Not Just the Tudors

The traditional view of the birth of modern science places it firmly in the 17th century with such huge names as Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and Galileo.  But a century earlier there were others - whose names are not so well-known to us - who paved the way for later scientific breakthroughs.  Patrons and particular places in northern Europe developed new technology and encouraged collaborations in an environment where intellectual innovation could occur, laying the foundations for subsequent discoveries.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Violet Moller, whose new book Inside the Stargazer?s Palace tells the untold story of the extraordinary workshops, observatories and libraries of Early Modern Northern Europe.  

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

In the 16th century, spices drove the world economy, creating riches on an unprecedented scale. Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find the elusive source of cloves and nutmeg, and when Portugal reached the spice islands of the Moluccas, it set in motion a fierce competition for control.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Roger Crowley, whose new book Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World chronicles the adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters?and remade the world economy for centuries to follow.

This episode was edited by xx and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

What do we know about what Elizabeth I actually looked like? How was her appearance altered through the use of cosmetics? Portraits suggest that makeup was used to lightly accentuate lips and cheeks, alongside a sheer wash of white base on her skin. What products would she have typically used and how were they made? 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by author and educator Sally Pointer, to decipher the truth about Elizabeth's image and how her use of makeup has become part of her enduring legacy.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here: https://www.historyhit.com/subscription/

You can take part in our listener survey here

**WARNING: This episode contains themes that some listeners might find distressing and commonly-used historic terminology that does not reflect our own thoughts**

In May 1680, England become obsessed with a pair of conjoined twins. At just two weeks old, Priscilla and Aquila Herring were kidnapped from their home in Somerset to be put on show for money. A fortnight later they were dead, and a legal battle ensued over ownership and income. It is one of the earliest examples of exploitation and the exhibition of physical difference in England, a story of public display without consent, both before and after.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Whitney Dirks, whose new book Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England weaves the case of the Herring sisters through an examination of how physically unusual humans and animals were understood and talked about in early modern England.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here: https://www.historyhit.com/subscription/

You can take part in our listener survey here

The major new TV series, Mary & George tells the scandalous story of George Villiers, who rose - thanks to his mother Mary?s machinations - from minor gentry to enrapture King James VI & I, Britain?s first Stuart king. For a decade, George Villiers was at James?s side ? at court, on state occasions and in bed, right up to James?s death in March 1625.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Benjamin Wooley, acclaimed author of The King?s Assassin, a compelling portrait of a royal favourite whose charisma overwhelmed those around him and, ultimately, himself.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

In the 16th century, Erasmus of Rotterdam was about as famous as anybody could be, one of the greatest intellectuals of his age. To Martin Luther's mind, though, Erasmus's radical religious vision did not go far enough. To Roman Catholic scholars, Erasmus was heretical. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor William Barker, to find out more about a scholar of great brilliance as well as personal flaws and contradictions. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

At the end of the French Wars of Religion, a widow Renée Chevalier instigated the prosecution of a military captain who had committed multiple acts of rape, homicide and theft against the villagers who lived around her.  But how could Chevalier win her case when King Henri IV's Edict of Nantes ordered that the recent troubles should be forgotten as 'things that had never been'?

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Tom Hamilton, whose new book is a dramatic account of the impact of the troubles on daily life for women, peasants, and foot soldiers, who are marginalized in most historical studies.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: This podcast contains references to rape, violence and homicide**

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

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 the world today. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in July 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to renowned Luther biographer Professor Lyndal Roper to explore the man behind the carefully crafted image - misogynistic, anti-Semitic, occasionally self-doubting, religiously devout yet with a crude, scatological sense of humour.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: This episode contains an example of strong language

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Today surgery is one of the most important sectors in the medical field. But what was surgery like for people in the 16th and 17th centuries, before anaesthetic and sophisticated technology? How were surgeons trained? What tools did they use? And what was the rate of survival? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb discovers more from historian and retired surgeon Michael Crumplin.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: Contains some graphic descriptions of surgical procedures**

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here

You can take part in our listener survey here

Essential to any history of Venice during its glory days is the story of its Jewish population. Venice gave the world the word ghetto. Astonishingly, the ghetto prison turned out to be as remarkable a place as the city of Venice itself, as a literary, cultural and interfaith revival flourished. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Harry Freedman. His new book Shylock?s Venice tells the story of Venice's Jews, from the founding of the ghetto in 1516, to the capture of Venice by Napoleon in 1798. 

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

For every Tudor Queen, their ladies-in-waiting were their confidantes, chaperones and intimate witnesses to their lives. These women were high born, even if they performed menial tasks, and many of them were educated. As King Henry VIII changed wives - and the very fabric of the country's structure - these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb welcomes Dr. Nicola Clark, whose new book The Waiting Game, tells the untold story of the women who served the Tudor Queens.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Diaries written by gentlewomen in the mid-16th century are hard to find. Yet, they lived through an age of upheaval as old ways were effaced in preference for the new.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets award-winning author Francesca Kay. In her new novel The Book of Days, she has imagined herself into the story of a gentlewoman living in the 1540s, writing her book of days, and it is spellbinding.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

In the mid-17th century, King Charles I of England was put on trial for treason against the sovereign state. Such a process involved a singular determination by Parliament to find a way, through due legal process, to try the one they saw as a man of blood, to ensure that he paid the price for his faults and failings, but not through extrajudicial summary justice.

To understand how such a thing came about, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks in this episode of Not Just the Tudors to Professor Edward Vallance, who has deeply researched King Charles I's trial. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the upper classes took their cues from court life - its entertainments, costumes, food and leisure pursuits. The Stuart-era aristocracy were cultured, political, well educated, immoderate yet religious. So how did devotion and piety coexist with a lifestyle dominated by excess? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Ben Norman, historian and author of Pomp and Piety: Everyday Life of the Aristocracy in Stuart England.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Jane Seymour is a paradox. Of Henry VIII?s six wives, she is the one about whom we know perhaps the least. She was the most lowly of the queens, but she had royal blood. She's often described as plain and mousy and lacking opinions, but when we do see her in the sources, she tends to be doing something that shows agency, while wearing some very flashy clothes indeed. So what can we make of Jane Seymour?

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Elizabeth Norton, author of a 2009 book about Jane Seymour and a forthcoming scholarly biography.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Opening music: The Death of Queen Jane, performed by Karine Polwart, used with kind permission of the artist and Hudson Records.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

In the British Library, there is a manuscript copy of the memoir of Princess Gulbadan, the only surviving female-authored memoir from the Mughal Empire. In it, Gulbadan tells her extraordinary story: from growing up in a multi-cultural society, via life in a walled harem, to an unprecedented women's pilgrimage to Mecca, complete with dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Professor Ruby Lal, whose latest book, Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan, examines this largely forgotten manuscript and the life of the remarkable woman who wrote it.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Fairy tales exist everywhere and in every time. Through centuries of oral tradition and the invention of print and later advances in television and film, fairy tales have altered and shaped themselves in reflection of changing cultural norms. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries and to the first time that fairy tales were written down and compiled. She is joined by Nicholas Jubber, author of The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: This episode contains some graphic language and descriptions**

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Astronomer Johannes Kepler was an important and admired figure in the scientific revolution of the early 17th century. But when his widowed mother was accused of witchcraft, the scientist remarkably defended her, in a trial that lasted six years.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to author Ulinka Rublack who has pieced together this extraordinary true story.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code TUDORS - sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

In Elizabethan and Stuart England, ghosts weren't supposed to exist. Protestant preachers and writers had banished them - but people continued to see them. So how did our early modern forebears reckon with ghosts and their heavily counterpart, angels?

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Professor Peter Marshall, author of several books on ghosts, beliefs and the dead in Reformation England.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

How did Britain's islands become woven into our collective cultural psyche? Traversing Irish poetry, Renaissance drama and Restoration utopias, author Alice Albinia?s research has boldly upturned established truths about Britain, paying homage to the islands' beauty, independence and their suppressed or forgotten histories - including of women rulers.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Alice Albinia talks more about her book The Britannias: An Island Quest with Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. 

This episode was edited by Tomos Delargy and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The first surviving mention of condoms dates from the mid-16th century, in the writings of an Italian anatomist better known for the discovery of the fallopian tubes. Born out of a medical need to prevent the spread of syphilis, the condom was originally made from fabric, normally linen, and later from animal guts.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets Dr. Kate Stevenson, whose work as a dress historian has taken her on a journey of discovery into the origins of the condom.

**WARNING: This episode contains graphic language and sexual content**

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

In the early modern period, belief in fairies was quite commonplace. But put all thoughts of Tinkerbell aside!  These fairies were altogether more dangerous beings - troublemakers, child-snatchers, seducers and changelings.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Prof. Diane Purkiss, author of Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories. 

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >

King James VI and I, the first monarch to reign over Scotland, England and Ireland, has a mixed reputation. To many, he is simply the homosexual King, the inveterate witch-roaster, the smelly sovereign who never washed, the colourless man behind the authorised Bible bearing his name, or the drooling fool whose speech could barely be understood. For too long, he has paled in comparison to his more celebrated Tudor and Stuart forebears.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Dr. Steven Veerapen - author of The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I - whose research has revealed King James as a gregarious, idealistic man obsessed with the idea of family, whose personal and political goals could never match up to reality. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >``

In the early modern period, it was patently clear to everyone that supernatural beings, foremost among them the devil, were at work in the world, intervening in human affairs.  Can we find the origins of beliefs in vampires, zombies and revenants in this age too?  How exactly did such beings manifest themselves?  And how do we make sense of this in an age in which people believed they were living under a providential God? 

Joining Professor Suzannah Lipscomb to kick off a month of special Not Just the Tudor podcasts on supernatural beings in the early modern world is Professor Darren Oldridge, author of The Supernatural in Tudor and Stuart England and The Devil: A Very Short Introduction. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Henry VIII was termed "by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland.?  Ireland was England?s oldest colony.  But what bloody events and brutal actions led to the English conquest of Ireland?  How did the relationship between the two countries change over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?  And how did the Irish respond to such subjugation? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, author of the forthcoming book, Making Empire, Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

History books rarely make much reference to the impact of climate and the natural environment on people, and vice versa.  Yet volcanic eruptions and storms, droughts and cyclical pressures have shaped human history, both in raising up civilisations and bringing them to their knees. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to acclaimed historian Professor Peter Frankopan - who has adopted this revolutionary new way of looking at history - to examine the impact of nature on human life in the 15th to 18th centuries.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Reginald Pole has been styled as both the nemesis of Henry VIII and as Mary I's bloody accomplice. Pole was related to the English royal family through the Plantagenets and was himself implicated in a plot against Henry VIII in 1538. So how did he rise to become the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, and then use his position both for and against the Tudor monarchs? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Frederick Smith to discuss this complex and charismatic personality.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The public fascination with true crime is nothing new. Four centuries ago, the sensational story of the death in the Tower of London of Thomas Overbury, a lawyer in the court of King James I, led to a scandal that rocked the monarchy to its core. 

In this episode of Not Just The Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Professor Alastair Bellany, about the death of Overbury and why it threatened the Stuart throne.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

In 1621 the Virginia Company of London put out a call for young, handsome and honestly educated women to become wives for the planters in its new colony in Jamestown. Hopeful husbands were supposed to pay for their English brides in best leaf tobacco. But who were the women who made the Atlantic crossing? And what became of them when they arrived? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets author Jennifer Potter to find out more about the lives of these extraordinary women.

***Warning: This podcast includes references to slaughter and hostage taking.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >`

Girolamo Savonarola was a late 15th century Dominican friar who rose to become a preacher, prophet, and politician. He took on the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and despotic rulers including the powerful Medicis. He was both progressive - helping to lay the foundations of the Reformation and the Enlightenment - but also fundamentalist and deeply unsettling. 

In this episode, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to award-winning author Denise Mina, whose novel Three Fires tells the story of Savonarola and his role in the bonfire of the vanities - the burning of objects considered sinful, such as cosmetics, mirrors, books, and art.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Life in Tudor England was risky. In addition to the outbreaks of plague, the threat of poverty and the dangers of childbirth, there were social risks - of not fitting in, of social death. How was a person supposed to behave? And what were the dangers involved? 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out about the art of surviving by 'blending in', with teacher and writer Toni Mount, author of How to Survive in Tudor England. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >`

For anyone studying the politics of the 1570s-80s, it would be hard to avoid Elizabeth I?s ?spymaster? Sir Francis Walsingham, who seemingly rose from nowhere to become one of the most important men of his time. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more from Dr. Hannah Coates, who has reappraised Walsingham's political practice, religious outlook and role as a councillor to the Crown. Drawing on new and underused sources, she's created a fresh, nuanced, and detailed assessment of mid-Elizabethan politics.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The unsolved mystery of what happened to the Princes in the Tower - Edward V and Richard, Duke of York - is possibly English history?s greatest cold case. Were they murdered by their paternal uncle Richard III? Or were two plotters to take the Tudor throne of King Henry VII - Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck - connected to, or in reality, the Princes who had survived?

Recent findings have raised new questions about the 540-year-old mystery and in this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explores the evidence and the enduring speculation with author Nathen Amin and History Hit presenter, Matt Lewis.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >

From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ?loyal and most assured servant? of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the dramas of courtly love have captivated readers and dreamers for centuries. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in September 2021, Sarah Gristwood tells Professor Suzannah Lipscomb how the Tudors actually re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature - romantic obsessions that shaped the history of Britain.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

In the cut-throat world of Renaissance Florence, Alessandro - the illegitimate son of a Duke and a mixed-race servant - attempts to reassert the Medicis? faltering grip on the city state. But after just six years in power, Alessandro is murdered by his cousin while anticipating an adulterous liaison.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in August 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Catherine Fletcher, author of The Black Prince of Florence, about one man's spectacular rise to power against the odds, and his violent demise.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial > 

You can take part in our listener survey here >

To this day, the presence of angels is synonymous with the Christmas story and the momentous events associated with the Nativity. For the Tudors and Stuarts, widespread belief in angels brought a touch of the miraculous to life, but so too did ghosts, although it was sometimes hard to distinguish them from angels - or demons.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released on 23 December 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb summons up the spirits of times past with historian Dr Laura Sangha, an expert in the beliefs associated with the supernatural in the early modern period.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

We think of Shakespeare as a man out of time. His stories and characters, his capturing of human nature, and his exquisite use of language, continue to speak to us today - and will endure for the centuries to come. But he was born in a rural market town in the early years of Elizabeth I's reign, and was formed by the social, religious, and political worldview of the period. 

In this special episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb reflects on the world that shaped Shakespeare and its concerns that seeped into his timeless plays.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Have you ever wondered how and where our Christmas tradition of pantomime originated? 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out from Dr. Oliver Crick, who traces pantomime?s origins to Commedia dell?arte - Italian travelling players who adapted their performances to other cultures and senses of humour. 

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >`

The Coventry Carol and In Dulci Jubilo are songs that are still sung at this time of the year.  Curiously, despite their medieval roots, these tunes remained popular throughout Protestant Elizabethan England, a period when there was a complete overhaul of music in church and what it was expected to do. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr Jonathan Willis to explore the complex effects of the Reformation on music in England.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

How we visualise the Tudors largely comes from their portraits painted by Hans Holbein the Younger.  Between 1526 and 1543, he captured the elite of the Tudor court and beyond - Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Thomas Cromwell, politicians, courtiers, soldiers and countless others.  

Every Holbein portrait seems to have begun with a drawing taken at a live sitting. An exhibition of these drawings in now on at Buckingham Palace and allows us to see Holbein?s process at work.  

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb tours the exhibition with its curator Dr. Kate Heard and art historian Dr. Elizabeth Goldring. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Life in the 16th and 17th centuries was brutal - the development of warfare technology made conflicts catastrophic for civilians as well as soldiers, there were regular epidemics, and famines both man-made and natural. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets Professor Ole Peter Grell, who co-wrote The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Religion, War, Famine and Death in Reformation Europe with Dr. Andrew Cunningham. Today's discussion focuses on just three of the four horsemen: the red horse of war, the black horse of famine, and the pale horse of death and disease.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Centuries before Proust's Remembrance of Things Past took us on a tour of memory and James Joyce played with stream of consciousness, a 16th century nobleman - Michel de Montaigne - developed a wholly new style of reflective prose that examined his place in the world. His thoughts, questions and worries appear on the page as though they are your own, at once intensely personal to his own life yet somehow universal. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks about the enduring legacy of the essays of Montaigne with Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live, or a life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial> 

You can take part in our listener survey here >

For the Tudors, tapestries not only brought warmth and colour to a room, but they were magnificent demonstrations of artistic skill and of moral messages. A campaign is now under way to save a vast golden tapestry ? Saint Paul Directing the Burning of the Heathen Books - personally commissioned by Henry VIII around 1535, at the time he broke with Rome. If the campaign is successful, the tapestry will go on display to the public in the Faith Museum, Bishop Auckland in County Durham, in Spring 2024. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Sutherland Forsyth and Claire Barron from the Auckland Project, who are spearheading the campaign to try and save this precious, glorious tapestry for the nation. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

On 17 November 1558, Queen Mary I died. But how would history have turned out differently if Mary had lived another 30 years? Where would her Roman-Catholicism taken England? Would Mary have patched up relations between England and the rest of Europe? 

In this counterfactual special to end her Tudor Dynasty series, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb asks a panel of experts to speculate on the reign that might have been. Suzannah is joined by Dr. Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, Prof. Alexander Samson and Prof. Anna Whitelock.

Subscribers to History Hit can also watch this discussion, here: https://access.historyhit.com/what-s-new/videos/mary-i-real-fake-history

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6FFT7MK

For centuries, Hampton Court has been a stage for monarchy, revolution, religious fundamentalism, sexual scandals, and military coups. In his new book The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court, Gareth Russell moves through the rooms and the decades, each time focusing on a different person who called Hampton Court their home.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Gareth to find out more about the many sovereigns and servants that lived and worked in Hampton Court and the personal tragedy and political importance of this extraordinary place.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Anne Boleyn is usually considered in the context of her marriage to - and demise at the hands of - King Henry VIII. But ultimately, the memory of Anne eventually triumphed, and her death was avenged, through the reign of the daughter she barely knew, Queen Elizabeth I.

Piecing together evidence from original documents and artefacts, historian Tracy Borman - in her new book Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History - shares compelling evidence that Anne exerted a profound influence on Elizabeth?s character, beliefs and reign. 

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Borman to discover more about this special relationship.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Don?t miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code NOTJUSTTHETUDORS1 sign up now for your 14-day free trial https://historyhit/subscription/

You can take part in our listener survey here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The truth about Henry VIII may surprise you. This second episode of Not Just the Tudors' Tudor Dynasty mini-series provides you, in a nutshell, with everything you really need to know about Henry: his upbringing as a second son, his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his exploits on the battlefield and tilt yard, his dependence on Cardinal Wolsey, his romance with Anne Boleyn, the break with Rome, his foreign policy, his murderous legislation and the downfall of Thomas Cromwell.

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to Lincoln College, Oxford, to get to grips with the iconic and infamous monarch with his biographer, Dr. Lucy Wooding.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb pays a visit to historians Dr. Anthony Delaney and Dr. Maddy Pelling, who are the hosts of History Hit?s new podcast, After Dark. Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal. Twice a week, Anthony and Maddy are taking listeners to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history's spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories.

For this episode, they were keen for Suzannah to delve deep with them into the ever fascinating subject of witches and witch trials in early modern Europe.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Annie Coloe and Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial >

You can take part in our listener survey here >

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb kicks off four special episodes about the Tudor Dynasty with a look at its founding father King Henry VII. Seen as an exile and outsider with barely a claim to the throne, there was little to suggest that the obscure Henry would last any longer than his predecessor Richard III who Henry defeated at the battle of Bosworth Field. To maintain his grip on power and to convince England that his rule was both rightful and effective, Henry VII embarked upon a ruthless and controlling kingship

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more about this unlikely monarch with Henry VII?s biographer Sean Cunningham.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Don?t miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code NOTJUSTTHETUDORS1 sign up now for your 14-day free trial https://historyhit/subscription/

You can take part in our listener survey here >

The Gunpowder Plot is one of the hinge events of British history - an act of terror the roots of which stretch back to the Tudor period and Henry VIII's break with Rome. It's a story of Holy War, divided loyalties and religious hatred. And it has never been more timely. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in September 2021, Suzannah Lipscomb talks gunpowder, treason and plot with award-winning author and historian Jessie Childs.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Don?t miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code NOTJUSTTHETUDORS1 sign up now for your 14-day free trial https://historyhit/subscription/

You can take part in our listener survey here >