Battle Royale: French Monarchs

The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême finally take centre stage... for possibly the shortest reign in world history. As the last surviving Bourbons of their generation, these mismatched cousins struggled to be the power couple the nation needed. ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Mak...

This episode, Charles meets his ultimate fate in the wake of the much-anticipated July Revolution. ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠ or wherever you listen. You can also support the show on ⁠Patreon⁠! Join the offici...

Charles, comte d'Artois, has been a meddlesome troublemaker for the last 50 years of French history - surviving exiles, wars and revolutions like a cockroach. What fresh hell will ensue now that he finally has the chance to be king? ⚜️ Battle Royale's intro music is ⁠⁠"Dansez" by Fasion⁠⁠. Go check out more of their stuff ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. This episode's outro music is a short excerpt from Luigi Cherubini...

From idle prince, to bankrupt exile, to his glorious restoration ... how will Louis XVIII measure up to his forebears in an age where the king must reconcile with the new France that the Revolution created? And how long will this ailing king even last? Check out David's show ⁠The Siècle⁠ to get more history from this period! ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Conta...

While Napoleon rose and fell, the old royal family wander Europe as exiles for over 20 years. This episode, we explore their side of the story. ⚜️ This week's outro music is "Richard Coeur de Lion, Act II: Si l'univers entier", an air from a favourite opera of Louis XVIII by André Grétry. From Grétry: Richard Coeur de Lion ℗ 2023 EG Classics, performed by the Orchestra dei Giovani del Conservatori...

You know Napoleon I. You've heard of Napoleon III... But what about the other one? ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠ or wherever you listen. You can also support the show on ⁠Patreon⁠! Join the official Angry Mob and...

Will Napoleon be enshrined with the greats at the Grand Tournament, or will we send this outlaw to the guillotine? ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠ or wherever you listen. You can also support the show on ⁠Patreon⁠!...

Starting with his grand coronation in Paris and stunning victory at Austerlitz, we follow Napoleon from his zenith to his ultimate decline as all of Europe conspires against him. Next episode, we will at last rate Napoleon and get into further detail about one of history's most epic and groundbreaking lives. ⚜️ This episode's outro music was the finale of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture", performed b...

From obscure Corsican officer to Emperor of the French, this episode we chart the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in the first of his 3 episodes. There is so much about this man to cover, and we have still only scratched the surface. Fitting that this episode is coming out on Easter, since Napoleon not only resurrected the French church, but his episode is also filled with Easter eggs for long-time lis...

We have reached the dramatic apex of Robespierre's career, as the French Revolution spirals into its most violent phase: the Reign of Terror. But how long will this reign last? And how will Robespierre's legacy compare to those of the monarchs he destroyed? ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ o...

This episode we get deeper into the French Revolution, from the eyes of the radical politician Maximilien Robespierre. Society is about to change rapidly and shockingly in the leadup to the Reign of Terror, including a new calendar which will leave Eliza outraged. ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook G...

Go to patreon.com/battleroyalepodcast to listen to Part 2, and our entire spinoff series on the French royal mistresses. Jeanne Antoinette "Reinette" Poisson was born into a disgraced middle-class Parisian family and thanks to her own beauty, charm and wit managed to climb the greasy pole to become Louis XV's most famous and powerful mistress. This episode we recount her life's story from birth to...

We unravel the mystery that haunted Europe for over a century: What happened to the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinettte after they met their tragic end? It's a real True Crime mystery that will take us from the worst days of the Reign of Terror to the deepest depths of the American West. Only now, over 200 years later, do we finally have the answer. ⚜️ Music used in this episode included a pian...

It's now time to rate one of history's most notorious queens! ⚜️ Visit our website ⁠for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠ or wherever you listen. You can also support the show on ⁠Patreon⁠! Join the official Angry Mob and get access to our bo...

By popular demand, we have an in-betweeny episode on the most famous woman in all of French history. How much was she really to blame for the disasters leading up to the Revolution? This episode we go through the main events of Marie Antoinette’s life. Next time we will rate her and leave behind the Ancien Regime for good! ⚜️ Music used in this episode: Intro music: ⁠"Dansez" by Fasion⁠. Go check...

This episode, we will rate and review Louis XVI, the last king of France before the Revolution blows everything apart. Will he get through to the Tournement, or will he be guillotined a second time? ⚜️ Visit our website for episode images, score summaries and more! Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠. Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podca...

This episode, we finally get to the beginnings of the French Revolution and how it affected one Louis XVI, a King of France who was in way over his head, to put it mildly. Why did the revolution start in his reign? What weird hobbies did he indulge in the meantime? And next episode, will we be guillotining him AGAIN?   ⚜️ RECOMMENDATIONS Go learn more about the French Revolution with these handy r...

It's time to get down to brass tax and rate Louis XV. Was he the do-nothing king later historians have tarred him as? And are good intentions and pretty art enough to save him from the guillotine? ⚜️ Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Contact us by Email, or follow us on Instagram, our Facebook Group or BlueSky. Make sure you leave us a review on App...

Not quite the Sun King, not quite the Revolution guy, Louis XV sits between two way more famous kings of France and is often a forgotten footnote of history, despite ruling for a very long time during France's great Enlightenment period. Will he stand toe-to-toe with other kings, or will he get lost in the mix? ⚜️   Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more!...

Louis XIV is dead, and his heir is a 5-year-old child. With so many deaths occurring in the royal family, it falls to an unlikely royal nephew, Philippe, duke of Orléans, to govern France until Louis XV comes of age. Completely unlike the callous old Sun King, Philippe is a man of the people who spurned Versailles and lived as a boisterous libertine. What kind of regent will this man be? ⚜️ Visit...

Now that we've finished Louis XIV's life, we're going back to fill in some details and decide what score the Sun King should get. Will he escape the guillotine? ⚜️   Visit our ⁠Wordpress ⁠for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more!   Contact us by ⁠Email⁠, or follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, our ⁠Facebook Group⁠ or ⁠BlueSky⁠.   Make sure you leave us a review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spot...

This episode we talk about the zenith and slow decline of the sun king. ⚜️   Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more!   Contact us by Email, or follow us on Instagram, our Facebook Group or BlueSky.   Make sure you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.   You can also support the show on Patreon! Join the official Angry Mob an...

The Sun King is risen. This episode, we chronicle the first half of Louis XIV's life, from his earliest years of civil war and turbulence to the apex of his power. ⚜️ Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Make sure you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Contact us by Email, or follow us on Instagram, our Facebook Group...

You've heard of the Sun King, but what about his mother? From Infanta of Spain to Regent of France, Anne of Austria's 50-year career is a rollercoaster of intrigue, family drama and civil war.  ⚜️  Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Make sure you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. You can also support the show on Pat...

The Louis XIII of Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers" is a comically naïve and easily manipulated do-nothing king, dominated by his scheming chief minister Cardinal Richelieu. But as we're about to learn, the history is a little more complicated when you consider that Louis did have military victories, he struggled against debilitating chronic illness, and France owes a lot more than expected...