HistoryExtra podcast
Episodes
Six wives | 5. Catherine Howard
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Howard was a teenaged bride who captivated King Henry VIII, but was brought down by secrets from her past that refused to remain buried. In ...
Ramesses II: Egypt’s greatest pharaoh?
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ramesses II is the only pharaoh in history to be known as ‘the great’, but does he deserve that title? Was he the pharaoh in the Exodus story? And...
Tudor childhood: from dodging death to nursery rhymes
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Look at a Tudor family portrait, and you’ll often find children depicted like miniature adults, standing confidently alongside their parents in thei...
What can Richard I tell us about medieval masculinity?
14 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Was Richard I homosexual, and would it matter if he was? Although he was known to have shared a bed with the King of France, according to Dr Gabrielle...
Britain in the 1990s: everything you wanted to know
13 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was the decade that saw the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of Tony Blair and the landmark Good Friday Agreement. But what was behind the landsl...
Everyday life in East Germany
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story of East Germany has been largely told in the context of Cold War geopolitics. But while the country may have been an ideological battlegroun...
Six wives | 4. Anne of Cleves
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anne of Cleves is remembered as a comedy anecdote, a figure of mockery who repulsed King Henry VIII on first sight. But her reputation deserves to be ...
Why revolution engulfed 19th-century Europe
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1848, a tidal wave of revolution swept across Europe – from Sicily to Paris, Berlin to Vienna. But what sparked this cascade of unrest, and how c...
Keeping time: a watchmaker’s history
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we take it for granted that we can meet friends at an agreed time, work a set amount of paid hours, or catch a train before it leaves. But so mu...
Native Americans: a new history
07 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For too long, argues Professor Ned Blackhawk, Indigenous people have been marginalised or viewed merely as passive participants in the history of the ...
Goths: everything you wanted to know
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the difference between the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths? Why did the Goths have whole settlements devoted to the production of combs? And wer...
How (and how not) to stage a coronation
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The British monarchy is known for its pomp and pageantry, and a coronation is a big chance to show off. But with so much pressure to get time-honoured...
Six wives | 3. Jane Seymour
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Seymour has gone down in history as Henry VIII’s dream wife – the simpering spouse who couldn’t put a foot wrong. But the reality was much ...
Queen Charlotte: real history behind the new Bridgerton series
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tomorrow, period drama fans will be glued to their screens as Netflix releases their latest show set in the Bridgerton universe – Queen Charlotte: ...
Pomp & power: royal ceremonies through the centuries
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Later this week, royal ceremony and spectacle will be deployed in full force for the coronation of King Charles III. But this latest lavish display is...
WW2 the big questions: final stages of the conflict
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How risky were the D-Day landings? What sealed the downfall of Nazi Germany? And why did the US decide to drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I...
Westminster Abbey: everything you wanted to know
29 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Westminster Abbey has hosted royal coronations since the medieval period, and the next monarch to be crowned there will be King Charles III. In our la...
How the Bristol bus boycott changed Britain
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This April marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Bristol bus boycott in 1963, a campaign to overturn a bar on black and Asian conductors ...
Six wives | 2. Anne Boleyn
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Harlot, feminist, witch, backstabber, icon, powerplayer, victim – in the centuries since her execution, Anne Boleyn has been branded all of these. B...
The Waco siege: an American tragedy
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years ago, a deadly standoff in Texas between a religious cult and the FBI hit the headlines around the United States. The story of leader Davi...
Shipwreck, scurvy & mutiny: the gruelling tale of HMS Wager
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In January 1742 a ramshackle boat washed up on the Brazilian coastline. Inside were 30 men, half starved and close to madness. Claiming to be survivor...
WW2 the big questions: the Holocaust
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did the Nazis’ poisonous antisemitic rhetoric eventually culminate in the systematic mass-murder of millions? In the fourth episode of our five-...
Crusader states: everything you wanted to know
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After the fall of Jerusalem into Frankish hands in 1099 during the First Crusade, a string of new crusader states emerged, initiating Western rule in ...
How women were excluded from sport – and fought back
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Looking at sport history, it’s easy to get the impression that women’s involvement in sporting activities only began in the 1970s. However, as aut...
Six wives | 1. Catherine of Aragon
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine of Aragon’s 23-year-long marriage to King Henry VIII witnessed many twists and turns – triumph, tragedy, and, ultimately, betrayal. In e...
Æthelflæd: ‘Mother of the English’
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Æthelflæd was a successful and celebrated ruler of the Mercian peoples in the early 10th century, who enjoyed a period of great political prosperity...
Mindbending experiments: how drugs shaped modern science
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 19th century, cannabis, cocaine and heroin were widely available over the counter at the local chemist. Respected scientists and doctors tested...
WW2 the big questions: the ‘Big Three’
16 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How instrumental was Churchill in Britain’s decision to stand against Hitler? What was it like to work with the consummate charmer President Rooseve...
Russian tsars: everything you wanted to know
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who were the rulers of Russia prior to the 1917 Revolution? How accessible were they to the ordinary peoples of the Russian empire? How did a foreign-...
‘Black Douglas’: a not so dastardly bushranger?
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A dastardly bandit responsible for incredibly heinous crimes, or a runaway in search of his freedom? Meg Foster unravels the myth of “Black Douglas”...
The KGB’s secret war on the west
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The KGB would stop at virtually nothing in its attempts to spread chaos and confusion in the west throughout the Cold War. From honeytraps and smear c...
Century of chaos: people & power in the 1600s
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The 17th century was a turbulent time for England, overshadowed by a civil war, a coup and a regicide, not to mention the looming threats of terrorism...
What Norse poetry reveals about the Viking age
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What can Viking poetry reveal about the era in which it was written, and the people that wrote it? And why are ships, love and death some of its most ...
WW2 the big questions: the early years of the conflict
09 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why did Hitler make the fateful decision to invade Poland in 1939? How did Churchill turn defeat at Dunkirk into a victory on the home front? And why ...
Life in the trenches: everything you wanted to know
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What was it really like to live and fight in WW1 trench? Why was throwing your empty food tins into No Man’s Land a death sentence? And what was the...
Nuclear apocalypse in Britain
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If – or when – a nuclear bomb was dropped on Cold War Britain, the nation was primed to react fast. When the sirens sounded, children would run ho...
Wild urban spaces: a history
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, discussions about sustainability and how we can create greener, more environmentally conscious urban spaces have been at the forefron...
Boudica’s rebellion: a blood-soaked blow to the Roman empire
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rome’s conquest of Britain in the first century AD was a brutal affair, as was the revolt against it led by Boudica. Duncan Mackay guides David Musg...
What did the Tudors wear?
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How many pieces of clothing did the average Tudor own? Did women in the 16th century have specialised maternity wear? And what was behind the fascinat...
WW2 the big questions: the build up
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of our podcast series The Big Questions of the Second World War, historian and broadcaster Laurence Rees explains some of the sho...
British castles: everything you wanted to know
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What was the interior design like in medieval castles? Why were so many of these fortresses built in Wales? And what was it like to live in one? In ou...
The mindset behind the Holocaust
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Holocaust is an event so vast and terrible it can often be hard to wrap our heads around it. But what motivated those who perpetrated horrific cri...
Grisly killings & mysterious motives: murder in early modern Britain
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s modern fascination with true crime is nothing new – our early modern ancestors also devoured sensational stories of brutal deaths and shoc...
The man who almost discovered the double helix
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Seventy years since James Watson and Francis Crick first revealed DNA’s double-helix structure, Dr Kersten Hall shares the story of the scientist wh...
Marriage, Middlemarch & male pseudonyms: George Eliot’s unconventional life
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
George Eliot is hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. And in many ways the writer’s life was just as fascinating as her work....
George VI’s Nazi dilemma
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the Second World War raged, King George VI faced not only a battle for the nation’s survival, but also for the royal family’s reputation. And t...
The Seven Years’ War: everything you wanted to know
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Indian subcontinent, North America, south-east Asia and continental Europe all saw vicious fighting in the 1750 and 1760s as part of a major confl...
Six Wives Trailer
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Henry VIII’s six wives is a tale of political crisis and personal tragedy, sacrifice and survival, sex and death, scandal, love and bet...
Patriarchy’s long roots
24 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, have societies always been dominated by men? And how have patriarchal values shaped lives across centuries and continents? Histori...
Disciplining the “scum of the Earth”
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did the British army keep order among troops and officers during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century? And were the rank and file really ...
Women & the crusades: patronage, propaganda & prayer
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You might think that the crusades were a largely male enterprise. But while that may have been the case on the battlefield, it certainly wasn’t else...
Science & religion: a story of war or harmony?
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Although 19th-century thinkers promoted the narrative that Christianity and science have always been at each other’s throats, in reality, argues Nic...
The North: from Bede to Lowry
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the glories of early medieval Northumbria to the urban powerhouses of the industrial revolution, northern England has long had an identity of its...
Paganism: everything you wanted to know
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What did ancient pagans actually believe? Why were they fascinated by the divinity of nature? And why did paganism capture the imagination of the Roma...
Eat for victory: WW2’s “British Restaurants”
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Canteen dining conjures up visions of plastic trays, hard benches and bowls of beige slop. But as the hardships of the Second World War began to bite,...
Madame Restell: the abortionist who shocked and fascinated 19th-century New York
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 19th century, one businesswoman shocked, horrified and fascinated New York society more than any other. Madame Restell was a celebrity and self...
Medieval manuscripts: an enduring obsession
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, people have been dazzled by the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. But how much do we know about the countless makers, collect...
Njinga: queen, warrior, diplomat
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Njinga, the 17th-century ruler of Ndongo and Matamba, in modern-day Angola, established an impressive reputation for her skills as a warrior and...
Sirens, succubi & sex symbols: a history of female monsters
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the dangers of childbirth to female sexuality, myths and legends about female monsters like mermaids and sirens can tell us a lot about different...
Britain’s WW2 home front: everything you wanted to know
12 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the Second World War raged across the world, what was life like for those back home in Britain? How did families make it through the terror of bomb...
Treasure, heritage & returning artefacts
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Headlines have been made recently by proposed changes to the Treasure Act in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The changes would see more historica...
Satire & scandal: the printmakers who mocked Georgian society
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Women blown up like balloons about to burst; leaders carving up the globe like a plum pudding; a drunken, bloated prince sprawled surrounded by unpaid...
Elizabethan witchcraft: a trial that divided a community
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1580s, the remote Essex village of St Osyth was beset by poverty and social tensions – and when a servant accused her neighbour of witchcraft...
The Iraq War, 20 years on
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2003, a coalition of troops from nations including the United States and the United Kingdom mounted an invasion of the Republic of Iraq, with...
Volcanoes & nuclear armageddon: humanity’s long relationship with nature
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years, humans have been in thrall to climate – it has dictated the crops we grow, the water we drink and even the diseases to which...
Meeting the Mughals: England’s disastrous first embassy to India
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1616, when the first English embassy was installed in Mughal India, England was a minor player on the global stage rather than a leading actor. Nan...
Medieval women: everything you wanted to know
05 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What chores did medieval women have to get through each day? How could plucking your eyebrows in the Middle Ages land you in hell? And why did people ...
History’s greatest cities: Prague Trailer
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve just launched a brand-new podcast series, History’s greatest cities, offering the chance to roam the streets and sights of some of Europe’...
Adventure, betrayal & beetles: the quest for the source of the Nile
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the mid 19th century, a team of explorers set off in search of an elusive goal – the source of the River Nile. Set against a backdrop of imperial...
The Tudor who hiked North America
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The name David Ingram isn’t well known, but his story is extraordinary. This Tudor explorer embarked on a remarkable 3,600-mile trek across North Am...
Dick Whittington: from medieval merchant to panto hero
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you grew up watching pantomimes, then you’ll likely be familiar with the story of Richard “Dick” Whittington – the poor country boy who end...
Pirate flags & wedding gowns: a patchwork of a Victorian life
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016, fashion historian Kate Strasdin was given an extraordinary object – an album of richly coloured and brightly patterned fabric scraps, all c...
Oscar Wilde on trial
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when male homosexuality was illegal in Britain, celebrated playwright Oscar Wilde became embroiled in a scandal that ultimately saw him put ...
Medieval peasants: everything you wanted to know
26 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to be a peasant in the Middle Ages? Did they live well, with access to sufficient food, water and shelter, or were their lives charac...
History's greatest cities | Berlin
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are featuring episode one from our brand new series, History's greatest cities. If you enjoy this episode and want to listen to the rest ...
The book that transformed medieval England
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was an enterprise that helped transform a marginalised language into a global powerhouse. Lydia Zeldenrust tells Spencer Mizen how, some 550 years ...
Why the Middle Ages matter
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Middle Ages have often been shrouded in myth and mystery, but was it actually as unchanging, uncivilised and muddy as we might think? Historian an...
The cult of Freud: science, sex & psychoanalysis
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the Oedipus complex to the Freudian slip, the theories of Sigmund Freud are still familiar to us today. But how much do we know about his life? S...
Breastfeeding: a cultural history
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Breastfeeding may seem like an innate human experience that transcends history. But, according to art and cultural historian Joanna Wolfarth, experien...
Heliogabalus: Rome’s scandalous emperor
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Roman emperor Heliogabalus is filled with sex, death, decadence and religious extremism, but it also touches on some key questions ab...
Interwar Britain: everything you wanted to know
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How ‘roaring’ were the roaring twenties for ordinary britons? Did views of the British empire change after the first world war?And what caused the...
Which LGBTQ+ histories get told – and which get overlooked?
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering and telling the stories of LGBTQ+ people in history can be rewarding, important work, but it’s also often challenging and complex. How fa...
From the Middle Ages to #MeToo: Chaucer’s Wife of Bath
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Wife of Bath is a stand-out figure in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The only ordinary woman in the procession of pilgrims heading to Thom...
Astonishing Æthelstan: Michael Wood on the 10th-century king
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anglo-Saxon king Æthelstan was the first West Saxon leader to effectively rule over all of England. And with Alfred the Great as a grandfather, he ha...
Cleopatra’s triumphant daughter
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Cleopatra took her own life in 30 BC it marked the conclusion of Egypt’s ruling dynasty, but not the end of her family line. Classicist Jane Dr...
Marie Antoinette in her own words
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marie Antoinette is a historical figure who has been much mythologised – as callous, superficial, extravagant and out of touch with reality. But if...
The Romantics: everything you wanted to know
12 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who were the Romantics? And how did they shake up society and culture at the turn of the 19th century? Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Daisy Hay answers ...
Fearless female voices of the Spanish Civil War
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1936, Spain descended into a brutal civil war between its democratically elected government and a nationalist insurgency led by Gener...
Why did the Ottoman empire implode?
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Defeat in the First World War dealt the Ottoman empire a terrible blow, but it wasn’t terminal. Ryan Gingeras tells Spencer Mizen that it was what h...
Was Shakespeare a snob?
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shakespeare’s plays are peppered with characters from across the social spectrum, from kings and nobility down to servants, soldiers and shepherds. ...
Tudors in revolt: the Western Rising of 1549
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Western Rising of 1549 was the most catastrophic event to occur in Devon and Cornwall between the Black Death and the Civil War. What started as a...
Female spies who forged the CIA
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many of the agents who played a crucial role in establishing the organisation now known as the Central Intelligence Agency – or CIA – were women. ...
Prehistoric cave art: everything you want to know
05 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The palaeolithic period stretches across a vast period of space and time, but if there’s one thing that really brings the prehistoric era to life fo...
A secret Nazi plot to kill the ‘Big Three’
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What would have happened if Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt had all been assassinated at the height of World War Two? Speakin...
Wild places & wild people: a short history of common land
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Common land – land which wasn’t settled or farmed – used to exist right across Britain, and provided a vital shared resource for local communiti...
The forgotten years that forged Wales
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Welsh history, the period that lies between the medieval era of resistance to English occupation, and the rapid industrialisation of the 18th and 1...
How six women programmed the world’s first modern computer
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
During the Second World War, six talented mathematicians were brought together to make history. These women had one mission: to program the world’s ...
Tattoos: a 5,000 year history
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, people have got tattooed for a huge range of reasons, whether religious devotion, artistic expression, or to demonstrate cultural ...
Railway history: everything you wanted to know
29 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to travel on the earliest trains, before open carriages, and even toilets? When was the first rail accident? And how did railways tra...
Forgotten histories of the Holocaust
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
According to historian Dan Stone, popular understanding of the Holocaust, in all of its horror and complexity, is often incomplete or fractured. Speak...