Not Just the Tudors
Episodes
Cromwell, Boleyn & Aragon: A New Discovery
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Experts at Hever Castle - the childhood home of Anne Boleyn - have made an extraordinary discovery. They’ve established that an ornate 1527 prayer b...
Shakespeare’s First Folio: Politics, People & Printing
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shakespeare’s First Folio — the first book to contain 36 of his plays, 18 of which had not been in print before — was published in 1623.In the s...
Elizabethan 'Travel Liar': The Truth about David Ingram
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1567, a sailor named David Ingram sailed from Plymouth with 400 others on a slaving expedition. The ensuing events read like a fantastic adventure ...
Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine de' Medici & Elisabeth de Valois
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Three powerful Renaissance queens all lived together at the French court for many years. They were bound together through blood and marriage, alliance...
Shakespeare's First Folio
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Four hundred years ago in 1623, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays was printed. Known as the First Folio, the book was integral to est...
Great Fire of London
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we call the Great Fire of London in 1666 “great”? Was it because of the significant challenge it posed to authorities and residents as they...
Tudors in Ireland
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
King Henry VII and his Tudor heirs knew very little about Ireland, over which they ruled in name at least. During the 118 years of Tudor rule, not one...
Obscene Jokes in the Early Modern Period
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 16th Century, rude jokes and scatological humour were just as much a feature of life as they are today. Between 1529 and 1539, a Swiss lin...
Anne Boleyn & Katherine of Aragon: Rival Queens?
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
History has painted Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in two very different hues: one wife, one mistress; one Spanish, one French; one committed Cat...
Enslaved Children in 16th Century Spain
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following the Second Granada War (1568-70), thousands of Moriscos in Spain were exiled, imprisoned or enslaved. Moriscos were former Muslims who had b...
Witches of St Osyth
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 1582, a number of women from the small Essex village of St Osyth, were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. Several others, including one man,...
Louis XIV and his Mistresses
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Louis XIV ruled France for more than 72 years, the longest recorded reign of any monarch of any sovereign country in history. Despite the devotio...
Coronations of Charles I and Charles II
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What could be more topical this week than looking back at the coronations of the first two Kings Charles. Charles I’s reign is best remembered for t...
Lady Jane Grey
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a cold February morning in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for high treason. Named by King Edward VI as his successor, Queen Jane had reigned for...
England’s First Ambassador to India: Thomas Roe
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I's first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. Roe...
Mary Rose: Henry VIII’s Foreign Crew
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 16th century, “strangers” was the name used in England for people who were born in territories not controlled by the Tudor monarchy. Thinki...
Bess's Hardwick Hall
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hardwick Hall is a triumph of Elizabethan architecture. Built in the late sixteenth century, its halls, corridors and staircases embody the magnificen...
John Donne: England’s Greatest Love Poet
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Donne was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral - and perhaps the greatest love poet in the histor...
Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Sir Walter Raleigh set out to South America to find the legendary city of El Dorado, he paved the way for a series of adventurers who would strug...
Catherine Howard: Henry VIII's Fifth Wife
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Howard was Queen Consort - and fifth wife - to Henry VIII for just 16 months before he had her executed for treason for committing adultery....
Mary, Queen of Scots on Film: Historians’ Verdict
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What do you get when you bring together five top historians to debate Mary, Queen of Scots on film? History with the gloves off - our second special e...
Creator of Don Quixote: Cervantes
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 17th century, an aged veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a book. It was the story of a poor nobleman who delude...
How People Died in 16th Century London
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In one week in London in September, 1665, no fewer than 47 different causes of death were reported, including consumption, fever, dropsy, being fright...
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Renaissance Painter
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
During a time of increasing religious and political conflict, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s paintings portrayed work and pleasure, rituals and festival...
17th Century Revolutionary England
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 17th Century, people experienced major social and economic problems that intertwined with religious disagreements and political debates. The tu...
Who Painted Anne Dudley? A Tudor Mystery
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, the name of an accomplished and popular portrait painter in the court of Elizabeth I has remained unknown. The renowned art historian S...
Menstruation in Early Modern England
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we know that menstruation is a biological process. There’s a great deal of scientific research that explains the menstrual cycle. But how was ...
Anne Boleyn’s Final Year
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Boleyn’s reputation is buried beneath centuries of labels: home-wrecker, seductress, opportunist, witch, romantic victim, Protestant martyr, fe...
The Myth of 'Western Civilisation'
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
'Western Civilisation' is often thought of as a continuous thread through the centuries - from classical antiquity to the countries of the modern West...
Katherine of Aragon: England's First Renaissance Queen
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In preparation for International Women's Day this Wednesday, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb takes a look at a Queen whose reputation has largely been sha...
Jews & the Inquisition in Italy
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1598 and 1785, the Papal or Roman Inquisition in Modena, Northern Italy, put 393 Jews on trial. Regarded as infidels, Jews were accused of, am...
The Death of Amy Dudley
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On 6 September 1560, Amy Robsart Dudley died after falling down a staircase at Cumnor Place in Oxfordshire. But did she fall? Was she pushed? Or did s...
The Blood Countess: Elizabeth Bathory
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the early seventeenth century, a Hungarian aristocrat called Erzsébet Báthory - or Elizabeth Bathory - was accused of murdering more than 600 you...
Mary Queen of Scots’ Lost Letters Decoded
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The most important discovery related to Mary Queen of Scots for 100 years was recently made - by a team of amateur cryptologists. In this episode...
The House of Guise: Europe's Most Murderous Dynasty?
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The rich and powerful Guise family was one of the most treacherous and bloodthirsty in sixteenth-century France. They whipped up religious bigotry, ov...
Children in Tudor England
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to grow up in Tudor England? How were children cared for, what did they play with, and which subjects were they taught?In this editio...
The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb investigates four of history’s most notorious murders and brutal crimes.In this first...
Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s Queen Consort
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Charles I's Queen Henrietta Maria was perhaps the most reviled consort to have worn the crown of Britain's three kingdoms. To this day, she remains th...
Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of Renaissance France
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549) was an influential diplomat and political activist, an outstanding patron of philosophers and artists, an accomplish...
When London Shipped Poor Children to America
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1618, almost 100 impoverished children from London - some as young as eight - arrived in Jamestown, Virginia to labour in the growing colony. It wa...
Hatton: Elizabeth I's Favourite?
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the cut-throat world of the Elizabethan court, Sir Christopher Hatton became one of Elizabeth I’s favourites. After catching her eye in 1561...
Batavia: The Worst Shipwreck in History
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1628, a Dutch East India flagship called Batavia set sail from the Netherlands, never to reach her destination. Eight months into the voyage, ...
Swords in Elizabethan England
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Elizabethan England, swords were everywhere. Hanging on girdles, used in plays and depicted in paintings, they were an important marker of status a...
Demonic Possession in 17th-Century Canada
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When strange signs appeared in the sky over Quebec in 1660, the French settlers started to worry about evil forces in their midst. Then, a teenaged se...
Nonsuch: Henry VIII's Lost Palace
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1538 - to celebrate the birth of Prince Edward and the 30th anniversary of his reign - King Henry VIII began work on a royal palace in Surrey...
How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We have long been taught that modern global history began when the 'Old World' encountered the 'New', when Christopher Columbus 'discovered' America i...
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Three Musketeers paints a picture of King Louis XIII of France as a rather weak monarch controlled by his powerful chief minister Cardinal Ri...
Birth of the Gregorian calendar
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us are seeing in a new year, but of course there are, even today, several different ways of marking dates and years in various parts of the wo...
A Happy Tudor New Year
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we're sharing again a fascinating podcast first released at this time last Christmas.For the Tudors, Christmas Day was not traditionally the...
The Biggest Discoveries of 2022
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb presents her annual review of the year, recommending the finest history books she has discovered, the best television show...
Tudor Christmas Carols
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A Tudor Christmas would have probably featured as much singing as we have today, if not more, and surprisingly many of the carols would have been the ...
Filth, Noise & Stench in England
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In English cities of the 17th century, there was plenty to offend the eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, and skin of inhabitants. Residents were scarred by...
The First Printed English Bible
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
England was the only European country that completely banned translating the Bible. The dissident Lollards had produced one after the death of their h...
Mary, Queen of Scots: The Material Evidence
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mary, Queen of Scots wore red at her execution as a symbol of Catholic martyrdom. It was the climax of a life throughout which Mary used textiles...
Making Babies in the 17th Century
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Making babies was a mysterious process for people in early modern England. Their ideas about conception, pregnancy and childbirth tell us much about t...
Huygens: Europe’s Greatest Scientist
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Christiaan Huygens was the greatest scientist working in the vital period between Galileo and Newton, as the scientific revolution gathered pace. He d...
Public Executions in London
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For at least 700 years, presumed criminals were publicly executed in London. Such occasions were often gruesome, gory and very popular.A new exhi...
Fall of the Ming Dynasty
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1627 Zhu Youjian, the Chongzhen Emperor, became the 17th - and what would turn out to be the last - Emperor of China’s Ming Dynasty. It had ruled...
Football and the Tudors
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Already in 2022 we have celebrated England’s Lionesses winning the Women’s European Championships, and this month you may well be waiting with bat...
Henry VIII’s Lost Brother, Prince Arthur
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During the early part of the sixteenth century England should have been ruled by King Arthur Tudor with his wife Catherine of Aragon as Queen. Had the...
Oliver Cromwell’s Republic
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 30 January 1649, King Charles I was executed for treason. Within weeks the monarchy had been abolished and the House of Lords discarded. The people...
Inca Apocalypse
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For many, the word Inca conjures up images of an ancient civilisation in South America, swiftly conquered by the Spanish in their quest for gold and C...
Life in Tudor England
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What was life really like in Tudor England? This was a society where monarchy was under strain, the church was in crisis, where contending with war, r...
Mary I: Myths Vs. Reality
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Mary I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She reigned - as England’s first Queen Regnant - between 1553-1558. Unlike her ...
Sorcery and the Tudor Court
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's a little known fact that the Tudor monarchs and their councillors used - and feared - magic and the occult. At this time of great religious chang...
Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1611, the daughter of a Persian nobleman and widow of a subversive official, became the 20th and favourite wife of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Uni...
Edward VI & The Prayer Book Rebellion
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The so-called “Prayer Book Rebellion” of 1549 saw the people of Devon and Cornwall rising up against the young King Edward VI, determined to halt ...
Eustace Chapuys: Ambassador to the Tudor Court
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Historians would be completely lost without the colourful, crucial insights of Eustace Chapuys, the Spanish Ambassador to Henry VIII's court from 1529...
Female Sodomy
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Few cases of same-sex acts between women are known in early modern Europe. Yet in the Southern Netherlands, some 25 women were charged with “female ...
Women Letter Writers in the Early Modern Period
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Historians face an enormous challenge finding documents that tell the stories of women in times past. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Pro...
Malay’s Dynasty of Reigning Queens
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Sultanate of Patani - now part of modern day Thailand - enjoyed a golden age during the reign of four successive queens, which commenced in 1584. ...
The Legacy of the Mary Rose
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The raising of the Mary Rose 40 years ago - along with some 19,000 objects which sank with her - has become a great boon to Tudor historians, offering...
The Raising of the Mary Rose
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Forty years ago on 11 October 1982, after 437 years under water, Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, was raised from the seabed of the Solent. ...
Remembering Hilary Mantel
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Hilary Mantel died on 22 September 2022 at the age of 70. Her acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy - which brought the life of Thomas Cromwell so viv...
The Sinking of the Mary Rose
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Exactly forty years ago, in a groundbreaking and spectacular piece of marine conservation that captured the imagination of the world, the Mary Rose wa...
Slavery and the Royal African Company
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Royal African Company was set up in 1660 - by the ruling Stuart family and City of London merchants - to exploit gold fields up the Gambia River. ...
The Howard Women
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We tend to associate the word ‘dynasty’ with men. But in sixteenth century England, women played a no less important role in these influential fam...
Magellan 500: The First Man to Sail the World
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Exactly 500 years ago, a small band of sailors completed the first ever circumnavigation of the globe, launched by Ferdinand Magellan. From the ...
Elizabethan England's Seafaring Musicians
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hardly anything has been written about the musicians who carried out many important tasks in England’s maritime ventures during the Elizabethan age....
Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
*WARNING: This episode contains very strong language - including the F and C words - and derogatory terms for sex workers. So if you're likely to feel...
Shakespeare’s Henry V
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week marks 600 years since the death of King Henry V, perhaps best known for his military successes during the Hundred Years War against France a...
A 16th Century Celebrity Executioner
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The German executioner Meister Frantz Schmidt kept a fascinating journal of all the executions, torture and punishments he administered between 1573 a...
Thomas Cromwell's Private Life
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Cromwell was an extraordinary figure in the Tudor court. Lawyer, politician, minister and peer of the realm, Cromwell deployed all of his wisdo...
The Borgias: Sin in Renaissance Italy
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Renaissance Italy, the Borgia family were admired for their audacity and their ruthlessness - they even inspired Mario Puzo’s depiction of the Co...
Elizabeth I on Screen: The Historians’ Verdict
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do you get when you bring together five top historians in a room with bottles of Prosecco to debate Elizabeth I on screen? History with the glove...
Becoming Elizabeth I
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Beco...
The Witches of Warboys: England's Most Famous Witch Trial
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Cambridgeshire village of Warboys was the scene of one of the most famous English witch trials of the sixteenth century. There, the privileged dau...
Samuel Pepys
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 contempo...
Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Trial of a Latvian Werewolf
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 fr...
The Tudors and Food
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 di...
The Cultural Impact of Colonisation
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ruffs, Pipes and PearlsWhen Francis Drake returned home from the Spanish West Indies, he carried with him pearls to present as gifts to Elizabeth I. A...
The Venetian Inquisition
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the sixteenth century through to the end of the eighteenth century, the Venetian government and the Roman Catholic Church jointly established a t...
Anne of Cleves
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Man who Wrote Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Dafoe
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 colo...
Isaac Newton
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Tudor Poet Anne Askew: Heretic or Martyr?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Surviving Plague in Florence
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Elizabeth I: Last Days and Legacy
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 execu...
Was Queenship the Same Around the World?
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
All this month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb has been talking to her guests about Queenship. But the focus has inevitably b...