Not Just the Tudors

How did one man survive serving Henry VIII as principal secretary when others lost their heads? Why is the mastermind behind the King’s final, most turbulent decade so often forgotten? Rising through sheer intellect and royal favour, William Paget navigated bitter religious conflict, spiralling crown finances, and looming foreign threats to become Henry VIII’s most indispensable advisor. Professor...

How did a risky 16th-century venture evolve into a national enterprise that fuelled the rise of the British Empire? How did a vast network of royalty, politicians, cultural figures, and ordinary citizens finance human exploitation to expand British wealth and naval power? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor William Pettigrew to trace the nation's deep entanglement with the trans...

How did the son of an executed traitor rise to become the power behind young Edward VI? Was John Dudley a visionary patriot saving England from crisis or a ruthless opportunist who risked everything for ultimate power? Following the death of Henry VIII, Dudley seized control of the realm. However, his later gamble to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne condemned him to the executioner's block. Pr...

In 1588, mathematician Thomas Harriot mapped a doomed colony and drafted the playbook for English empire. But did Indigenous culture reshape Shakespeare's England just as profoundly? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Lauren Working to explore how indigenous knowledge, labour, and resources, from Bolivian silver to North American beaver pelts, vibrant feather work, and Algonquin smok...

How did a favourite of Elizabeth I go from royal darling to executed traitor? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Alex Gajda and Dr. Will Tosh to explore the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, one of the most glamorous yet volatile figures in Elizabethan England. Together they unpack the true motives behind Essex's rebellion and the surprising propagand...

Why did the Dutch Republic risk everything to launch one of the boldest seaborne invasions in English history and overthrow King James II? Why did England’s defences collapse so quickly? How close did the operation come to disaster? In 1688, William of Orange led a Dutch armada of 16,000 troops across the North Sea, after years of diplomacy, financial manoeuvring and meticulous military planning....

**CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE & ADULT THEMES ** What really went on behind closed doors in the scandalous court of the "Merry Monarch"? What made John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, both Restoration England's most notorious debauchee and sharpest literary mind? Rochester's razor-sharp verse sliced through religious hypocrisy, court politics, and even the King’s own reputation, pushing the bounda...

Death, death, and more death surrounds Henry VIII's final years. What happens when a monarch is trapped by physical decay, paranoia, and lethal court factionalism? He may have secured an heir and severed ties with Rome, but Henry VIII found no peace. And once he turns away from you, he doesn't turn back. In our series finale, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Joanne Paul explore the explosive 15...

**Contains graphic description of execution ** What happened when one monarch's personal obsession dismantled an entire international order? How did Henry VIII transform a marriage crisis into the English Reformation—and at what point did royal ambition cross the line into outright tyranny? When papal authority, international diplomacy, and canon law stood between the king and his quest for an hei...

In the 1520s, a dynastic crisis loomed behind the brilliance of Henry VIII's court. Desperate for a male heir after Catherine of Aragon's string of tragic pregnancies, Henry's frustration mounted as his foreign military adventures failed and the pope stalled his annulment. Following grisly executions, public book burnings of Martin Luther's texts, the shocking elevation of an illegitimate son, Hen...

How did a dazzling young Tudor prince become one of history's most notorious kings? How much of Henry VIII’s later tyranny was shaped by the world into which he was born? Long before the six wives, the Reformation and the executions, Henry started out as the charismatic, highly educated, athletic, second son, who was never expected to inherit the throne. But when his elder brother died in 1502, th...

What was everyday life like for an ordinary person in Tudor times? How did dramatic changes in population, climate, disease and the economy reshape villages across England? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb steps beyond the royal palaces to discover the world most people actually knew. She is joined by Professor Andy Wood who reveals the resilience, relationships and realities that shaped the lives of n...

How did a child written off by the Tudor court rise to become one of England's most iconic monarchs? Before she became queen, Elizabeth Tudor was surrounded by scandal, suspicion and deadly intrigue. Born to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Elizabeth was a princess by birth, until her mother was executed and her title revoked. Declared illegitimate and caught in a storm of politics, Elizabeth faced thr...

How did Captain James Cook's scientific voyage of 1768 become a mission for the British empire? While expanding knowledge of Pacific geography and natural history, Captain Cook was under secret orders to claim lands for Britain. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith explore this legendary expedition which combined science, commerce and colonial expansion. MORE When Europeans reac...

Who were the scandalous, defiant couple on the margins of Dutch society who became part of the founding story of New York? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Alan Mikhail to uncover the extraordinary lives of Anthony “the Turk” and Grietje Reyniers, who arrived in 17th-century New Amsterdam and quickly became infamous. Their story reveals a forgotten, messy and multicultural origin...

Was James V of Scotland a beleaguered child king or a brilliant Renaissance ruler who mastered the performance of power? Crowned before his second birthday, James curbed powerful magnates, strengthened royal authority and secured Scotland’s place in Europe, holding together a kingdom threatened by faction, England and religious upheaval. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr Amy Blakeway to...

How did a murderous, swaggering, wildly unreliable goldsmith become one of the most celebrated artists of the 16th century? Does genius excuse monstrous behaviour? Benvenuto Cellini's story is as shocking as it is dazzling, taking him from the bloody streets of Florence to the Sack of Rome, papal prisons, accusations of sodomy, spectacular jailbreaks and timeless artistic masterpieces. Professor S...

Why does C.S. Lewis's Narnia - with its images of winter, sacrifice, kingship and renewal - continue to resonate with generations of readers? How did Lewis weave Renaissance symbolism and Christian imagination into one of literature’s best-loved fantasy worlds? Lewis’s deceptively simple children’s stories were shaped by his scholarship in classics, literature and theology. Professor Suzannah Lips...

What really happened inside England’s most feared court? Was the Star Chamber a sinister instrument of royal tyranny, or a vital route to justice for those ignored by ordinary law? From its rise under Henry VII to its abolition in 1641, the Star Chamber heard cases involving murder, witchcraft, libel, corruption, riots, political dissent and scandalous family feuds. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is...

Who really ruled Elizabethan England? For almost four decades, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, guided Queen Elizabeth I through religious turmoil, assassination plots, the threat of the Spanish Armada, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the unresolved question of succession. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Jon Culverhouse to explore the life and legacy of the meticulous, fierce...

What was the French Revolution like for those who lived through it? What can private journals reveal that speeches, pamphlets and official records cannot? From the storming of the Bastille to the Terror and the guillotine, ordinary witnesses recorded the personal impact of 1789, political violence, revolutionary identity and everyday life in Paris. In this final episode of our mini-series on the F...

Was Elizabeth I really as angry and bad tempered as history has always claimed? How did some of her most secret state letters come to be penned by a Spaniard, while England was at war with Spain? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb breaks the news of groundbreaking research that proves Elizabeth's secretaries - especially her 'spymaster' Francis Walsingham - put words into the Queen's mouth to amplify her...

How did the French Revolution, built on liberty, become ruled by fear? And how did Robespierre - the man who had sent kings, nobles and priests to their deaths - himself end up beneath the blade of the guillotine? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Marisa Linton explore the rise and fall of the lawyer, revolutionary, and architect of the Reign of Terror, MORE: Marguerite de Navarre: Mother...

Was the Protestant Reformation ever truly global? How did radical theology, empire, slavery and missionary ambition collide across the early modern world? The global spread of Christianity was marked by failure, compromise and moral evasion. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Alec Ryrie to uncover the forgotten history of Protestant missions beyond Europe: from Lapland to Chile, from Bar...

What drove a hungry city to storm a fortress? How did the fall of the Bastille become the defining symbol of the French Revolution? In this second episode of our series, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Marisa Linton visit Paris on the verge of revolt. Together they explore the build-up to the storming of the Bastille, one dramatic day which changed the heartbeat of the French Revolution....