Not Just the Tudors

For centuries, Sir Francis Drake has been celebrated as a national hero - the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. But behind the Drake legend, was there a darker reality of violence and exp…

What was life like for man's best friend in the court of Henry VIII? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is led by the pawprints of history by Mike Loades through the fascinating, fur-filled world of Tudor d…

What - and who - did Christopher Columbus find when he landed in the Caribbean?

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Alice Samson explore the dynamic and complex encounters between Europeans and Indige…

No advisor was more important to King Henry VIII than Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He captured Henry's attention with his brilliance and became his most trusted confidant.  But when the King wanted to di…

When Hernán Cortés and his men first laid eyes on the gleaming white pyramids of Tenochtitlan, they thought they were mountains of silver. How did they overthrow such a powerful kingdom in just three…

March 2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of King James VI and I, and the succession of his son Charles I. Crowned King of Scotland at just 13 months old in 1567 and later succeeding Elizab…

Christopher Columbus was a man of contradictions: he professed God spoke to him to direct his travels, yet after four voyages he still could not recognise that he had 'discovered' a New World.

Profess…

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the tumultuous and nuanced religious policies of Henry VIII's reign. She examines how Henry VIII utilised religion to justify his policies and actions during t…

You may think you know about the daring exploits of Columbus, the ruthless ambition of Cortés, but beyond the accepted histories lies a world of indigenous voices—stories of fierce resistance, cunnin…

The execution of six martyrs—three Catholics and three Protestants—on the same day, was unprecedented in Henry VIII's England. What led to this transformative event?

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explor…

Aphra Behn was a true original. Not only was she the first woman to earn a living by writing, she was also a spy, a political propagandist and a revolutionary. Publicly she was all brash sexuality …

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb steps into the electrifying world of Elizabethan theatre to unravel the dark allure of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, a work that would forever change English drama. T…

Henry VIII's desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon changed England; it could be justified by a biblical law that prohibited a man from marrying his brother's widow, yet another passage seemed to sugg…

**This podcast contains graphic descriptions of murders and the punishments of those convicted**

Gruesome murders carried out by women captivated the public imagination in Early Modern Britain. Pamphl…

Exactly 400 years ago, the Dutch West India Company built Fort Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan island, a beacon of power and resilience against threats from Europeans and Indigenous Americ…

In 1711, a wave of terror gripped the Islandmagee peninsula in County Antrim. First there was the haunting and supernatural murder of a local clergyman's wife. Then 18-year-old Mary Dunbar suffered v…

Passion, scandal, and power collided in the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Rumours of secret trysts between them set the court ablaze, but their love was doomed from …

The brief life of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet is now quite well known, thanks to Maggie O'Farrell's novel, but Hamnet also had a twin sister Judith, who outlived her brother by many decades. Now…

What happens when a small island faces the might of the Ottoman Empire?

In 1565, Malta was the setting for a brutal clash between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the defiant Knights of the Order …

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the world of Stuart-era recipe books, in which medicine, cookery and women's roles combine in fascinating ways. She discovers how these volumes were far more t…