History Cafe
350 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsTrue history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History Café weekly on Wednesdays to give old stories a refreshing new brew. 90+ ever-green stand-alone episodes and building...
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Episodes
Taster: #54 - Ep 1 Slavery - did money not morality end British Enslavement?
May 31, 2021 07:57 - 4 minutes - 4.55 MBTaster for #54 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s publicity guru, Bernard Ingham, once announced that ‘the only thing British kids needed to know about the slave trade was that we ended it.’ He means, of course, the British. We can already agree what a juvenile statement that is. Anyway, Mr Ingham, you’re wrong. The Danish banned the slave trade in 1792, fifteen years before the British. And it had been banned in one after another of the northern states of America between 1763 and 1804. And...
Taster: #26 'Why blow up Parliament anyway?' - Ep 3 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
May 29, 2021 06:53 - 5 minutes - 4.64 MBTaster for #26 - The parliament of 1604 refuses to grant the king money. They’re still paying for the effects of the last plague. But this is Cecil’s job. What to do? On 5 November 1605 the assembled MPs and peers are calmly informed that there has been a devilish Catholic plot to blow the lot of them up. A plot that their king and Cecil have brilliantly foiled. Unsurprisingly, this time, they vote the king the money he so badly needs. Job done.
Taster: #25 ‘Here lieth the Toad’ - Ep 2 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
May 24, 2021 09:32 - 2 minutes - 2.42 MBTaster for #25 - We take a look at James I’s shadowy chief minister Robert Cecil who manages to implicate most of his Catholic enemies in the plot. Cecil was so desperate to improve King James’s dire view of him (his father had caused the execution James’ mother, Mary Queen of Scots) he would stoop to anything.
Taster: #53 '1066 And All That' - really serious nonsense
May 22, 2021 08:59 - 4 minutes - 4.4 MBTaster for #53 - Published in 1930 by Methuen and never out of print since, this isn’t (as everyone has always supposed) just an innocent laugh at kids’ mistakes. It is a laugh, and we explore many of the jokes - as we do in this taster with their historical look at Queen Victoria's famous line 'we are not amused'. But... '1066 And All That' is suffused with subversive subtexts. Our original research reveals its origins back in the academic infighting and socialism young authors Sellar and ...
Taster: #24 ‘There is no state trial so totally devoid of reality’ - Ep 1 Gunpowder Plot
May 17, 2021 09:19 - 5 minutes - 5.43 MBTaster for #24 - We look at the story the government published as The King’s Book, more than 500 witness statements and other contemporary sources and conclude, like the Victorian antiquarian Jardine who wrote up the trial from the State Papers, there is no reliable corroborating evidence for the gunpowder story we’ve been told.
Taster: #52 Anne Boleyn - Henry's MacGuffin
May 15, 2021 14:38 - 5 minutes - 5.24 MBTaster for #52 - Most of what we think we know about Anne Boleyn turns out to be later invention, with no historical basis. We argue that she was a MacGuffin: she was necessary to the way things turned out for Henry, but unimportant in herself. We’re not even sure he was in love with her.
#51 'A broken world?' - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the King, his wife, his lover, the French
May 12, 2021 07:05 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThe Ambassadors painting by Hans Holbein reveals the French horror at Henry’s decision in January 1533 to defy the pope and get remarried to a pregnant Anne Boleyn. With the Spanish seriously weakened by war, Turkish invasion and protestant revolt in Germany, and Henry’s French allies now needing him more than he does them, Henry’s long game to get the Pope on side against the Spanish is now in extra time. Henry is free to make himself head of the Church in England.
#51 Marrying Anne Boleyn, the best of a bad job - Ep 6 Henry VIII
May 12, 2021 07:05 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThe Ambassadors painting by Hans Holbein reveals the French horror at Henry’s decision in January 1533 to defy the pope and get remarried to a pregnant Anne Boleyn. But since Henry couldn't get an annulment he had no choice. No big-time European princess would marry him. With the Spanish seriously weakened by war, Turkish invasion and protestant revolt in Germany, and Henry’s French allies now needing him more than he does them, Henry’s long game to get the Pope on side against the Spanish is...
Taster: #44 'Anne did not hold out on Henry - it's a fact - Ep 1 Henry VIII etc
May 09, 2021 13:13 - 6 minutes - 5.62 MBTaster for #44 - In 2010 a document from 1527 was found in which Henry admits to the pope that he is sleeping with the woman he wishes to marry instead of, or as well as, his Spanish wife Katherine. Very little of the traditional story can be believed. It’s Katherine who matters in the story of Henry’s Reformation, not Anne.
Taster: #51 'A broken world?' - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
May 09, 2021 11:24 - 5 minutes - 4.59 MBTaster for #51 - The Ambassadors painting by Hans Holbein reveals the French horror at Henry’s decision in January 1533 to defy the pope and get remarried to a pregnant Anne Boleyn. With the Spanish seriously weakened by war, Turkish invasion and protestant revolt in Germany, and Henry’s French allies now needing him more than he does them, Henry’s long game to get the Pope on side against the Spanish is now in extra time. Henry is free to make himself head of the Church in England.
#50 No more ménage à trois - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the King, his wife, his lover, the French
May 05, 2021 07:34 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBIn a dynamite French document from August 1530, still overlooked by historians, the King of France offers to send troops to England to defend Henry VIII against the Spanish. No French government before or since has ever promised to send troops to defend England. Does this explain Henry’s sudden move in August 1530 to go on the offensive against Rome and the clergy in England and end the comfortable ménage à trois with his wife and his mistress, Anne?
#50 'The lost treaty' - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the King, his wife, his lover, the French
May 05, 2021 07:34 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBIn a dynamite French document from August 1530, still overlooked by historians, the King of France offers to send troops to England to defend Henry VIII against the Spanish. No French government before or since has ever promised to send troops to defend England. Does this explain Henry’s sudden move in August 1530 to go on the offensive against Rome and the clergy in England?
Taster: #23 'A short naval war' - ep 7 World War One: how much was it Britain's fault?
May 03, 2021 12:14 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MBTaster for #23 - One day after Britain goes to war - ‘at sea’ - on 4 August 1914 the first War Council unceremoniously throws out the army’s secret plan to send a few divisions to meet the Germans head on and win quick, painless glory fighting alongside the French. Only then do the four men who had single-handedly thrown away the chance of avoiding a general European war, understand what Britain’s most prestigious soldier, Kitchener, has been warning since 1911. That a war with Germany would ...
Taster: #50 'The lost treaty' - ep 5 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
May 01, 2021 09:38 - 4 minutes - 4.44 MBIn a dynamite French document from August 1530, still overlooked by historians, the King of France offers to send troops to England to defend Henry VIII against the Spanish. No French government before or since has ever promised to send troops to defend England. Does this explain Henry’s sudden move in August 1530 to go on the offensive against Rome and the clergy in England?
Taster: #22 'The Bullying of Edward Grey' - Ep 6 World War One: how much was it Britain's fault?
April 25, 2021 21:08 - 3 minutes - 3.24 MBTaster for #22 - A right-wing anti-German contingent call their campaign for war, the weekend of 31 July-2 August a ‘pogrom’. All talks of peace are, in their words, a German-Jewish plot to keep Britain out of the war for financial reasons. They have the support of the Conservative party, the British and French military, the politician in charge of the Royal Navy, and the press. But how on earth does Grey persuade the anti-war Liberal Cabinet and Parliament?
Taster: #49 'Like an episode of the Borgias' - Ep 4 Henry VIII, his wife, his lover, the French
April 24, 2021 15:34 - 4 minutes - 3.72 MBTaster for #49 - 31 May 1529: Faced with France and Spain leaving England in the lurch, Henry races against time to begin his divorce trial in London, and then pulls the plug just before a verdict is reached. Meanwhile the pope and his cardinals are double-crossing each other.
Taster: #48 'Gunsmoke and Mirrors' - Ep 2 Was the Wild West wild?
April 19, 2021 09:00 - 4 minutes - 4.22 MBTaster for #48 - What was the driving force behind the settlement of the American west? Was it the so-called ‘anarchocapitalism’ so admired by the Hoover Institution and some of the followers of President Trump? The violence they fetishize turns out to have been only in those places populated by young men – we’re talking not just cowpokes or gold and silver prospectors, but also vigilantes in the towns back east. The majority frontiers-people were peaceful American homesteaders. But they’ve e...
Taster: #21 8pm (German time) 1 August 1914 war in Belgium and France is off
April 18, 2021 09:41 - 5 minutes - 5.21 MBTaster for #21 - The Kaiser orders champagne, halts the German advance towards Belgium, and sends a telegram of congratulations to his cousin George V at Buckingham Palace. The Liberal British Cabinet had voted to remain neutral on 31 July. Earlier on 1 August Foreign Secretary Grey met the German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky (one of a string of meetings that week) to tell him that France might also remain neutral. A few hours later they met again and Grey added that even if France went to wa...
Taster: #20 Hanging on Moscow's apron strings - Ep 4 World War One: how much was it Britain's fault?
April 12, 2021 18:19 - 4 minutes - 4.25 MBTaster for #20 - In 1912 a deal between War Secretary Haldane and the German chancellor Bethmann-Holweg to allow Britain to retain naval supremacy if they both remained neutral (if neither side had started the war), was rudely sabotaged. It involved lying to Cabinet that the Germans were demanding a full-scale Anglo-German alliance, which they weren’t. It meant throwing away what the majority of the Cabinet saw as the best chance to contain Russian expansion, by making common cause with Germa...
Taster: Hanging on Moscow's apron strings - Ep 4 World War One: how much was it Britain's fault?
April 12, 2021 18:19 - 4 minutes - 4.25 MBIn 1912 a deal between War Secretary Haldane and the German chancellor Bethmann-Holweg to allow Britain to retain naval supremacy if they both remained neutral (if neither side had started the war), was rudely sabotaged. It involved lying to Cabinet that the Germans were demanding a full-scale Anglo-German alliance, which they weren’t. It meant throwing away what the majority of the Cabinet saw as the best chance to contain Russian expansion, by making common cause with Germany. Russia, allie...
Taster: 'A law-less frontier' - Ep 1 Was the Wild West wild?
April 11, 2021 18:40 - 5 minutes - 4.62 MBA series of land grabs and cruel clearances by the Federal government from 1781 triggered a crazy, barely-contained movement west, spearheaded by gold prospectors, cattle ranchers, homesteaders and the railroads. By 1892 it was generally agreed that the American character was forged in the violence of the shifting frontier. We look at the popular fiction and entertainment that helped create this belief: Deadwood Dick, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Mark Twain’s Six-fingered Pete and many others...
Taster: #47 'A law-less frontier' - Ep 1 Was the Wild West wild?
April 11, 2021 18:40 - 5 minutes - 4.62 MBTaster for #47 - A series of land grabs and cruel clearances by the Federal government from 1781 triggered a crazy, barely-contained movement west, spearheaded by gold prospectors, cattle ranchers, homesteaders and the railroads. By 1892 it was generally agreed that the American character was forged in the violence of the shifting frontier. We look at the popular fiction and entertainment that helped create this belief: Deadwood Dick, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Mark Twain’s Six-fingered Pet...
Taster: #19 'Bicycling holidays along the French-Belgian border' - Ep 3 War in 1914
April 05, 2021 10:46 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBTaster for #19 - How did what friendly chats between British and French generals since 1905 turn into a commitment to send a small British Expeditionary Force to France at the start of a war with Germany? A commitment that had not been agreed by Cabinet, Parliament or the Navy?
Taster: 'Bicycling holidays along the French-Belgian border' - Ep 3 War in 1914
April 05, 2021 10:46 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBHow did what friendly chats between British and French generals since 1905 turn into a commitment to send a small British Expeditionary Force to France at the start of a war with Germany? A commitment that had not been agreed by Cabinet, Parliament or the Navy?
Taster: Missions Impossible - Ep 3 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
April 03, 2021 21:43 - 5 minutes - 5.15 MB1527: The pope is a prisoner of the marauding Spanish in Rome and yet Henry sends his man Knight on a madcap mission to ask Pope Clement VII for permission to marry a young woman he is already sleeping with. It’s the first of a whole series of crazy errands, asking the pope for the impossible. Does Henry have a hidden agenda?
Taster: #46 Missions Impossible - Ep 3 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
April 03, 2021 21:43 - 5 minutes - 5.15 MBTaster for #46 - 1527: The pope is a prisoner of the marauding Spanish in Rome and yet Henry sends his man Knight on a madcap mission to ask Pope Clement VII for permission to marry a young woman he is already sleeping with. It’s the first of a whole series of crazy errands, asking the pope for the impossible. Does Henry have a hidden agenda?
Taster: ‘Spies of the Kaiser’ - Ep2 World War One: was it really Britain's fault?
March 29, 2021 09:15 - 7 minutes - 6.91 MBThe British publishing phenomena of 1906 was The Invasion of 1910 (by Germans), serialised in the Daily Mail and marketed by men walking around London in Prussian uniforms. This chimed perfectly with the anti-German clique at the foreign office.
Taster: #18 ‘Spies of the Kaiser’ - Ep2 World War One: was it really Britain's fault?
March 29, 2021 09:15 - 7 minutes - 6.91 MBTaster for #18 - The British publishing phenomena of 1906 was The Invasion of 1910 (by Germans), serialised in the Daily Mail and marketed by men walking around London in Prussian uniforms. This chimed perfectly with the anti-German clique at the foreign office.
Taster: #45 The jilting of little Princes Mary - Ep 2 Henry VIII, his wife, his lover, the French
March 27, 2021 10:12 - 3 minutes - 3.58 MBTaster for #45 - Did Henry break with Rome in order to seize power over the wealthy, ubiquitous church in England? We find that the dates don’t add up. Instead we look at why in June 1525 Henry promoted his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy over the head of his heir Mary.
Taster: The jilting of little Princes Mary - Ep 2 Henry VIII, his wife, his lover, the French
March 27, 2021 10:12 - 3 minutes - 3.58 MBDid Henry break with Rome in order to seize power over the wealthy, ubiquitous church in England? We find that the dates don’t add up. Instead we look at why in June 1525 Henry promoted his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy over the head of his heir Mary.
Taster: The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 World War One: was it really Britain's fault?
March 22, 2021 12:38 - 8 minutes - 7.41 MBBritain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown - now militarily indefensible. So why did Britain go to war to support Russia and against Germany its closest European friend and trading partner?
Taster: #17 The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 World War One: was it really Britain's fault?
March 22, 2021 12:38 - 8 minutes - 7.41 MBTaster for #17 - Britain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown - now militarily indefensible. So why did Britain go to war to support Russia and against Germany its closest European friend and trading partner?
Taster: #44 Anne Boleyn did not hold out on Henry - Ep 1 Henry VIII, his wife, his lover, the French
March 20, 2021 11:42 - 6 minutes - 5.62 MBTaster #44 - In 2010 a document from 1527 was found in which Henry admits to the pope that he is sleeping with the woman he wishes to marry instead of, or as well as, his Spanish wife Katherine. Very little of the traditional story can be believed. It’s Katherine who matters in the story of Henry’s Reformation, not Anne.
Taster: Anne Boleyn did not hold out on Henry - Ep 1 Henry VIII, his wife, his lover, the French
March 20, 2021 11:42 - 6 minutes - 5.62 MBIn 2010 a document from 1527 was found in which Henry admits to the pope that he is sleeping with the woman he wishes to marry instead of, or as well as, his Spanish wife Katherine. Very little of the traditional story can be believed. It’s Katherine who matters in the story of Henry’s Reformation, not Anne.
#43 Who really won the vote? - Ep 7 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 17, 2021 07:51 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBSuddenly, after 1913 votes for women looks inevitable. Not through the chaotic, dying campaign of the suffragettes. But through the political brilliance of Millicent Fawcett and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Their 1913 alliance with the Labour Party changes the whole political balance. Their massive peaceful Pilgrimage of 1913 - from 6 corners of the UK - is great PR. Now Liberal Prime Minister HH Asquith’s blockheaded intransigence over women’s votes is costing his party ...
Taster: Who really won the vote? - Ep 7 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 14, 2021 14:35 - 8 minutes - 7.37 MBSuddenly, after 1913 votes for women looks inevitable. Not through the chaotic, dying campaign of the suffragettes. But through the political brilliance of Millicent Fawcett and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. At the 1915 election all three parties will be vying to give women the vote. But then… war breaks out.
Taster: #43 Who really won the vote? - Ep 7 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 14, 2021 14:35 - 8 minutes - 7.37 MB#43 Suddenly, after 1913 votes for women looks inevitable. Not through the chaotic, dying campaign of the suffragettes. But through the political brilliance of Millicent Fawcett and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. At the 1915 election all three parties will be vying to give women the vote. But then… war breaks out.
#42 The violence backfired - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 10, 2021 07:59 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBNovember 1912 sees the first defeat for women’s votes since 1891. The government has been struggling with law and order after two years of mass strikes. That year even school children go on strike. The violence of the suffragettes is barely noticed and can definitely not be rewarded. For the first time in a generation, Parliament turns against women’s votes. What little sympathy there was for women’s suffrage among the wider public ebbs away. But Christabel Pankhurst, from her cosy Paris apar...
#42 Setting the feminist cause back years - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 10, 2021 07:59 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBNovember 1912 sees the first defeat for women’s votes since 1891. The government has been struggling with law and order after two years of mass strikes. That year even school children go on strike. The violence of the suffragettes is barely noticed and can definitely not be rewarded. For the first time in a generation, Parliament turns against women’s votes. What little sympathy there was for women’s suffrage among the wider public ebbs away. But Christabel Pankhurst, from her cosy Paris apar...
Taster: #42 Setting the feminist cause back by years - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 08, 2021 10:52 - 5 minutes - 4.6 MB#42 November 1912 sees the first defeat for women’s votes since 1891. The government has been struggling with law and order after two years of mass strikes. That year even school children go on strike. The violence of the suffragettes is barely noticed and can definitely not be rewarded. For the first time in a generation, Parliament turns against women’s votes. What little sympathy there was for women’s suffrage among the wider public ebbs away. But Christabel Pankhurst, from her cosy Paris ...
Taster: Setting the feminist cause back by years - Ep 6 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 08, 2021 10:52 - 5 minutes - 4.6 MBNovember 1912 sees the first defeat for women’s votes since 1891. The government has been struggling with law and order after two years of mass strikes. That year even school children go on strike. The violence of the suffragettes is barely noticed and can definitely not be rewarded. For the first time in a generation, Parliament turns against women’s votes. What little sympathy there was for women’s suffrage among the wider public ebbs away. But Christabel Pankhurst, from her cosy Paris apar...
#41 The Suffragette Whitewash - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 03, 2021 08:20 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBFrom 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. But that is not how they're remembered. Anyone who disagrees with the violence either leaves or is thrown out. Whatever they later claim about their ‘wonderful leadership’, it is their young, poor members who are inventing new and increasingly dangerous ways of intimidating the government. The WSPU leadership claims it never threatened life, only property, but this is manifestly not true. Axes are thrown, ful...
#41 The violence the Suffragettes wouldn't admit to - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
March 03, 2021 08:20 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBFrom 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. But that is not how they're remembered. Anyone who disagrees with the violence either leaves or is thrown out. Whatever they later claim about their ‘wonderful leadership’, it is their young, poor members who are inventing new and increasingly dangerous ways of intimidating the government. The WSPU leadership claims it never threatened life, only property, but this is manifestly not true. Axes are thrown, ful...
TASTER: The men behind the myth - Ep 7 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
March 02, 2021 17:28 - 21 minutes - 19.3 MBWithin days of 28 October 1962 two journalists publish the official but untruthful White House account, as instructed and edited by the President. They also call-out a political enemy for daring to consider a humiliating missile swap with the Soviets. But we show how the Kennedys had already suggested this very missile swap to Khrushchev via private backchannels, on condition he kept it secret. Which he did.
Taster: Whitewashing the Suffragettes - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
February 26, 2021 22:34 - 4 minutes - 4.37 MBFrom 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous.
Taster: #41 The Suffragette Whitewash - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
February 26, 2021 22:34 - 4 minutes - 4.37 MB#41 From 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. [formerly called Whitewashing the Suffragettes]
Taster: The Suffragette Whitewash - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
February 26, 2021 22:34 - 4 minutes - 4.37 MBFrom 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. [formerly called Whitewashing the Suffragettes]
#40 Henry VIII: the pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence
February 24, 2021 08:15 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBAfter years of negotiation and confrontation, Pope Clement VII was heard swearing unpapally over Henry VIII’s divorce. And no wonder. The history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. Pope Clement was trapped between a rock and a hard place: the only way to save his Medici family’s city of Florence was to refuse Henry his divorce and split Christendom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...
TASTER: Henry VIII: the Pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence
February 18, 2021 18:16 - 7 minutes - 6.51 MBThe history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. It shows what Henry was up against.
TASTER: #40 Henry VIII: the Pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence
February 18, 2021 18:16 - 7 minutes - 6.51 MB#40 The history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. It shows what Henry was up against.