Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things

Oct 01 2024 37 ep. 41 mins 156
Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things Podcast artwork

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, this series delves into royal history's juiciest moments from eras past, and present... but mainly past.

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell

Looking for episodes of The Crown: Fact or Fiction? Just scroll down.

  History  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


The Princes in the Tower

Oct 01 2024 41 mins  
This week – in the final episode of Season One – Robert and Kate tackle one of history's most scandalous, unsolved mysteries: what on earth happened to the Princes in the Tower? The disappearance of Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, has sparked centuries of speculation. Were they murdered, and if so, by whom? Was it Richard III – their own uncle, and

The Royal massacre you've never heard of

Sep 24 2024 34 mins  
The Nepalese Massacre was one of the most dramatic, bloody royal events to ever happen – and the chances are that most listeners won’t have heard of it. On a summer’s evening in Kathmandu in 2001, Nepal’s royal family was almost entirely wiped out, in a single night. Hours later, the alleged killer lay in a hospital bed in a coma, having been proclaimed King the moment th

The Duke of Cumberland and the slit throat mystery!

Sep 17 2024 27 mins  
On 31st May 1810, the Duke of Cumberland – George III’s fifth child, and notorious 19th Century wrong’un – was attacked while asleep in his apartments in St James’ Palace. And, hours later, one of the Duke’s valets, Joseph Sellis, was found dead in his room. His throat had been cut with a razor. It was a grisly crime scene. Sellis’ head was nearly severed from his b

Was Anne Boleyn unfaithful?

Sep 10 2024 43 mins  
This week Robert and Kate tackle one of history's biggest questions: was Anne Boleyn guilty of everything that Henry VIII accused her of? Over the centuries, historians have spilt vast quantities of ink dissecting the evidence, the political intrigue, and the motives behind the charges that led to Anne's tragic demise. Robert and Kate explore the wider context of Anne’s astrono

Did Rasputin really cause the Russian Revolution?

Sep 04 2024 43 mins  
Despite being immortalised in the iconic song by Boney M, the life and death of Grigory Rasputin remains shrouded in mythology and mystery. A mystic healer, political saboteur, and renegade monk, Rasputin’s life – and his ‘member’ – casts a long shadow over Russian history, not least in the questions surrounding his role in formenting the opposition to the Russian Tsar th

Charles II: Britain’s sex-mad monarch?

Aug 27 2024 40 mins  
Charles II's sexual appetite was infamously compared to a racehorse, and he revelled in reversing the social strictures that Oliver Cromwell had strictly enforced during the Interregnum. Unsurprisingly, Charles II had mistresses. And lots of them. But Charles II’s mistresses were so much more than footnotes in a new era of frivolity, parties and hedonism – many of these women

Did a diamond necklace end the French monarchy?

Aug 20 2024 46 mins  
What do you get when you mix a $20 million diamond necklace; a sycophantic cardinal; a con-artist; and Marie Antoinette? Only one of French history’s biggest royal scandals – a scandal that, arguably, led to the abolition of nearly a thousand years of French monarchy and the demise of France's final two monarchs on the guillotine. Join Kate Williams and Robert Hardman for a r

James II and his fake heir scandal!

Aug 13 2024 35 mins  
On June 10 1688, Queen Mary of Modena, the Catholic wife of James II, gave birth to a son, James Francis Stewart. Or did she? Join Kate Williams and Robert Hardman as they dive into one of royal history’s juiciest, and often forgotten, scandals: an event that should have been a joyous moment (a male heir - hurrah!) but one that instead unleashed a chain of events that would le

Did Queen Victoria secretly marry her servant?

Aug 06 2024 37 mins  
Did Queen Victoria find comfort and love in the arms of a servant following the death of Prince Albert? What can we conclude from the Queen’s disregard for public, parliamentary and family concern about her close relationship with John Brown, the Scottish servant who found himself resident at Buckingham Palace? And, was the Queen so devoted to John Brown that they secretly marrie

Did Mary Queen of Scots murder her husband?

Aug 05 2024 40 mins  
When the peace of an Edinburgh night is shattered by an explosion and the Queen of Scotland’s husband is found dead, but no murderer can be found, the question is not only who killed the King Consort but why? Join Professor Kate Williams and Robert Hardman as they uncover the suspects, the events and the motives behind a murder that definitively changed the course of Mary Queen