Not Just the Tudors
425 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1.5K ratingsProfessor Suzannah Lipscomb talks about everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower. Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
Each episode Suzannah is joined by historians and experts to reveal incredible stories about one of the most fascinating periods in history.
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Episodes
Seducing James I: Mary & George
April 11, 2024 02:00 - 47 minutes - 781 MBThe major new TV series, Mary & George tells the scandalous story of George Villiers, who rose - thanks to his mother Mary’s machinations - from minor gentry to enrapture King James VI & I, Britain’s first Stuart king. For a decade, George Villiers was at James’s side – at court, on state occasions and in bed, right up to James’s death in March 1625. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Benjamin Wooley, acclaimed author of The King’s Assassin, a c...
Erasmus: Renaissance Radical
April 08, 2024 02:00 - 35 minutes - 30 MBIn the 16th century, Erasmus of Rotterdam was about as famous as anybody could be, one of the greatest intellectuals of his age. To Martin Luther's mind, though, Erasmus's radical religious vision did not go far enough. To Roman Catholic scholars, Erasmus was heretical. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor William Barker, to find out more about a scholar of great brilliance as well as personal flaws and contradictions. This episode w...
Wars of Religion: A Woman's Fight for Justice
April 04, 2024 02:00 - 39 minutes - 34.8 MBAt the end of the French Wars of Religion, a widow Renée Chevalier instigated the prosecution of a military captain who had committed multiple acts of rape, homicide and theft against the villagers who lived around her. But how could Chevalier win her case when King Henri IV's Edict of Nantes ordered that the recent troubles should be forgotten as 'things that had never been'? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Tom Hamilton, whose new book is a...
Surgery in the Early Modern Age
March 28, 2024 03:00 - 30 minutes - 24.7 MBToday surgery is one of the most important sectors in the medical field. But what was surgery like for people in the 16th and 17th centuries, before anaesthetic and sophisticated technology? How were surgeons trained? What tools did they use? And what was the rate of survival? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb discovers more from historian and retired surgeon Michael Crumplin. This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg. **WARNIN...
Jewish History of Venice
March 25, 2024 03:00 - 27 minutes - 460 MBEssential to any history of Venice during its glory days is the story of its Jewish population. Venice gave the world the word ghetto. Astonishingly, the ghetto prison turned out to be as remarkable a place as the city of Venice itself, as a literary, cultural and interfaith revival flourished. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Harry Freedman. His new book Shylock’s Venice tells the story of Venice's Jews, from the founding of the ghetto in 1516, ...
Tudor Ladies-in-Waiting
March 21, 2024 03:00 - 46 minutes - 768 MBFor every Tudor Queen, their ladies-in-waiting were their confidantes, chaperones and intimate witnesses to their lives. These women were high born, even if they performed menial tasks, and many of them were educated. As King Henry VIII changed wives - and the very fabric of the country's structure - these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb welcomes Dr. Nicola Clark, whose new book The ...
Diary of a Tudor Gentlewoman
March 18, 2024 03:00 - 37 minutes - 617 MBDiaries written by gentlewomen in the mid-16th century are hard to find. Yet, they lived through an age of upheaval as old ways were effaced in preference for the new. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets award-winning author Francesca Kay. In her new novel The Book of Days, she has imagined herself into the story of a gentlewoman living in the 1540s, writing her book of days, and it is spellbinding. This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produc...
Trial of Charles I
March 14, 2024 03:00 - 43 minutes - 37.8 MBIn the mid-17th century, King Charles I of England was put on trial for treason against the sovereign state. Such a process involved a singular determination by Parliament to find a way, through due legal process, to try the one they saw as a man of blood, to ensure that he paid the price for his faults and failings, but not through extrajudicial summary justice. To understand how such a thing came about, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks in this episode of Not Just the Tudors to Professo...
How to Live Like a Stuart Aristocrat
March 11, 2024 03:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBAfter the Restoration of the Monarchy, the upper classes took their cues from court life - its entertainments, costumes, food and leisure pursuits. The Stuart-era aristocracy were cultured, political, well educated, immoderate yet religious. So how did devotion and piety coexist with a lifestyle dominated by excess? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Ben Norman, historian and author of Pomp and Piety: Everyday Life of the Aristocracy in Stuar...
Jane Seymour: Henry VIII’s Third Queen
March 07, 2024 03:00 - 34 minutes - 28.9 MBJane Seymour is a paradox. Of Henry VIII’s six wives, she is the one about whom we know perhaps the least. She was the most lowly of the queens, but she had royal blood. She's often described as plain and mousy and lacking opinions, but when we do see her in the sources, she tends to be doing something that shows agency, while wearing some very flashy clothes indeed. So what can we make of Jane Seymour? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Elizabe...
Adventures of a Mughal Princess
March 04, 2024 03:00 - 38 minutes - 628 MBIn the British Library, there is a manuscript copy of the memoir of Princess Gulbadan, the only surviving female-authored memoir from the Mughal Empire. In it, Gulbadan tells her extraordinary story: from growing up in a multi-cultural society, via life in a walled harem, to an unprecedented women's pilgrimage to Mecca, complete with dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Professor Ruby Lal, whose latest...
Origins of Fairy Tales
February 29, 2024 03:00 - 29 minutes - 31.2 MBFairy tales exist everywhere and in every time. Through centuries of oral tradition and the invention of print and later advances in television and film, fairy tales have altered and shaped themselves in reflection of changing cultural norms. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries and to the first time that fairy tales were written down and compiled. She is joined by Nicholas Jubber, author of The Fairy Tellers: A Journe...
Science vs. Witchcraft: The Kepler Trial
February 26, 2024 03:00 - 36 minutes - 607 MBAstronomer Johannes Kepler was an important and admired figure in the scientific revolution of the early 17th century. But when his widowed mother was accused of witchcraft, the scientist remarkably defended her, in a trial that lasted six years. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to author Ulinka Rublack who has pieced together this extraordinary true story. This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg. Enjoy unlimited access...
Ghosts & Guardian Angels
February 22, 2024 03:00 - 41 minutes - 689 MBIn Elizabethan and Stuart England, ghosts weren't supposed to exist. Protestant preachers and writers had banished them - but people continued to see them. So how did our early modern forebears reckon with ghosts and their heavily counterpart, angels? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Professor Peter Marshall, author of several books on ghosts, beliefs and the dead in Reformation England. This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced ...
The Rise and Fall of Britain's Islands
February 19, 2024 03:00 - 34 minutes - 47.4 MBHow did Britain's islands become woven into our collective cultural psyche? Traversing Irish poetry, Renaissance drama and Restoration utopias, author Alice Albinia’s research has boldly upturned established truths about Britain, paying homage to the islands' beauty, independence and their suppressed or forgotten histories - including of women rulers. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Alice Albinia talks more about her book The Britannias: An Island Quest with Professor Suzannah Lipsc...
Origins of the Condom
February 15, 2024 03:00 - 28 minutes - 22.5 MBThe first surviving mention of condoms dates from the mid-16th century, in the writings of an Italian anatomist better known for the discovery of the fallopian tubes. Born out of a medical need to prevent the spread of syphilis, the condom was originally made from fabric, normally linen, and later from animal guts. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets Dr. Kate Stevenson, whose work as a dress historian has taken her on a journey of discovery into the ori...
Fairies in the Early Modern Era
February 12, 2024 03:00 - 41 minutes - 33.4 MBIn the early modern period, belief in fairies was quite commonplace. But put all thoughts of Tinkerbell aside! These fairies were altogether more dangerous beings - troublemakers, child-snatchers, seducers and changelings. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Prof. Diane Purkiss, author of Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories. This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg. Discover the past with ...
Private Life of King James VI & I
February 08, 2024 03:00 - 39 minutes - 32.8 MBKing James VI and I, the first monarch to reign over Scotland, England and Ireland, has a mixed reputation. To many, he is simply the homosexual King, the inveterate witch-roaster, the smelly sovereign who never washed, the colourless man behind the authorised Bible bearing his name, or the drooling fool whose speech could barely be understood. For too long, he has paled in comparison to his more celebrated Tudor and Stuart forebears. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suza...
Supernatural Beings in Early Modern Britain
February 05, 2024 03:00 - 27 minutes - 24 MBIn the early modern period, it was patently clear to everyone that supernatural beings, foremost among them the devil, were at work in the world, intervening in human affairs. Can we find the origins of beliefs in vampires, zombies and revenants in this age too? How exactly did such beings manifest themselves? And how do we make sense of this in an age in which people believed they were living under a providential God? Joining Professor Suzannah Lipscomb to kick off a month of special N...
Tudor Conquest of Ireland
February 01, 2024 03:00 - 42 minutes - 59.1 MBHenry VIII was termed "by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland.” Ireland was England’s oldest colony. But what bloody events and brutal actions led to the English conquest of Ireland? How did the relationship between the two countries change over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? And how did the Irish respond to such subjugation? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, author of the fort...
How Ecology Shaped History with Peter Frankopan
January 29, 2024 03:00 - 41 minutes - 56.9 MBHistory books rarely make much reference to the impact of climate and the natural environment on people, and vice versa. Yet volcanic eruptions and storms, droughts and cyclical pressures have shaped human history, both in raising up civilisations and bringing them to their knees. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to acclaimed historian Professor Peter Frankopan - who has adopted this revolutionary new way of looking at history - to examine the impa...
Henry VIII's Nemesis, Cardinal Pole
January 25, 2024 03:00 - 46 minutes - 63.4 MBReginald Pole has been styled as both the nemesis of Henry VIII and as Mary I's bloody accomplice. Pole was related to the English royal family through the Plantagenets and was himself implicated in a plot against Henry VIII in 1538. So how did he rise to become the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, and then use his position both for and against the Tudor monarchs? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Frederick Smith to discuss th...
Murder in the Stuart Court
January 22, 2024 03:00 - 44 minutes - 35.8 MBThe public fascination with true crime is nothing new. Four centuries ago, the sensational story of the death in the Tower of London of Thomas Overbury, a lawyer in the court of King James I, led to a scandal that rocked the monarchy to its core. In this episode of Not Just The Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Professor Alastair Bellany, about the death of Overbury and why it threatened the Stuart throne. This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg. Discover the past...
Trading British Brides for American Tobacco
January 18, 2024 03:00 - 34 minutes - 763 MBIn 1621 the Virginia Company of London put out a call for young, handsome and honestly educated women to become wives for the planters in its new colony in Jamestown. Hopeful husbands were supposed to pay for their English brides in best leaf tobacco. But who were the women who made the Atlantic crossing? And what became of them when they arrived? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets author Jennifer Potter to find out more about the lives of these extra...
15th Century Puritan Fanatic, Savonarola
January 15, 2024 03:00 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBGirolamo Savonarola was a late 15th century Dominican friar who rose to become a preacher, prophet, and politician. He took on the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and despotic rulers including the powerful Medicis. He was both progressive - helping to lay the foundations of the Reformation and the Enlightenment - but also fundamentalist and deeply unsettling. In this episode, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to award-winning author Denise Mina, whose novel Three Fires tells the st...
How to Survive in Tudor England
January 11, 2024 03:00 - 35 minutes - 26.4 MBLife 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 person supposed to behave? And what were the dangers involved? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out about the art of surviving by 'blending in', with teacher and writer Toni Mount, author of How to Survive in Tudor England. This episode was produced by ...
Elizabeth I's Spymaster, Walsingham
January 07, 2024 03:00 - 36 minutes - 803 MBFor 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 of his time. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Dr. Hannah Coates, who has reappraised Walsingham's political practice, religious outlook and role as a councillor to the Crown. Drawing on new and underused sources, she's created a fresh, nuan...
Princes in the Tower: The Tudor Pretenders?
January 04, 2024 03:00 - 58 minutes - 54.7 MBThe 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 Richard III? Or were two plotters to take the Tudor throne of King Henry VII - Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck - connected to, or in reality, the Princes who had survived? Recent findings have raised new questions about the 540-year-old mystery and in this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Profes...
The Black Medici Prince of Florence
December 28, 2023 03:00 - 45 minutes - 42.3 MBIn 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 just six years in power, Alessandro is murdered by his cousin while anticipating an adulterous liaison. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in August 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Catherine Fletcher, author of The Black Prince of Florence, about one man's...
How the Elizabethan World Shaped Shakespeare
December 18, 2023 03:00 - 33 minutes - 39.7 MBWe 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 centuries to come. But he was born in a rural market town in the early years of Elizabeth I's reign, and was formed by the social, religious, and political worldview of the period. In this special episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb reflects on the world that shaped Shakesp...
Origins of Pantomime
December 14, 2023 03:00 - 40 minutes - 55.8 MBHave 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 pantomime’s origins to Commedia dell’arte - Italian travelling players who adapted their performances to other cultures and senses of humour. This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg. Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts pres...
How the Reformation Changed Music
December 11, 2023 03:00 - 26 minutes - 591 MBThe 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 England, a period when there was a complete overhaul of music in church and what it was expected to do. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr Jonathan Willis to explore the complex effects of the Reformation on music in England. This episode was produ...
The Tudors' Portrait Artist: Holbein
December 07, 2023 03:00 - 44 minutes - 37.7 MBHow 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 Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Thomas Cromwell, politicians, courtiers, soldiers and countless others. Every Holbein portrait seems to have begun with a drawing taken at a live sitting. An exhibition of these drawings in now on at Buckingham Palace and allows us to see Holbein’s process at work. In thi...
3 Ways to Die in Early Modern Europe
December 04, 2023 03:00 - 32 minutes - 26.3 MBLife 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-made and natural. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets Professor Ole Peter Grell, who co-wrote The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Religion, War, Famine and Death in Reformation Europe with Dr. Andrew Cunningham. Today's discussion focuses on just three o...
Montaigne: Philosopher of the French Renaissance
November 30, 2023 03:00 - 44 minutes - 39.1 MBCenturies 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 new style of reflective prose that examined his place in the world. His thoughts, questions and worries appear on the page as though they are your own, at once intensely personal to his own life yet somehow universal. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks a...
Saving Henry VIII's Lost Tapestry
November 26, 2023 03:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBFor 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 golden tapestry – Saint Paul Directing the Burning of the Heathen Books - personally commissioned by Henry VIII around 1535, at the time he broke with Rome. If the campaign is successful, the tapestry will go on display to the public in the Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland in County Durham, in Spring...
Mary I: What if She'd Lived?
November 22, 2023 03:00 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBOn 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 up relations between England and the rest of Europe? In this counterfactual special to end her Tudor Dynasty series, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb asks a panel of experts to speculate on the reign that might have been. Suzannah is joined by Dr. Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, Prof. Alexander Samson an...
Inside Hampton Court Palace
November 20, 2023 03:00 - 46 minutes - 41.1 MBFor 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 Years of History at Hampton Court, Gareth Russell moves through the rooms and the decades, each time focusing on a different person who called Hampton Court their home. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Gareth to find out more about the many sovereigns...
Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I with Tracy Borman
November 16, 2023 03:00 - 38 minutes - 29.4 MBAnne 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, through the reign of the daughter she barely knew, Queen Elizabeth I. Piecing together evidence from original documents and artefacts, historian Tracy Borman - in her new book Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History - shares compelling evidence that Anne exerted a...
Henry VIII: What You Really Need to Know
November 13, 2023 03:00 - 47 minutes - 45.8 MBThe truth about Henry VIII may surprise you. This second episode of Not Just the Tudors' Tudor Dynasty mini-series provides you, in a nutshell, with everything you really need to know about Henry: his upbringing as a second son, his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his exploits on the battlefield and tilt yard, his dependence on Cardinal Wolsey, his romance with Anne Boleyn, the break with Rome, his foreign policy, his murderous legislation and the downfall of Thomas Cromwell. Professor Suz...
Witchcraft: Not Just the Tudors After Dark
November 08, 2023 03:00 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MBIn this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb pays a visit to historians Dr. Anthony Delaney and Dr. Maddy Pelling, who are the hosts of History Hit’s new podcast, After Dark. Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal. Twice a week, Anthony and Maddy are taking listeners to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history's spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories. For this episode, they were keen for Suzannah to delve deep with them into the ever fascinating subjec...
Witchcraft: Everything You Need to Know
November 08, 2023 03:00 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MBIn this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb pays a visit to historians Dr. Anthony Delaney and Dr. Maddy Pelling, who are the hosts of History Hit’s new podcast, After Dark. Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal. Twice a week, Anthony and Maddy are taking listeners to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history's spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories. For this episode, they were keen for Suzannah to delve deep with them into the ever fascinating subjec...
Henry VII
November 06, 2023 07:10 - 52 minutes - 42.9 MBProfessor Suzannah Lipscomb kicks off four special episodes about the Tudor Dynasty with a look at its founding father King Henry VII. Seen as an exile and outsider with barely a claim to the throne, there was little to suggest that the obscure Henry would last any longer than his predecessor Richard III who Henry defeated at the battle of Bosworth Field. To maintain his grip on power and to convince England that his rule was both rightful and effective, Henry VII embarked upon a ruthless an...
Gunpowder Plot: Tudor Origins
November 01, 2023 03:00 - 56 minutes - 77.7 MBThe Gunpowder Plot is one of the hinge events of British history - an act of terror the roots of which stretch back to the Tudor period and Henry VIII's break with Rome. It's a story of Holy War, divided loyalties and religious hatred. And it has never been more timely. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in September 2021, Suzannah Lipscomb talks gunpowder, treason and plot with award-winning author and historian Jessie Childs. This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg...
Origins of the Witchfinder General
October 30, 2023 03:00 - 39 minutes - 54.1 MBIn the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins gave himself the grandiose title of Witchfinder General and set himself the task of purging England of witches. But where did his obsession come from and why did he adopt this monstrous role? In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to playwright Joanna Carrick, whose new work The Ungodly at the Avenue Theatre in Ipswich, explores these very questions. This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg. Dis...
Inside the Tudor Home
October 22, 2023 02:00 - 27 minutes - 24.2 MBWe are all familiar with great Tudor palaces and country houses but what were the homes of ordinary people like during that time? How were they built, and how did designs change with the use of new materials and construction methods? What did people do in their various rooms? How did they cook, clean and sleep? And, very importantly, did they keep pets? In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Bethan Watts, author of Inside the Tudor Home: Dai...
The Tudors Told Through Numbers
October 19, 2023 02:00 - 34 minutes - 30.2 MBThere are countless ways to understand and analyse the Tudors but a new book takes a unique look at the dynasty through its statistics. And there’s a lot more to discover than just the famous six wives. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Carol Ann Lloyd, author of The Tudors by Numbers, about the novel approach she has taken to looking at the Tudors. This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg. Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries ...
Shakespeare's son Hamnet with Maggie O'Farrell
October 16, 2023 02:00 - 41 minutes - 57.4 MBWhen it comes to Shakespeare's biography and his inner life, there's a certain lack of evidence. But what if Shakespeare actually signposted us to an event that radically metamorphosed his world? What if he named his most famous, most acclaimed play Hamlet after his son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11? In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to author Maggie O'Farrell who won the Women's Prize for Fiction with her novel exploring this very question. Hamn...
William the Silent, Father of the Netherlands
October 12, 2023 02:00 - 40 minutes - 55.4 MBWhat encouraged a young man who had spent most of his formative years being raised by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to bite the hand that feeds him and become one of the Empire's greatest enemies? Why risk his life spending most of his adult years leading a revolt when he could have enjoyed the pomp and pleasures of being a prince? And when did the revolt he led become the foundations of an entire nation? The man in question is William the Silent, also known as William, Prince of Orange. In...
Witchcraft: A History in Four Trials
October 09, 2023 02:00 - 45 minutes - 35.7 MBMost of our knowledge of witchcraft accusations and executions comes from the proceedings of high profile and significant trials. Professor Marion Gibson’s new book traces the history of witchcraft through 13 such trials. In today’s episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Gibson explore four trials between the 1480s and the 1620s - from Austria, Scotland, Norway, and Virginia in the United States. This is the period during which people didn't just believe ...