A History of England

It's the run up to the Battle of the Boyne. So we're chatting about the many motivations for William III's invasion of England. Yes, the aims of the Glorious Revolution, protecting or simply implemen...

3 Maj 202111min

The Glorious Revolution led to England having two reigning monarchs for the price of just one: William III and Mary II, or Williamandmary, as we like to think of them. It started with a Bill of Right...

28 Apr 202111min

Was it glorious? Was it even a revolution? The Glorious Revolution brought to an end the short and little lamented - indeed, lamentable - reign of James II of England, James VII of Scotland, and with ...

23 Apr 202110min

We stand on the brink of saying goodbye to the Stuart kings, at last (not, alas, to the Stuarts though: they'll be back a couple more times to haunt us). The history of England saved the worst to las...

18 Apr 202110min

In the course of Charles II's reign, we saw governments fall and an opposition beginning to emerge. The result was the formation of two distinct groups, the Whigs and Tories, the former looking for li...

13 Apr 202114min

When we last took a look at the so-called golden age of Charles II, we talked about the persecution of Catholics and, in particular, the witch hunt launched against them during the Popish Plot craze l...

8 Apr 202111min

Was that golden age, following the restoration of the monarchy in England, really that golden? This episode looks at how it lost its sheen, particularly when the champion fabricator or fake news and f...

3 Apr 202114min

Charles II's Golden Age continues in this next episode, although the title, with its trace of irony, rather betrays some of the things that were going on under the surface. A lot of duplicity by the m...

29 Mars 20218min