The Rest Is History

Why did two men - John Heenan and and Tom Sayers - illegally meet in a field in Hampshire, in 1860, to brutally fight one another, captivating Britain in the process? What can the fight tell us about the nature of Britishness in the 19th century? Was this the birth of boxing? Who won the infamous boxing match? And, how did the fight change the course of British sport, forever? In this week’s episo...

How and when was football invented, and what are the origins of football clubs? What is the connection between public hangings, highwaymen, and early sporting events? Which is the most historically important sporting ground in the world? When was the first cricket test match played? What are the origins of rugby? Who was Richard Manks - the Lionel Messi of the Victorian period - and what did he ac...

How was President Abraham Lincoln murdered on Good Friday 1865, at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender? Who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor with southern sympathies, who assassinated him? How did he escape before the shocked eyes of the packed theatre, and evade his captors to go on the run? Would they get him in the end? And, what were the long term repercussion...

After passing the 13th amendment, in the closing weeks of the brutal American Civil War, what did president Abraham Lincoln - recently re-elected - do next to inflame his detractors? Crippled with guilt for the death and destruction of the war, was he indeed a unionist tyrant? What did Lincoln decide to do with the defeated rebel states? And, with time ticking for Lincoln’s life, who was John Wilk...

Following the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley, how did Mary Queen of Scots - thought to have conspired for his death - navigate the most precarious situation of her young life so far? Would she marry again, and if so whom? Why was she forced to flee her enemies dressed as a man, and would she escape the threat of imprisonment? Could she look to her fellow cousin, Elizabeth I, for aid, or face...

How and why was Mary Queen of Scots’ traitorous husband, Lord Darnley, murdered, and by whom…? Was Mary complicit? Why was his death one of the greatest mysteries in all British history? And, with Mary’s situation growing increasingly precarious, and allies few and far between, to whom would Mary turn next? Join Tom and Dominic as they unravel, tantalisingly, the build up to and enactment of Lord...

Why did Mary Queen of Scots’ second marriage to the volatile Lord Darnley threaten to send Scotland into civil war? In what way did she essentially declare war upon her powerful cousin, Elizabeth I? Who was the hotheaded James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, and why would he come to play such a devastating role in Mary’s life? Could Mary survive unburnt if the religious tensions smouldering at the...

Following the death of her husband, the King of France, was the glamorous Mary welcomed back to Scotland, her kingdom since infancy, with open arms or deep suspicion? Did she handle the precarious situation in which she found herself well, or recklessly? Did the majority of Scottish nobles side with Mary, or plot to usurp her in the shadows? When her eye turned on the crown of her wealthier neighb...

What was life like in the glittering French court, for the young and newly married Mary Queen of Scots? What momentous destiny was her formidable mother, Mary of Guise, planning for her? How did Mary become, in 1559, not only the queen of Scotland, but also of France, and - according to her Catholic French supporters - the queen of England? What would Mary do when unexpectedly widowed in a distant...

Where was Mary Queen of Scots - Elizabeth I’s most famous rival - born, and who were her parents? What was the nature of the turbulent politically and religiously divided world she was born into? How did she become a queen at only one week old, and betrothed to a French Prince at five? Why was it so dangerous to be a Scottish monarch in the 16th century? And, was she really the rightful heir to th...

Who was the Rector of Stiffkey, Harold Davidson - the "Prostitutes' Padre" - and why was he Britain’s most notorious curate? Was it his unnerving infatuation with girls that saw him put on trial and defrocked in 1932? What was the nature of the scandal surrounding the case? What did he do in later life that saw him displaying himself publicly in a barrel in Blackpool? And, why did he meet his gory...

Why was a boy grotesquely and mysteriously murdered in a wood in Norwich in the 12th century? Who was his killer? Was it a ritual child sacrifice? Why was the murder blamed on Norwich's Jewish community, and in what appalling way? How did the incident set in motion a whole wave of Jewish persecution across the world, as more and more children disappeared and were found ritually murdered? And, what...

After the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson and the signing of the polarising Anglo-Irish Treaty, how did the bombastic Battle of the Four Courts break out in Dublin? With British guns opening fire on the building, how long did the men of the IRA hold out? What was the outcome of the battle? With the IRA split, were more people for or against the Anglo-Irish treaty? Was Michael Collins trying to b...

Who was Sir Henry Wilson, and how was he shockingly murdered in 1922? Who ordered it? What was his attitude to the question of Irish Home Rule? Why has death been compared to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death triggered the First World War? How did he garner the undying enmity of British Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith? What was Wilson’s reputation in Ireland then, an...

What were the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, following negotiations between the UK and Sinn Féin? How was it received by the Irish people? What was the process by which it was agreed between Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Michael Collins, and Arthur Griffith? Why did Éamon de Valera object to the treaty, and how did this sow the seeds of civil war? Had the Irish beaten...

What occurred on Bloody Sunday on 21 November 1920 - a turning point in the Irish War of Independence and one of the bloodiest and most brutal moments in Irish history? How many British Army Officers were assassinated on the instructions of firebrand political leader, Michael Collins, that morning? Then, how many civilians did the British army gun down during a Gaelic football match at Croke Park...

What was Sinn Féin’s totemic first move after winning a majority seat in 1917? Were the IRA’s methods during this early stages of the war as violent as they are commonly believed to have been? How sectarian was the IRA? What crucial strategy did the Irish adopt in order to overwhelm English efforts to re-establish control in Ireland? As a victor of the First World War, was Ireland’s struggle for i...

What are the origins of the Irish War of Independence? What impact did the First World War have on Irish efforts for Home Rule? What was the mood in Ireland following the bloody Easter Rising of 1916? And, who was Éamon de Valera, the man who dominated the story of not only Irish politics in the 20th century, but also the entire story of Irish independence? As they launch back into the epic and tu...

Following the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was his Medici successor? Could he overcome the political turmoil and religious fervour in Florence, and rebuff the storm clouds of war gathering over his city with the approaching French army? How did this burgeoning catastrophe catapult the magnetic priest, Savonalrolla, to supreme power in Florence? Could he save it from the jaws of death with...

Did Lorenzo de’Medici’s rule in Florence incur prosperity, or was it a corrupt and autocratic regime, rife with torture, that would spell the doom of the former Republic? While building an edifice of power, wealth and luxury, how was he secretly bankrupting his famous family and city? Was he really the perfect Renaissance Prince, and how did he launch the careers of both Michaelangelo and Leonardo...

Who was Lorenzo the Magnificent, the most glamorous, glittering, and blood-soaked of all the Medici, who became his family’s formidable but compulsive “Godfather” from the age of only twenty one? What was the Pazzi Conspiracy, in which he was almost murdered in a bloody plot to eliminate Medici supremacy in Florence, in the middle of a church mass? Were the Medici the first Italian mafia? What inf...

What are the origins of one of history’s most glittering, and for a time, most powerful families in Europe; the Medici? How were they able to seize supreme power in the Republic of Florence , one of the most dazzling cities in the world, during the 15th century, at the height of the Renaissance? When did Florence’s explosive growth begin, and how? Who was Cosimo Medici, the Godfather of the family...

How did the Battle of Cannae - one of the most important battles of all time for Ancient Rome, with a whole Empire at stake, and a reputation that had reverberated across the centuries - in 216 BC, unfold? What brilliant tactics did Hannibal adopt in order to overcome the Roman killing machine, with its vast numbers and relentless soldiers? Why did so many men die in such horrific circumstances? A...

How did Hannibal achieve the remarkable feat of crossing the Alps with his army, and elephants? How many of his men survived the treacherous journey? Was it worth sacrificing so much of his army in order to fight the Romans in Italy? And, what unfolded during the first great clash between Hannibal and Rome, at dawn, by the Trebbia River, in 218 BC…? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss Hannibal’s...

Why did Hannibal choose to cross the Alps with his elephants in 218 BC, when invading Rome? Was it a brilliant stratagem or a military disaster? What was the secret to the Roman Republic’s growing military success at this time? And, why did Carthage, under Hannibal’s formidable generalship, believe they were more than capable of taking on the might of Rome?  Join Tom and Dominic as they charge int...