Not Just the Tudors

Queen Elizabeth I has been depicted on the big and small screen more times than most of her contemporaries. Now, a critically acclaimed TV series Becoming Elizabeth - streaming on STARZ - traces the …

The Cambridgeshire village of Warboys was the scene of one of the most famous English witch trials of the sixteenth century. There, the privileged daughters of the respected Squire Throckmorton accus…

The great diarist Samuel Pepys was an avid collector of books, news and gossip, and reading was a major part of his life and the lives of his contemporaries.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Pr…

The New Model Army was one of the most formidable fighting forces ever assembled. It played a crucial role in overthrowing King Charles I, propelling one of its most brilliant generals, Oliver Cromwe…

In 1691, a peasant in Livonia - on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea - announced before a startled district court that he was a werewolf. Yet far from being in league with the Devil, “Old Thiess” i…

What food - and how much of it - did people eat in the Tudor period? Where did they get it? When did they eat it? What arrangements for cookery and dining were in place in their homes? What did they …

Ruffs, Pipes and Pearls

When Francis Drake returned home from the Spanish West Indies, he carried with him pearls to present as gifts to Elizabeth I. Around London’s Inns of Court, every gentleman smo…

From the sixteenth century through to the end of the eighteenth century, the Venetian government and the Roman Catholic Church jointly established a tribunal to repress heresy throughout the Republic…

Anne of Cleves was the ‘last woman standing’ of Henry VIII’s wives and the only one buried in Westminster Abbey. How did she manage it? Was she in fact a political refugee, supported by the King? Was…

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Alan Downie about Daniel Dafoe, whose life was at least as colourful as those of the characters he created. Apar…

One of the greatest mathematicians and most influential physicists of all time, Isaac Newton was born into a world of turmoil that shaped him and the avenues he chose to explore. 

In this episode of N…

Born in 1521, Anne Askew was condemned as a heretic for her radical Protestantism beliefs during the reign of Henry VIII. Tortured and executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1537, she was also one…

Between 1630 and 1631, the city of Florence suffered its last epidemic of plague. Some 12% of the city's population of 75,000 perished.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipsc…

In the last years of Elizabeth I’s reign, many of the preoccupations of earlier decades had been abated. Mary, Queen of Scots had finally been executed in 1587; the Spanish Armada was defeated the fo…

All this month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb has been talking to her guests about Queenship. But the focus has inevitably been on European Queens. Yet, if there is some flexibil…

Four women were crowned in England between 1509 and 1559: two Queens consort - Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn - and England’s first two Queens regnant, their daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I res…

Isabel Clara Eugenia was the heir to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, but she was never crowned Queen. But despite this, her life provides a fascinating example of early modern female sovereignty,…

To mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, June is Queenship month on Not Just the Tudors. Our series continues with a look at two of Britain’s less well-known monarchs - Queen Mary II and h…

In Early Modern Europe, Queens did not come fully formed. Rather, a series of rites, rituals and ceremonies transformed a hesitant bride into a fully fledged monarch. And beneath all of these contrac…

Not Just the Tudors’ month-long season on Queenship continues with a look at the fascinating Christina Varsa, who was crowned King of Sweden on 20 October 1650.

Christina was one of the most learned w…