British History: Royals, Rebels, and Romantics

We know London was very important to Shakespeare and his evolution from life in Stratford in the 1580s when he married and had children to the early 1600s when his company became the favored actors of the King and he dressed in the King’s livery. Shakespeare’s London was a place where fortunes were made and lost, where reputations were forged and destroyed, and where life could expand to include a...

It’s spring! Time for fun! Time to be outside! Time to play sports! Time to enjoy flowers and birds! Time for picnics! Time for Shakespeare! Wait…what? Shakespeare fun? Isn’t Shakespeare serious and impossible to understand and boring and old, and irrelevant, and pretty much the opposite of fun? In a word: no. Shakespeare can be boring and old and serious and irrelevant, but it doesn’t need to be....

We celebrate our 50th episode by celebrating the FINAL FIVE, the winners of our first ever Monarch Madness! 1. King Arthur In many ways, the musical Camelot is a fitting way to think of King Arthur. We don’t know if he was a real person or not. There are stories that start in the fifth and sixth century of a great warrior. Later stories turned him into a military leader and eventually a King. The...

Henry VIII was married more times than any monarch in English history! Being the King’s wife certainly changed each of the women. But how did the women change Henry? And which wife changed him the most…or the most significantly? That’s our debate for Round Five of Monarch Madness. Or should I say Marital Madness? With Henry VIII, marriage was a bit of a mad gamble! Katharine of Aragon changed Henr...

Mary became Queen of Scotland before she was a week old and Queen Consort of France at age 17. By the time she was 25, her position of Queen Consort of France had ended with the death of her husband, and she had been forced to abdicate the Scottish throne. She fled to England in 1568 and spent the next 19 years as the Catholic alternative to be Queen of England. She married three times and had a s...

The famous 1537 portrait of the Tudor Dynasty included dynasty founders Henry VII and Elizabeth and current leaders Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. It also included an altar that posed the question: who, father or son, deserves to be recognized as preeminent? Henry VIII definitely chooses himself. But is he right? Returning from 14 years in exile, Henry Tudor claimed the throne, rallied support from...

For Round Two, we’re jumping right into the middle of an epic battle: York versus Lancaster. The Question is which King DESERVED to win the Wars of the Roses: Henry VI of the House of Lancaster or Edward IV of the House of York. Both men were the son of a warrior, both men sat on the throne, both men won the crown in battle. So which King, Henry or Edward, do you think deserved to be the ultimate...

Round one of Monarch Madness cuts right to the heart of English monarchy: what is it? And who contributed most to the earliest notion of English or British kingship? Two kings stand out, both of whom developed larger than life legends that carried centuries into the future. Both can be said to epitomize the notion of what it means to be a British monarch. But only one can win round one of Monarch...

Once there was a Prince who was becoming known as a bit of a playboy. Naturally boisterous and more devoted to fun than his brother, he had spent years having a good time all around the world. While his brother married a lovely English young woman in a gorgeous ceremony and then started a family, the Prince continued to race from one party to the next. And then, quite suddenly, he fell in love. Bu...

Victoria decided she was ready to be married after all. Just a few days after Albert’s return to England, Victoria wrote to Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, to inform him of her decision to marry Albert. Melbourne supported the choice. As Queen, Victoria was the one to propose. On October 15, she sent for the Prince and asked him to marry her. She was thrilled when he accepted. The wedding was...

More than 200 years after her death, which was marked by an explosion of celebrations and books and merchandise and movies and television specials in 2017, Jane Austen continues to be one of the most popular authors and most widely-read authors in the world.  So what is it about Jane Austen? Why does she remain so popular? Jane Austen novels are all about families. There are some brothers and many...

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re celebrating love stories this month. And I thought I’d start with someone who certainly should have been an expert, someone who would have personally supported chocolate and flower vendors had he lived in another time—Henry VIII. So I asked my people, fellow Tudor fans and enthusiasts, some important questions: Which wife did Henry VIII love most? Who was his fav...

Show Notes: Here are some great sources if you want to learn more! Nicola Tallis, Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey Suzannah Lipscomb, The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII Helen Castor, England's Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey (video) Imagine the moment in 1553. King Edward VI is dying. He has spent his reign dedicated to th...

Part 1, the Romans Before there were Kings of England, there was Roman occupation. In fact, you might think of the first monarch of England as being the Roman Emperor. Britain was officially discovered when Julius Caesar made to expeditions in 55 and 54 BC. He did not successfully invade England; that job was left to his successor Plautius in 43 AD. From that time, Britain was part of the Roman Em...

What was the Regency really like? That’s a question we can answer only in parts. We can learn something from the music and literature, something from the architecture. We can know something of the elite and powerful. We can learn from reports that praise national leaders and from caricatures that poke fun of those in power. Because this time is full of people, the Regency (like today) is complicat...

Today we’ll be looking at your questions regarding Queens and Consorts. Recently I posted a trivia questions on Facebook: Who was crowned in the SEVEN Tudor coronations? This raised a host of questions about Tudor Queens and Consorts, so I thought this would be a good time to jump right into that Queen versus Queen Consort question. And we’ll also take a quick look at those Tudor coronations.  A r...

In just about six months, we’ve started exploring British history together. So I thought it would be fun for the end of the year to look back at the Top Ten royals, rebels, and romantics. I’ve looked at likes, comments, popular episodes, questions on social media, and here are YOUR top 10!  Number 10: Romantic Couples Number 9: Underwear! Number 8: John of Gaunt’s Love Life and the Wars of the Ros...

In 1800, Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, erected the first known Christmas tree at Windsor Castle. She hosted a party for the children of Windsor families. According to Dr. John Watkins, who wrote a biography of Queen Charlotte, the large yew tree stood in a tub in the middle of the drawing room at Queen’s Lodge. The branches were decorated with “bunches of sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins in...

When Victoria and Albert married in 1840, they consciously set about improving the image of the monarchy. Creating a family Christmas, with children gathered around the tree, was an essential part of this. With their Christmas tree as a centerpiece, the royal family was ready to create a picture-perfect Christmas. In 1848, the Illustrated London News featured a drawing of the royal family celebrat...

For the Tudors, Christmas was a highlight of the year. It was a time of feasting on especially grand dishes, of dancing and singing, of enjoying the antics of the Lord of Misrule and special holiday revels and entertainments, and of showing off. Oh, and of course going to church.  The Tudors certainly made the most of these traditions. Families in Tudor times carried on decorating their homes with...

Unlike today, Medieval Christmas decorations did not start going up mid-October! In fact, because of Advent, the 40 days before Christmas were pretty bleak. Once noon passed on December 24, decorating homes and churches could begin. Family members wrapped up warmly and headed outside to gather the holly bows, ivy, red berries, pine branches and cones, and other greenery they would use to decorate...

Let’s take an imaginary trip to see the Birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, farmland, Tudor schoolrooms, Dr. Hall’s house and medicinal garden, Tudor streets, Holy Trinity Church, a world-class theatre, and swans on the river. In other words, let’s go strolling through Stratford with Shakespeare! As you get off the train at the Stratford Station, you can wander through the city, seeing the Town S...

I’m taking you time-traveling again! Just a short train or boat ride from the heart of London is one of England’s most famous pleasure palaces: Hampton Court Palace. From the heyday of Henry VIII to Shakespeare’s performances in the Great Hall, and from plans for the King James Bible to huge renovations under William and Mary—Hampton Court Palace has been at the heart of the British monarchy. In f...

I’m recording this in the final months of 2020. It’s been quite a year. We’ve faced an international pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of souls lost to a relentless illness. We’ve lived through political upheaval and social unrest. We’re faced with the daunting task of battling a deadly virus, mourning loss of loved ones, rebuilding trust and communities, overcoming economic challenges, creatin...

November 2020 seems like the perfect time to travel once more to a time of intercepted and hidden messages, foreign interference, transfer of power, betrayal, and...spies! Travel back in time to the birthplace of modern espionage: the court of Queen Elizabeth I and sneak into the world of Tudor Spies! The chaos in religious policy and its political implications laid the foundation for treachery, b...