Not Just the Tudors

Mar 09 2025 403 ep. 42 mins 6.3k
Not Just the Tudors Podcast artwork

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks about everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower. Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.

Each episode Suzannah is joined by historians and experts to reveal incredible stories about one of the most fascinating periods in history.

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Ireland's Witchcraft Trials

Mar 09 2025 44 mins  
In 1711, a wave of terror gripped the Islandmagee peninsula in County Antrim. First there was the haunting and supernatural murder of a local clergyman's wife. Then 18-year-old Mary Dunbar suffered violent convulsions, levitation and vomiting of pins, feathers, and buttons, sparking accusations against eight local women. After Mary’s sudden death, the trial took an unprecedented

Robert Dudley: Elizabeth I's Forbidden Love

Mar 05 2025 58 mins  
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.Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Joanne Paul unravel the complex tapestry of Dudley's life, Elizabeth's devotion and the decades of political intrigue and personal heartbrea

Shakespeare's Daughter, Judith

Mar 02 2025 36 mins  
The brief life of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet is now quite well known, thanks to Maggie O'Farrell's novel, but Hamnet also had a twin sister Judith, who outlived her brother by many decades. Now it's time for Judith to take centre stage in the highly anticipated novel The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter by Professor Grace Tiffany. Judith lived through a time of chaos and confl

The Great Siege of Malta

Feb 26 2025 49 mins  
What happens when a small island faces the might of the Ottoman Empire?In 1565, Malta was the setting for a brutal clash between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the defiant Knights of the Order of St.John, warrior monks led by the iron-willed Jean de Valette. This extraordinary siege pitted faith against empire, innovation against desperation, and a handful of defenders agains

How to Run a Stuart Household

Feb 23 2025 35 mins  
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the world of Stuart-era recipe books, in which medicine, cookery and women's roles combine in fascinating ways. She discovers how these volumes were far more than just cookbooks, offering a window into how women collected and shared knowledge, and how female identity was shaped within the domestic sphere.Suzannah's guest Dr. Kimberley Co

Giordano Bruno: Mystic, Heretic, Spy

Feb 19 2025 40 mins  
Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake 425 years ago this month. His crime? Radical thinking which clashed with the ideas of the Roman Catholic church. But his extraordinarily colourful life, ideas and tragic fate continue to resonate in our modern understanding of the universe and the ongoing tension between scientific inquiry and religious authority.Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is

German Peasants' War

Feb 16 2025 53 mins  
The German Peasants' War - which happened exactly 500 years ago - saw peasants across Germany, Switzerland and Austria rise up against oppressive lords in a bid for freedom and social reform.  This was a pivotal and cataclysmic moment in European history, as transformative as the French Revolution and as deadly as World War I. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by

Versailles: Science & Splendour

Feb 12 2025 33 mins  
The opulent halls of 17th and 18th-century Versailles were not just filled with dazzlingly dressed courtiers and royal intrigue. They also positively buzzed with scientific discovery and innovation, making the French royal court a crossroads of science and power. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb visits a fascinating exhibition at London's Science Museum which peels back the gilded

Nell Gwyn: Actress and Royal Mistress

Feb 09 2025 56 mins  
How did a lowly orange seller become the most famous actress of her time and mistress of King Charles II?In 1660, King Charles II ruled that female stage roles must be played by women, leading to the rise of the 'Covent Garden Goddesses'. As a result, Nell Gwyn - born 375 years ago this month - went from being a humble orange seller to a celebrated actress and Charles II's most end

Rene Descartes

Feb 05 2025 36 mins  
The famous saying "I think, therefore I am" was the cornerstone of the philosophy of Rene Descartes, who died 375 years ago this month at the age of 53. His groundbreaking ideas shaped Western thought and continue to influence our understanding of existence, knowledge and the nature of reality. Descartes' ground-breaking approach involved questioning all beliefs to determine those