Not Just the Tudors

Louis XIV ruled France for more than 72 years, the longest recorded reign of any monarch of any sovereign country in history. Despite the devotion of his wife Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis took a series of mistresses, a number of them "official", with whom he had numerous illegitimate children. Yet, for the last three decades of his life, after Maria Theresa's death, he settled down more...

Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to the news headlines when the rosary she carried to her execution in 1587, was recently stolen from Arundel Castle. It's the latest chapter in the enduring story of this highly romanticised figure.   Mary reigned over Scotland for just over 24 years between December 1542 until her forced abdication. Considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many Ca...

After a century of Civil War, changes in the way Japan was ruled from 1600 onwards meant that Europeans and Christianity made few inroads into Japanese society. Shogun Tokugawa organised Japan into a strict class system and its unique and brilliant culture flourished in isolation. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors , Professor Suzannah Lipscomb navigates the fascinating, floating world of...

In 1589, Anne Dowriche, the wife of a Puritan minister from Devon, wrote a long and gory poem about the bloody, ongoing conflict between Catholics and Huguenots in France. Dowriche's The French Historie was one of the few sixteenth century books written entirely by a woman. She was also almost alone as a woman in publicly commenting on contemporary political events and speaking up against tyranny....

The German executioner Meister Frantz Schmidt kept a fascinating journal of all the executions, torture and punishments he administered between 1573 and 1618. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors , Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Joel Harrington to talk about Schmidt - who showed himself to be an executioner with a conscience - and further explore public capital punishment in the 16th century, de...

Ordered by King Henry VIII and carried out by Thomas Cromwell, the dissolution of the monasteries was the greatest land re-distribution in England since the Norman Conquest, and the largest windfall of cash to the crown in history. Between 1536 and 1540, 800 religious houses were dissolved leading to nothing less than the wholesale destruction of monasticism. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors...

The lute, with its double strings and beautiful decorative detail is a familiar feature of Renaissance paintings. In the sixteenth century, lute music was highly prized in the courts of Europe and lutenists earned handsome sums. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Suzannah Lipscomb talks to leading lutenist and musicologist Dr. Lynda Sayce, to explore and hear the lute, how it evolved in diffe...

In the late 16th century, a group of London merchants petitioned Queen Elizabeth I to allow them to build English trade in Asia. She granted a charter in 1600 to support the English East India Company for 15 years, which King James I later turned into rights and perpetuity. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors , Suzannah Lipscomb talks to historian Dr David Veevers from Queen Mary Universit...

Anne Boleyn has been trending on Twitter after it was announced that secret inscriptions were found hidden in the Book of Hours  that she took to her execution. They were discovered by Kate McCaffrey who talks to Suzannah in this special to mark the 485th anniversary of Anne Boleyn's death, on 19 May 1536. Also in this episode, Suzannah goes to Anne's childhood home of Hever Castle in Kent to...

In the first of two special podcasts to mark the 485th anniversary of Anne Boleyn's death, Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the enduring fascination with Anne's life and demise. Exploring the different perceptions of Anne and her re-creation through her many afterlives are authors Claire Ridgway and Natalie Grueninger, historian Dr. Stephanie Russo and art historian Rol...

If you think that the female spy is a 20th century phenomenon, be it Mata Hari, Mrs Zigzag or Eve Polastri, think again! Accounts of numerous 17th century 'she-intelligencers' have lain undiscovered in archives for centuries. And these remarkable women were much more than the honey-trap accomplices of a Stuart-era George Smiley. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors , Suzannah Lipscomb...

The Tudors loved a good banquet, to show off their wealth and social status. Guests were plied with the most superb food, made from the most expensive ingredients and displayed in the most outrageous way. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb meets Brigitte Webster to find out more about what the Tudors served at their banquets, how these feasts influenced the habits of the time, and how the availability of...

What we know about the Aztecs of Mexico often comes from the accounts of their Spanish conquerors. But the Aztec culture was far more sophisticated than the European invaders chose to portray. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock about the real reasons behind Aztec ritual sacrifice and cannibalism, and their com beliefs about the af...

John Lyly's name may not be so familiar. He was a playwright and poet writing at the same time as Shakespeare and, in his day, was more famous than the Bard himself. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr Andy Kesson about Lyly's radical and, frankly, queer works: his plays in which Queen Elizabeth was compared - at court! - to the lesbian poet Sappho, and in which the marriage of two girls dress...

In the heart of Shakespeare's London, there was a palace that had become a prison: Bridewell. Professor Duncan Salkeld has explored the records of this notorious destination for the poor and the indigent, vagrants, prostitutes, and the idle. In this episodes of Not Just the Tudors, he shares with Professor Suzannah Lipscomb his fascinating findings about the wayward and the unruly . These include...

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Laura Cumming - author and art critic for The Observer - about Velázquez, arguably the greatest genius of Spanish painting. They particularly discuss one of the world's most remarkable paintings - Las Meninas ('The Ladies in Waiting'), how the artist rose through the stifling, gilded court of Philip IV, and the way in which Velázquez dignified everyone he paint...

Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustinian described Henry VIII as the 'best dressed sovereign in the world'. The King spent the equivalent of £2 million a year on clothes. In this episode with Professor Maria Hayward, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb gets to grips with the sumptuous garments, the fabrics (and exaggerated codpieces) that made up the Tudor king's wonderous wardrobe. Hosted on Acast. See a...

The witch-hunts of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe are well-known. But did you know that some 300 people were convicted of being werewolves? In this revelatory podcast with Dr. Jan Machielsen, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb travels back to 1603 to find out more about the moving case of Jean Grenier, a self-confessed teenage werewolf from the Basque region of France. Who was he? And what were...