Episodes

  • #17 The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?

    #17 The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?
    Sep 11 2024
    Britain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown. So why did Britain go to war to SUPPORT Russia and AGAINST Germany which was its closest European friend and trading partner? (R)

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    35 mins
  • #40 Henry VIII: the pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence

    #40 Henry VIII: the pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence
    Sep 4 2024
    After years of negotiation and confrontation, Pope Clement VII was heard swearing unpapally over Henry VIII’s divorce. And no wonder. The history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. Pope Clement was trapped between a rock and a hard place: the only way to save his Medici family’s city of Florence was to refuse Henry his divorce and split Christendom. (R)

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    37 mins
  • #52 Anne Boleyn - Henry's MacGuffin

    #52 Anne Boleyn - Henry's MacGuffin
    Aug 28 2024
    Most of what we think we know about Anne Boleyn turns out to be later invention, with no historical basis. We argue that she was a MacGuffin: she was necessary to the way things turned out for Henry, but unimportant in herself. We’re not even sure he was in love with her. (R)

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    45 mins
  • #51 Marrying Anne Boleyn, the best of a bad job - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #51 Marrying Anne Boleyn, the best of a bad job - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Aug 21 2024
    The Ambassadors painting by Hans Holbein reveals the French horror at Henry’s decision in January 1533 to defy the pope and get remarried to a pregnant Anne Boleyn. But since Henry couldn't get an annulment he had no choice. No big-time European princess would marry him. With the Spanish seriously weakened by war, Turkish invasion and protestant revolt in Germany, and Henry’s French allies now needing him more than he does them, Henry’s long game to get the Pope on side against the Spanish is now in extra time. Henry is free to make himself head of the Church in England. See the painting at the National Gallery, London. (R)

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    30 mins
  • #50 No more ménage á trois - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #50 No more ménage á trois - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Aug 14 2024
    In a dynamite French document from August 1530, still overlooked by historians, the King of France offers to send troops to England to defend Henry VIII against the Spanish. No French government before or since has ever promised to send troops to defend England. Does this explain Henry’s sudden move in August 1530 to go on the offensive against Rome and the clergy in England? (R)

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    29 mins
  • #49 Like an episode of the Borgias - Ep 4 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #49 Like an episode of the Borgias - Ep 4 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Aug 7 2024
    31 May 1529: Faced with France and Spain doing a deal and leaving England in the lurch, Henry races against time to begin his divorce trial in London, and then pulls the plug just before a verdict is reached. Meanwhile the pope and his cardinals are double-crossing each other. (R)

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    34 mins
  • #46 Missions Impossible - Ep 3 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #46 Missions Impossible - Ep 3 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Jul 31 2024
    1527: The pope is a prisoner of the marauding Spanish in Rome and yet Henry sends his man Knight on a madcap mission to ask Pope Clement VII for permission to marry a young woman he is already sleeping with. It’s the first of a whole series of crazy errands, asking the pope for the impossible. Does Henry have a hidden agenda? (R)

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    32 mins
  • #45 The Jilting of Princess Mary - Ep 2 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #45 The Jilting of Princess Mary - Ep 2 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Jul 24 2024
    Did Henry break with Rome in order to seize power over the wealthy, ubiquitous church in England? We find that the dates don’t add up. Instead we look at why in June 1525 Henry promoted his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy over the head of his heir Mary. And why Charles V broke off his engagement with 9 year old Mary to marry a Portuguese princess instead. (R)

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    32 mins