Becca Does Things

Anne Boleyn is often remembered as Henry VIII’s “beheaded” wife or a cautionary tale about the dangers of ambition. In this episode of The Forgotten , Dr Becca Watterson revisits Anne’s story through the lens of coercive control. This episode explores how power, surveillance, false accusation, and reputational violence shaped Anne Boleyn’s downfall, and how the law was used to turn a queen into a...

In September 1833, Catherine Doran stood in a Dublin courtroom and testified against her violent husband. She had two children, no money of her own, and what she got from the Recorder’s Court was not protection or justice — but five shillings a week and a promise. In this episode of The Forgotten , I explore Catherine’s brief but powerful testimony: how respectability shaped her credibility, how h...

Catherine of Aragon is usually remembered in one word: divorced. The first of Henry VIII’s six wives, she’s often reduced to a schoolroom rhyme or a glittering anthem in the pop musical SIX . But Catherine’s real story is sharper, grittier, and far more important. She was a Spanish princess trained in theology, a queen who ruled as regent, a mother who turned letters into resistance manuals, and a...

In July 1808, the Dublin Evening Post reported a short, startling case: 'A ruffian, named Patrick Curran, who split his wife’s ear, and cut her with a hammer, was sentenced to be imprisoned three months'. Other papers repeated the story, adding that Mrs. Curran was a ' poor forgiving wretch'. She admitted her husband had 'often done so before'… but forgave him. In this epis...

Welcome to the very first episode of 'Abuse, Loosely Based on True Events'  - a strand of  'Becca Does Things, ' my project about reclaiming life after abuse. This strand is where I share my own abuse stories, survival truths, and the messy ways I’m reclaiming joy… with sarcasm, dark humour, and probably too much honesty. In this opening episode, I share my very first memory of abu...

Welcome to Becca Does Things - a podcast where history meets survival. I’m Becca, a historian and abuse survivor, reclaiming my life through joy and storytelling. Each week, I’ll share stories of domestic abuse across history alongside my own reflections as a survivor. From Tudor kings to ordinary families, from Victorian courtrooms to modern voices, this podcast explores how abuse was minimised,...