Maria Theresa, Habsburg Empress
How did a woman rise to power, and keep it, in the fiercely male-dominated Habsburg Empire?From her distrust of the Enlightenment to her religious intolerance, and from family strategy to imperial pow...
20 Apr 50min
Elizabethans in India
How did England’s earliest travellers to India try to win favour in a Mughal golden age that scarcely noticed them?Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks with Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami about Tudor and early Stu...
16 Apr 55min
Lady Jane Grey
What if becoming queen was the worst thing that could happen to you? What if the crown became your death sentence?Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explores the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, the brilliant...
13 Apr 49min
Grace O'Malley, Ireland's Pirate Queen
She cut off her hair to sail the seas. She divorced her husband by locking him out of his own castle. And when her son was killed by the occupying English, she sailed straight up the Thames to plead f...
9 Apr 46min
Elizabethan Boy Actresses
Why were Shakespeare’s greatest heroines played by teenage boys? How did they learn their craft? On the Elizabethan stage, highly trained young men progressed from minor parts to play some of the Bard...
6 Apr 50min
When the Spanish Armada Reached Ireland
What happens when a fleeing armada meets an unforgiving coast? Shipwreck, slaughter and survival collide as Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Michael B. Barry uncover the untold Irish chapter of the Spa...
2 Apr 50min
Henry Wotton: Outlaw and Royal Spy
Assassination plots, Venetian stand‑offs and a diplomat in disguise: how did one maverick change the course of history?Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Carol Chillington Rutter uncovers the s...
30 Mars 52min
The Rise and Fall of Pirate Captain Kidd
Was Captain William Kidd a ruthless pirate or a pawn in a royal gamble gone wrong? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Debbie Kilroy trace his meteoric rise from privateer to pariah, backed by a secret s...
26 Mars 43min
