Not Just the Tudors
Episodes
The Biblical Apocalypse in Münster
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between February 1534 and June 1535, the German city of Münster was seized and ruled over by a radical group of Protestant Christians called Ana...
Beauty Ideals in the 16th Century
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What was the 16th century ideal of beauty for women? Fat or thin? Blonde or brunette? Pale or tanned? How did women keep clean? Did they remove t...
Bloody Mary vs. The Virgin Queen
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Mary I has had a bad press over the centuries, her five-years on the throne overshadowed by her half-sister Elizabeth's 45-year reign. Whil...
Alessandro de' Medici, Black Prince of Florence
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the cut-throat world of Renaissance Florence, Alessandro - the illegitimate son of a Duke and a mixed-race servant - attempts to reassert the Medic...
Henry VIII: Defender of the Faith
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Five hundred years ago in 1521, the title 'Defender of the Faith' was bestowed by Pope Leo X upon King Henry VIII for his defence of the Catholic Chur...
The Witches of Lorraine
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1570 and 1630, there was intense persecution and thousands of executions of suspected witches in Lorraine, a small duchy on the borders of Fra...
Beards
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the Tudors and Elizabethans, a beard denoted masculinity while beardlessness indicated boyhood or effeminacy. How a man wore his beard - or n...
Sor Juana: Poet, Nun, Martyr
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Though she is relatively unknown outside of Mexico, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz - poet, playwright and nun - is an icon and national hero in her homela...
Catherine Howard
26 Jul 2021
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....
Martin Luther
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A controversial figure during his lifetime, Martin Luther set in motion a revolution that split Christianity in the West and left an indelible mark on...
Elizabeth I and Catherine de' Medici
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between Elizabeth I and Catherine de' Medici - the two most powerful Queens of their time - is one of the most intriguing and captiva...
16th Century Feminists
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this edition of Not Just The Tudors, Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Hannah Dawson, editor of The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing who draws upon poems,...
Sodomy & Sex Crimes in France
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the 16th and 17th centuries and beyond, certain sexual acts were made capital crimes in England, France and other countries. The offence of "s...
The Death of Anne Boleyn
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Story of the Death of Anne Boleyn is a long narrative poem written by the secretary to the French ambassador in London within two weeks of the Que...
10 Treasures from the National Trust
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Tarnya Cooper is the Curatorial and Collections Director at the National Trust. For her recent book, 125 Treasures from the Collections of the Nati...
Coffee & Tobacco
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When tobacco arrived in Britain in the 1560s, it was hailed as a "holy herb", a miracle cure to improve health and a catalyst for wit and creativity. ...
Heywood: The Catholic Satirist who Kept his Head
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Playwright and musician John Heywood was a devout Catholic humanist and biting satirist - married to Sir Thomas Moore's niece - who managed to survive...
Hampton Court: Gold & Glory
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 7 June 1520, Henry VIII of England and François I of France met at the Field of Cloth of Gold. For three weeks on English soil in Northern France,...
Charles V: Holy Roman Emperor
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Geoffrey Parker to explore the extraordinary life and career of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), w...
Louis XIV and his Mistresses
17 Jun 2021
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...
Mary, Queen of Scots
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to the news headlines when the rosary she carried to her execution in 1587, was recently stolen from Arundel Castle. It...
Japan's Edo Period
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After a century of Civil War, changes in the way Japan was ruled from 1600 onwards meant that Europeans and Christianity made few inroads into Japanes...
The French Historie: A Gory Poem
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1589, Anne Dowriche, the wife of a Puritan minister from Devon, wrote a long and gory poem about the bloody, ongoing conflict between Catholics and...
A 16th Century Public Executioner
03 Jun 2021
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...
Dissolution of the Monasteries
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ordered by King Henry VIII and carried out by Thomas Cromwell, the dissolution of the monasteries was the greatest land re-distribution in England sin...
The Renaissance Lute
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The lute, with its double strings and beautiful decorative detail is a familiar feature of Renaissance paintings. In the sixteenth century, lute music...
Origins of the English in India
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 16th century, a group of London merchants petitioned Queen Elizabeth I to allow them to build English trade in Asia. She granted a charter...
Anne Boleyn: New Discoveries
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Boleyn has been trending on Twitter after it was announced that secret inscriptions were found hidden in the Book of Hours that she took to ...
Anne Boleyn: Life and Afterlives
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of two special podcasts to mark the 485th anniversary of Anne Boleyn's death, Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by a panel of experts to discus...
17th Century Female Spies
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you think that the female spy is a 20th century phenomenon, be it Mata Hari, Mrs Zigzag or Eve Polastri, think again! Accounts of numerous 17t...
Tudor Banquets
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Tudors loved a good banquet, to show off their wealth and social status. Guests were plied with the most superb food, made from the most expensive...
The Aztecs
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What we know about the Aztecs of Mexico often comes from the accounts of their Spanish conquerors. But the Aztec culture was far more sophisticated th...
The Queer Shakespeare: John Lyly
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Lyly's name may not be so familiar. He was a playwright and poet writing at the same time as Shakespeare and, in his day, was more famous than th...
Bridewell: The Palace that became a Prison
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the heart of Shakespeare's London, there was a palace that had become a prison: Bridewell. Professor Duncan Salkeld has explored the records of thi...
An Early Modern Teenage Werewolf
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The witch-hunts of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe are well-known. But did you know that some 300 people were convicted of being werewolves? ...
Henry VIII's Billionaire Wardrobe
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustinian described Henry VIII as the 'best dressed sovereign in the world'. The King spent the equivalent of £2 milli...
Velazquez and the Spanish Court
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Laura Cumming - author and art critic for The Observer - about Velázquez, arguably the greatest genius of Spanis...