Not Just the Tudors

How did a Derbyshire gentlewoman become England’s richest woman after Elizabeth I? Why does she still fascinate us as her 500th anniversary approaches? From four marriages and vast wealth to Hardwick Hall, Chatsworth and the Cavendish dynasty, Bess of Hardwick turned survival into power. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Lisa Hopkins to discover a gripping story of female ambition...

How did our understanding of the universe begin in a London coffee house? How did a man who had a comet named after him change science forever? From his youthful voyage to St Helena to chart the southern skies, to his pioneering studies of navigation, longitude, gravity, and the Earth’s atmosphere, Edmund Halley’s curiosity knew no bounds. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by David K. Love to...

Why did the Pilgrims risk everything in search of a new life and religious freedom? Why does their contested history still matter ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence? In 1620, the Mayflower carried English religious separatists, across the Atlantic to found Plymouth Colony. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks with Professor John G. Turner about their dangerous Atlantic crossing,...

**This episode contains graphic explorations of starvation and cannibalism** What happens when a colony reaches the edge of survival? In this third episode leading up to the 250th anniversary of American independence, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr Rachel Winchcombe examine the so-called Starving Time of 1609-1610, when Jamestown settlers faced famine, desperation and cannibalism. Together the...

How did one woman scandalise sixteenth century London by refusing to live by its rules? Mary Frith - aka Moll Cutpurse - rejected the expectations of respectable womanhood, wore men’s clothes, smoked a pipe, carried weapons, and frequented London’s taverns, theatres, prisons and courtrooms. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Holly Marsden explore the extraordinary life and afterlife of Moll - pic...

How did the Stuarts turn fragile American outposts into an empire? How did English settlers, Native peoples - including Pocahontas - and London investors shape 17th-century Virginia, and why do these early colonial encounters still matter as the 250th anniversary of American independence approaches? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined again by Distinguished Professor Peter C. Mancall to discuss...

How did the gun become a fashion item in Renaissance Italy? Why do debates over firearms, self-defence and public safety sound so familiar today? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and historian Catherine Fletcher trace the rise of guns from battlefield technology to coveted courtly accessory. Together they discover how firearms transformed warfare, society and empire-building, and why the history of gun...

How did two Indigenous men help shape Elizabethan England's dreams of empire? What do these early encounters tell us about the contested beginnings of colonial America? In the 1580s, English explorers ventured west in search of land, influence and advantage. But this was not an inevitable march toward empire. As the 250th anniversary of American independence approaches, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb...

What effect did the Great Plague have on Londoners, their society and the wider state? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Rebecca Rideal revisit the summer of 1665, as a few suspicious deaths grew into a crisis that swept through the city with devastating speed. Entire households vanished, fear curdled into suspicion, outsiders were written out of the official record - and Restoration England was res...

Was Anne Boleyn a seductress, a schemer, or something far more radical? What happens when we look at Anne not through the lens of sex and scandal, but through religion? From Tudor observers to Six the Musical , Anne Boleyn has been labelled the woman who tempted, manipulated and overreached. But Professor Suzannah Lipscomb's guest Reverend Canon Martha Tatarnic, an Anglican priest, instead offers...

How did a teenage rebel become Scotland’s king, and rule a realm riven by feuds and shifting loyalties? James IV balanced chivalry, diplomacy, and danger, yet led his country to catastrophe. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Prof. Michael Brown explore how James transformed himself into the most remarkable Renaissance monarch. MORE Henry VIII's Sister, Margaret Queen of Scots Listen on Apple Listen...

**Warning: Contains graphic description of the mutilation of corpses** In April 1617, Concino Concini, Marshal of France, was shot dead as he entered the Louvre. But his murder was only the beginning of a terrifying chain of events. How did the assassination of this hated royal favourite unleash mob violence, propaganda and a new political order? And what fate awaited the woman blamed for bending...

What did it mean to be English when merchants, sailors, captives, diplomats, and migrants were constantly crossing borders? Pirates, a Kentish man becoming a Samurai and a king on the warpath; Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Nandini Das trace tales of reinvention, danger and belonging in this exciting, hugely changing world. MORE: England’s First Ambassador to India: Thomas Roe Listen on...

How did Sir Christopher Hatton became one of Elizabeth I’s favourites?  How true were the rumours that they were lovers? After catching the Queen's eye in 1561, Hatton was quickly promoted to the Privy Council, making a significant impact on Elizabeth's complex religious policy. Yet he has often been overshadowed by her other favourites like Dudley, Cecil and Walsingham. In the final episode...

What if the medieval world did not end with a bang, but with a messy argument over who gets to define history itself? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb spars with Gone Medieval's host Matt Lewis over Gutenberg, the Reformation, witchcraft, plague, the Renaissance, and the Wars of the Roses to ask where medieval ends and early modern begins. The result is a lively, surprising fight over power, change, an...

How did Sarah Churchill become the most powerful woman in Queen Anne’s court? What happens when a royal friendship turns into a political battlefield? How did one absent set of jewels signal the beginning of the end? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb continues her series on royal favourites with biographer Ophelia Field. Together they explore the extraordinary story of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlbo...

How did Louis XIV use his day-to-day life, especially his marriage, to help create the mythology of the Sun King as semi-divine, radiant and unrivalled? In 17th-century France, monarchy was performed, witnessed, and widely circulated. Using portraits, medals, sculptures and official pamphlets, Louis XIV meticulously constructed his own image, appearing as Apollo, Jupiter, Hercules, Neptune, a Roma...

How did a relatively humble gentleman become the most powerful man in Stuart England? Few figures embodied the glamour and instability of the Jacobean court more completely than George Villiers, who rose to become one of the most influential men in England. To some he was charismatic, brilliant, and irresistible; to others, he was reckless, arrogant, and dangerously powerful. In the second episode...

How did a ghost story bring London to a standstill? Was it a haunting, a fraud, or something even more revealing about Georgian society? Why did rational, educated people fall for elaborate hoaxes? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Madeleine Pelling, co-host of History Hit’s After Dark podcast, to uncover the darker side of the Age of Enlightenment. Why was this period remembered for sc...

Passion, scandal, and power collided in the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Rumours of secret trysts between them set the court ablaze, but their love was doomed from the start. In the first of four episodes looking at royal favourites in the Tudor and Stuart courts, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Joanne Paul unravel the complex tapestry of Robert Dudley's life,...

What if Henry VIII’s “discarded bride” actually showed real promise as queen? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr James Taffe to discuss new discoveries about Anne of Cleves’ surviving account book, a rare 200-page record of every pound, shilling and penny that reveals Anne’s queenship through spending, patronage and household life. They discuss the “shadow” household retained after Jane S...

How did a condemned Spanish Armada captain survive shipwreck, betrayal, and war to leave behind one of the most extraordinary first-person accounts of the 16th century? Francisco de Cuéllar was a career officer shaped by the harsh realities of early modern warfare, surviving looting, imprisonment, betrayal, and a brutal overland escape through a hostile landscape. Cuéllar's journey became one of t...

What was Anne Boleyn like before she became the most controversial queen in English history? Can the rooms and gardens at her childhood home reveal more about the world that shaped her? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Owen Emmerson to find out more about the magical place where Anne Boleyn grew up, how Hever shaped her early life, education, language skills, and future role at the cou...

How did a woman rise to power, and keep it, in the fiercely male-dominated Habsburg Empire? From her distrust of the Enlightenment to her religious intolerance, and from family strategy to imperial power, Maria Theresa was a remarkable ruler driven by discipline, faith, dynastic ambition, and political will. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger to discover...

How did England’s earliest travellers to India try to win favour in a Mughal golden age that scarcely noticed them? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks with Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami about Tudor and early Stuart England’s turn to global trade after Elizabeth I’s break with Catholic Europe, and why Mughal India—vast, wealthy, and pragmatically governed—had little need for English wool or broadcloth. They...