one of the most important men o...

7 Jan 202436min

The unsolved mystery of what happened to the Princes in the Tower - Edward V and Richard, Duke of York - is possibly English history’s greatest cold case. Were they murdered by their paternal uncle Ri...

4 Jan 202458min

From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant’ of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the dramas of courtly love have captivated readers and dre...

1 Jan 202439min

In the cut-throat world of Renaissance Florence, Alessandro - the illegitimate son of a Duke and a mixed-race servant - attempts to reassert the Medicis’ faltering grip on the city state. But after ju...

28 Dec 202345min

To this day, the presence of angels is synonymous with the Christmas story and the momentous events associated with the Nativity. For the Tudors and Stuarts, widespread belief in angels brought a touc...

21 Dec 202354min

We think of Shakespeare as a man out of time. His stories and characters, his capturing of human nature, and his exquisite use of language, continue to speak to us today - and will endure for the cent...

18 Dec 202333min

Have you ever wondered how and where our Christmas tradition of pantomime originated? In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Dr. Oliver Crick, who traces pa...

14 Dec 202340min