How the Reformation Changed Music
The Coventry Carol and In Dulci Jubilo are songs that are still sung at this time of the year. Curiously, despite their medieval roots, these tunes remained popular throughout Protestant Elizabethan ...
11 Dec 202326min
The Tudors' Portrait Artist: Holbein
How we visualise the Tudors largely comes from their portraits painted by Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1526 and 1543, he captured the elite of the Tudor court and beyond - Henry VIII, Anne Boley...
7 Dec 202344min
3 Ways to Die in Early Modern Europe
Life in the 16th and 17th centuries was brutal - the development of warfare technology made conflicts catastrophic for civilians as well as soldiers, there were regular epidemics, and famines both man...
4 Dec 202332min
Montaigne: Philosopher of the French Renaissance
Centuries before Proust's Remembrance of Things Past took us on a tour of memory and James Joyce played with stream of consciousness, a 16th century nobleman - Michel de Montaigne - developed a wholly...
30 Nov 202344min
Saving Henry VIII's Lost Tapestry
For the Tudors, tapestries not only brought warmth and colour to a room, but they were magnificent demonstrations of artistic skill and of moral messages. A campaign is now under way to save a vast go...
26 Nov 202328min
Mary I: What if She'd Lived?
On 17 November 1558, Queen Mary I died. But how would history have turned out differently if Mary had lived another 30 years? Where would her Roman-Catholicism taken England? Would Mary have patched u...
22 Nov 202331min
Inside Hampton Court Palace
For centuries, Hampton Court has been a stage for monarchy, revolution, religious fundamentalism, sexual scandals, and military coups. In his new book The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 ...
20 Nov 202346min
Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I with Tracy Borman
Anne Boleyn is usually considered in the context of her marriage to - and demise at the hands of - King Henry VIII. But ultimately, the memory of Anne eventually triumphed, and her death was avenged, ...
16 Nov 202338min
