Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Henry VIII is famous for executions, but he did issue pardons; rarely, strategically, and always on his own terms. Starting with the pardon of Geoffrey Pole in 1539, this minicast explores who Henry spared, who he didn’t, and what mercy really meant under the Tudors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you step into the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, the walls tell a story. In this minicast, we explore Henry VIII’s Abraham tapestries: vast, expensive works of art that doubled as political messaging. Woven in the 1540s, these biblical scenes weren’t just decoration. They reinforced Henry’s claims to religious authority, dynastic legitimacy, and the future of the Tudor line, all at a mom...

This tour of Tudor York was originally a Members Only video from two years ago. I’m making it public today so everyone can explore it. Patrons and channel members still get the good stuff first, including extra episodes, and content that never appears on the public channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Because it’s Christmas Eve, I’m taking the day to be with family. In place of something new, this episode brings together several Christmas and wintertime Tudor stories from past years in one long, easy listen. These episodes explore how Christmas was celebrated in Tudor England - the traditions, food, faith, music, and rhythms of the season. Perfect for listening while you cook, travel, or enjoy...

This episode features a live Tudorcon talk by Terry Jones, longtime docent at Agecroft Hall, exploring how jewelry functioned in Tudor and early Stuart England. From pearls and signet rings to portrait jewels and the Order of the Garter, this talk looks at how men and women used jewelry to signal power, identity, loyalty, and belief. Recorded live, the episode includes audience questions and the i...

In 1602, Elizabeth I wrote a formal letter to the Emperor of China, hoping to open peaceful trade between their two realms. The letter was sent with an English explorer attempting to reach China via the Northwest Passage. He never made it. The minicast stayed in England for centuries, was once used to line a farm’s bran bin, and was not finally delivered to China until 1984. This episode tells the...

Yesterday we chatted about how crimes were solved. Today, we look at convictions. What happened after conviction in Tudor England? This minicast looks at how punishment worked through shame, visibility, and public order, from the stocks and church penance to execution and royal mercy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

How did Tudor England solve crimes without police or forensic science? This episode explores how murder and suspicion were investigated through community testimony, coroners’ inquests, confession, and local justice, and why the world of Matthew Shardlake feels surprisingly accurate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

The Christmas Character quiz is here: https://www.englandcast.com/christmas-character-quiz/ - I'd love to see what you got! And the ecard site is here: https://www.englandcast.com/tudor-tidings/ How did the Tudors understand the human body, and why does their approach feel so strange to us today? In this episode, I explore how people in Tudor England thought about health, illness, emotion, and bal...

For more than three centuries, a restrained Tudor portrait was confidently labeled as Lady Jane Grey. But the woman in the painting is almost certainly not Jane at all. In this episode, we explore the evidence that the famous Wrest Park portrait actually depicts Mary Neville, Lady Dacre, a young widow navigating disgrace, poverty, and political survival after her husband’s execution. Through costu...

Poison was the rumor that never died in Tudor England. In this episode, we look at the deaths that Tudor contemporaries believed were “too convenient” to be natural: the Scottish commissioners who fell ill during Mary, Queen of Scots’ marriage negotiations in France, the sudden collapse of Ferdinando Stanley, and the suspicions surrounding Darnley and Amy Robsart. Whether these cases were illness,...

Margaret Douglas, niece of Henry VIII, spent her entire life at the center of Tudor politics. In this episode I look at her childhood in the royal nursery, the scandal that sent her to the Tower, her influential marriage into the Lennox family, and the choices that helped place her grandson James VI on the English throne. A detailed look at the woman who linked the Tudor and Stuart dynasties. Rela...

Tudor England loved true crime just as much as we do today. In this episode, we look at a few cases that gripped 16th-century audiences: the 1551 murder of Thomas Arden of Faversham, and the 1592 killing of John Brewen, preserved in a sensational printed pamphlet. These stories reveal how early printers, ballad sellers, and public executions shaped a uniquely Tudor form of crime storytelling. Host...

Intermittent fasting might feel like a modern idea, but Tudor England practiced a full winter fast during Advent. People cut out meat and dairy, relied on fish and simple grains, and often waited until evening prayers for their main meal. In this episode we look at what the Advent fast involved, how it shaped daily life in December, and why it ends up sounding a lot like the fasting routines peopl...

Today we’re looking at the Privy Council and the work it handled behind the scenes in Tudor England. This small group managed intelligence, arrests, foreign diplomacy, religious enforcement, and the constant flow of problems from every corner of the kingdom. It’s a closer look at how the Tudors actually governed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad...

In this episode, we trace the Vaux family from their Lancastrian beginnings in the fifteenth century to their role in the Catholic underground during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. We follow the line from Katherine Peniston and her loyalty to Margaret of Anjou, through Nicholas Vaux’s rise under Henry VII and Henry VIII, and into the recusant world shaped by William Vaux. The story leads t...

In 1591, Mabel Bagenal defied her powerful English family and secretly married Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Their relationship became one of the most controversial matches in Tudor Ireland, fueling tensions that were already pushing the country toward war. In this minicast, we explore who Mabel was, why she chose O’Neill, and how her decision shaped the politics around her. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Today we’re looking at the Tudor-era women who stepped into roles normally reserved for knights, from Grace O’Malley leading a fleet on the Irish coast to Bess of Hardwick managing the Shrewsbury power base during rebellion, Mary of Guise governing a kingdom at war, Elizabeth I claiming her authority at Tilbury, and more. They were never formally knighted, but their actions came remarkably close....

Today we’re looking at the closest thing Tudor England had to newspapers: the crime pamphlets that reported real murders, scandals, and witchcraft cases in the sixteenth century. We’ll dig into the 1573 killing of George Saunders, the 1592 murder of John Brewen, and a witchcraft case printed that same year, and explore how these pamphlets shaped public ideas about justice long before regular news...

In this session from Tudorcon 2025 Sarah Pixley Papandrea from Agecroft Hall breaks down the real twelve-day Christmas season of Tudor England, from mumming and wassailing to role-reversal games, feast days, and the Lord of Misrule. It’s a lively look at the traditions that shaped winter celebrations across the Tudor world. Yuletide with the Tudors begins Monday, December 1. It’s my digital advent...

In this episode, we explore the life of Jane Lumley, a Tudor noblewoman whose translations made her one of the earliest female scholars in English literature. Through her, we trace the intertwined stories of the FitzAlan and Lumley families, the politics that shaped their world, and the remarkable library that preserved her work. From Nonsuch to the Lumley Chapel at Cheam, her life offers a rare w...

Edward the Black Prince was Europe’s most celebrated warrior. Joan of Kent was already notorious for one secret marriage and an accidental second one that sparked a papal court battle. When the two married in secret in 1361, it created a royal crisis that threatened the legitimacy of England’s future heir. In this minicast, we follow Joan from her turbulent childhood and bigamy scandal to her marr...

In 1586, William Stafford proposed one of the strangest assassination ideas of Elizabeth I’s reign: blowing up the queen’s bed while she slept, even though his own mother served in that room. This minicast unpacks the Stafford Plot, the French connection, and Walsingham’s likely role in turning the whole thing into an intelligence trap. A bizarre slice of Elizabethan espionage with very real polit...

Baddesley Clinton looks calm today, but the families who lived there left behind a long trail of drama. This episode follows the Clintons, the fiery Bromes, and the Catholic Ferrers through murder, duels, hidden priest holes, and the Jesuit network that operated out of the house during Elizabeth I’s reign. It’s a full narrative journey through 500 years of secrets inside one Warwickshire manor. Ho...

Did Elizabeth I actually name James VI of Scotland as her heir? Historian Dr. Tracy Borman joins me to talk about her new book, The Stolen Crown, and the newly uncovered evidence showing that the deathbed scene we’ve all heard was rewritten after the fact. We talk about the real contenders for the throne, the political panic around Elizabeth’s refusal to name an heir, Robert Cecil’s king-making, J...