Podcast appearances and mentions of Henry VII

The Untold Story of Sir Reginald Bray - He wasn't a king… but he helped make one. Sir Reginald Bray may not be a household name, but this quiet powerhouse of the Tudor court knew Henry VII from boyhood, helped plan the invasion that toppled Richard III, and then served as one of the most powerful men in England. - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Spymaster - Master of royal revenues - Patron of grand Tudor architecture - Head of the dreaded Council Learned in the Law From buying young Henry Tudor his first bow and arrows… to financing the very rebellion that launched a dynasty… to managing the wealth and secrets of a king — Bray was everywhere. In this episode of On This Day in Tudor History, I explore the fascinating life and legacy of Sir Reginald Bray, who died on 5 August 1503. Discover the man behind the monarch — the loyal servant who helped build the Tudor world from the shadows. Watch now to learn how one administrator helped shape a dynasty. Like, subscribe, and comment: Had you heard of Reginald Bray before today? Want even more hidden Tudor figures and behind-the-scenes power players? Browse the channel and join my Tudor inner circle through memberships! #TudorHistory #OnThisDay #HenryVII #SirReginaldBray #MargaretBeaufort #BattleOfBosworth #TudorCourt #ClaireRidgway #TudorSecrets #HistoryYouTube #HiddenFigures #TudorDynasty

He didn't wear a crown… but his choice may have changed the course of English history. On 29th July 1504, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, died quietly at his manor in Lancashire. But nearly two decades earlier, at the bloody Battle of Bosworth, his decision to support his stepson — Henry Tudor — was a turning point in English history, ending centuries of Plantagenet rule and beginning the Tudor era. Some say he stood back and watched until the moment was right. Others claim he crowned Henry on the battlefield with Richard's fallen crown. Was Thomas Stanley a loyal stepfather… or a master manipulator who waited to see which way the wind would blow? In this episode of On This Day in Tudor History,I take you beyond the battlefield drama to explore: Stanley's powerful family background and early royal service His two politically significant marriages — including to Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII's mother His pivotal role at Bosworth and its aftermath Why he became Earl of Derby and godfather to Prince Arthur And whether he was a kingmaker… or just playing both sides to stay on top He may have moved in the background, but his actions helped shape the Tudor dynasty. Listen now to discover the real Thomas Stanley — and decide for yourself whether he was loyal, opportunistic… or both. #TudorHistory #OnThisDay #ThomasStanley #BattleOfBosworth #HenryVII #MargaretBeaufort #TudorDynasty #ClaireRidgway #AnneBoleynFiles #RoyalHistory #Plantagenets #YorkvsLancaster #TudorNerds

What if I told you that England's very first official voyage of exploration to the New World didn't begin in London—or even under an Englishman's command? Join me, Claire Ridgway, historian and author, as I tell you about "The Matthew", the tiny replica ship moored in Bristol that once carried explorer John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) across the Atlantic in 1497. Backed by Henry VII, Cabot's bold journey from Bristol to the coast of North America marked the quiet beginnings of England's imperial story—decades before Henry VIII or Elizabeth I ever dreamed of global power. In this episode, we'll uncover: - How Cabot persuaded Henry VII to fund his voyage (well… sort of!) - Why this humble 50-ton ship was key to England's first steps toward overseas discovery - What Cabot found—and why his landing was more significant than he realised - The legacy of The Matthew, its 1997 commemorative voyage, and how Bristol remembers its most daring sailor Learn more at https://matthew.co.uk Like, comment, and subscribe for more untold Tudor tales every week. Had you heard of John Cabot before? Let me know in the comments! #JohnCabot #TudorHistory #TheMatthew #BristolHistory #MaritimeHistory #HenryVII #AnneBoleynFiles #BritishHistory #TudorTok #OnThisDay #HistoryTok #Newfoundland #AgeOfExploration #CabotVoyage #TudorAdventure

John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton   This Tudor baron backed the losing side again and again… and still kept his head. Today, I'm exploring the incredible life of John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton — a nobleman who seemed to have nine lives. He fought at Towton, rebelled against Edward IV, supported Richard III, backed the pretender Lambert Simnel against Henry VII, and even attacked York... And yet, he was pardoned. Every. Single. Time. So, how did he do it? Was Scrope a master strategist, politically untouchable, or just plain lucky? Join me as I uncover: - Scrope's wild ride through the Wars of the Roses - His rebellion, capture, and miraculous reprieves - The secret to his Tudor survival streak Let me know in the comments — was Scrope savvy, slippery, or just well-connected? Don't forget to like, subscribe, and ring that bell for more Tudor tales like this one. #JohnScrope #TudorHistory #WarsOfTheRoses #HenryVII #RichardIII #LambertSimnel #AnneBoleynFiles #HistoryNerd #MedievalSurvivor #OnThisDay #BritishHistory

They crowned Henry VII, flirted with rebellion, backed Shakespeare, and somehow kept their heads through centuries of chaos. This week, we're diving into the story of the Stanley family, the ultimate survivors of Tudor and Stuart England.Related episode on Eleanor Clifford: https://youtu.be/wkRUjLpH0a0Go to https://www.englandcast.com/TudorconFromHome to come to Tudorcon from anywhere or https://www.englandcast.com/Tudorcon to come in person to Richmond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Talking Tudors, hosted by Natalie Grueninger we delve into the fascinating childhoods of the children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Our guest, Aimee Fleming, a historian and author, shares insights from her new book about the early lives of these Tudor princes and princesses. Discover how their upbringing and education shaped their futures and learn about the personal anecdotes and historical events that influenced their development. Fleming discusses the political union of Henry and Elizabeth and its impact on their children, the royal parental involvement in their early years, and the bittersweet world of promise and loss during the Tudor era. Join the discussion as we explore the complexities of their educations, the unique perspectives on their siblings' relationships, and the choices they made as adults influenced by their early experiences. Don't miss Fleming's fascinating insights into the royal Tudor family dynamics and personal histories. Visit Aimee's official website https://historyaimee.wordpress.com/ Find out more about your host at https://www.nataliegrueninger.com Join me for 'A Weekend with Elizabeth Woodville' https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1406864592869?aff=oddtdtcreator Support Talking Tudors on Patreon

Why were Henry VIII and Elizabeth I part of a dynasty called “Tudor”?  In this podcast, historian and author Claire Ridgway explores the fascinating Welsh origins of the name Tudor—from its Brythonic meaning to how a noble family from Anglesey became one of the most famous royal houses in English history. Discover how: - The name “Tudor” evolved from patronymic Welsh naming traditions - Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur rose from Welsh nobility to royal service - His descendants shaped the Tudor dynasty - Henry VII proudly claimed his Welsh heritage in his rise to power - And why he used a red dragon in his arms From rebellion and exile to royal marriage and the Battle of Bosworth—this is the real story behind the name Tudor. Did you know the Tudors were Welsh? Share your favourite Tudor trivia in the comments! Subscribe for more Tudor deep-dives every week! #TudorHistory #WelshHistory #HenryVII #ElizabethI #TudorDynasty #OwenTudor #ClaireRidgway #BritishMonarchy #RoyalHistory #HouseOfTudor

In this episode, Charlie Higson shines a light on the life of Margaret Beaufort, a really extraordinary woman who was a major figure in the Wars Of The Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of Henry VII the first Tudor monarch.But she was so much more than that, and became instrumental in orchestrating the rise to power of the Tudor dynasty. To help Charlie tell her incredible story, he welcomes Amy Licence back to the podcast. Amy has written extensively about this period, including the book "Tudor roses – from Margaret Beaufort to Elizabeth I." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this brand-new episode of Willy Willy Harry Stee Charlie Higson is looking at Jasper Tudor.Although he's a name that doesn't spring to many people's lips in everyday conversation, he is a fascinating and important character, describing himself as brother and uncle of kings, his nephew being Henry VII, father of the most infamous Tudor of them all, Henry VIII.To help Charlie unwrap Jasper's life and influence, Charlie welcomes Nathan Amin back to the podcast, author of Son of Prophecy, the Rise of Henry Tudor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is Conveyancing Still Stuck in the 1600s? Russell Quirk's Bold Take on the Property Market... In this thought provoking episode, property expert Russell Quirk challenges the UK's conveyancing system, asking why the process still feels like it's from the 1600s. Despite advances in technology, conveyancing remains stubbornly slow and outdated, with many practitioners sticking to traditional methods that delay property transactions. Russell takes us through the fascinating history of conveyancing, which dates back to the reign of Henry VII, and argues that, while modern tools and compliance are in place, the core processes remain virtually unchanged. He explains how many conveyancers still approach transactions in a disjointed, sequential way that leads to unnecessary delays, despite the availability of digital solutions that could streamline the process. As someone deeply embedded in the property world, Russell's call to action is clear: the industry needs to evolve, or risk being overtaken by government mandated changes. Listen to this episode to hear his bold opinions and see how embracing change could transform the way we work in property.

Henry VIII had six wives, but he also had two sisters, and these sisters seldom get the attention they deserve. The younger was Princess Mary, the youngest child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York to reach adulthood. Mary was famed for her beauty but also the scandal caused by her second marriage to Charles Brandon, a marriage from which Lady Jane Grey traced her direct descent. To discuss Mary and her story with me today, I am pleased to welcome Amy McElroy onto the podcast for the first time. We discuss Mary's early life, her short-lived marriage to the French king, whether there is any truth in the theory that Mary introduced the French hood into England, plus much more!

I was delighted to talk to the historian Helen Castor (who writes The H Files by Helen Castor) about her new book The Eagle and the Hart. I found that book compulsive, and this is one of my favourite interviews so far. We covered so much: Dickens, Melville, Diana Wynne Jones, Hilary Mantel, whether Edward III is to blame for the Wars of the Roses, why Bolingbroke did the right thing, the Paston Letters, whether we should dig up old tombs for research, leaving academia, Elizabeth I, and, of course, lots of Shakespeare. There is a full transcript below.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Helen told me what is hardest to imagine about life in the fourteenth century.I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Good news to any publishers reading this. Helen is ready and willing to produce a complete edition of the Paston Letters. They were a bestseller when they were published a hundred years ago, but we are crying out for a complete edition in modern English.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that.Full TranscriptHenry: Today I am talking to the historian, Helen Castor. Helen is a former fellow of Sydney Sussex College in Cambridge. She has written several books of history. She is now a public historian, and of course, she has a Substack. The H Files by Helen CastorWe are going to talk mostly about her book, The Eagle and the Hart, which is all about Richard II and Henry IV. I found this book compulsive, so I hope you will read it too. Helen, welcome.Helen: Thank you very much for having me, Henry.Henry: You recently read Bleak House.Helen: I did.Henry: What did you think?Helen: I absolutely loved it. It was a long time since I'd read any Dickens. I read quite a lot when I was young. I read quite a lot of everything when I was young and have fallen off that reader's perch, much to my shame. The first page, that description of the London fog, the London courts, and I thought, "Why have I not been doing it for all these years?"Then I remembered, as so often with Dickens, the bits I love and the bits I'm less fond of, the sentimentality, the grotesquerie I'm less fond of, but the humour and the writing. There was one bit that I have not been able to read then or any of the times I've tried since without physically sobbing. It's a long time since a book has done that to me. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, but--Henry: I'm sure I know what you mean. That's quite a sentimental passage.Helen: It is, but not sentimental in the way that I find myself objecting to. I think I really respond viscerally to this sentimentalising of some of his young women characters. I find that really off-putting, but I think now I'm a parent, and particularly I'm a parent of a boy [laughter]. I think it's that sense of a child being completely alone with no one to look after them, and then finding some people, but too late for a happy ending.Henry: Too late.Helen: Yes.Henry: You've been reading other classic novels, I think, Moby Dick?Helen: I'm in the middle of Moby Dick as we speak. I'm going very slowly, partly because I'm trying to savour every sentence. I love the sentence so much as a form. Melville is just astonishing, and also very, very funny in a way I hadn't expected to keep laughing out loud, sometimes because there is such humour in a sentence.Sometimes I'm just laughing because the sentence itself seems to have such audacity and that willingness to go places with sentences that sometimes I feel we've lost in the sort of sense of rules-based sentences instead of just sticking a semicolon and keep going. Why not, because it's so gorgeous and full of the joy of language at that point? Anyway, I'm ranting now, but--Henry: No, I think a lot of rules were instituted in the early 20th century that said you can and cannot do all these things, and writers before that point had not often followed those rules. I think what it has led to is that writers now, they can't really control a long sentence, in the sense that Melville and Dickens will do a long sentence, and it is a syntactically coherent thing, even though it's 60, 70 longer words. It's not just lots of stuff, and then, and then. The whole thing has got a beautiful structure that makes sense as a unit. That's just not obvious in a lot of writing now.Helen: I think that's exactly right. Partly, I've been reading some of the Melville out loud, and having just got onto the classification of whales, you can see I'm going very slowly. Those sentences, which are so long, but it's exactly that. If you read them out loud, and you follow the sense, and the punctuation, however irregular it might be in modern terms, gives you the breathing, you just flow on it, and the excitement of that, even or perhaps especially when one is talking about the classification of whales. Just joyful.Henry: Will we be seeing more very long sentences in your next book?Helen: I think I have to get a bit better at it. The habit that I was conscious of anyway, but became acutely so when I had to read my own audiobook for the first time is that I think I write in a very visual way. That is how I read because mostly it's silent.I discovered or rediscovered that often what I do when I want to write a very long sentence is I start the sentence and then I put a diversion or extra information within em dashes in the middle of the sentence. That works on the page because you can see spatially. I love that way of reading, I love seeing words in space.A lot of different kinds of text, both prose and poetry, I read in space like that. If you're reading to be heard, then the difficulty of breaking into a sentence with, whether it's brackets or em dashes or whatever, and then rejoining the sentence further down has its own challenges. Perhaps I ought to try and do less of that and experiment more with a Melvillian Dickensian onward flow. I don't know what my editor will think.Henry: What has brought you back to reading novels like this?Helen: I was wondering that this morning, actually, because I'm very aware having joined Substack, and of course, your Substack is one of the ones that is leading me further in this direction, very inspiringly, is discovering that lots of other people are reading and reading long novels now too. It reminded me of that thing that anyone with children will know that you have a baby and you call it something that you think only you have thought of, and then four years later, you call and you discover half the class is called that name. You wonder what was in the water that led everybody in that direction.I've just seen someone tweet this morning about how inspired they are by the builder next door who, on the scaffolding, is blasting the audiobook Middlemarch to the whole neighborhood.Henry: Oh my god. Amazing.Helen: It's really happening. Insofar as I can work out what led me as opposed to following a group, which clearly I am in some sense, I think the world at the moment is so disquieting, and depressing, and unnerving, that I think for me, there was a wish to escape into another world and another world that would be very immersive, not removed from this world completely. One that is very recognizably human.I think when I was younger, when I was in my teens and 20s, I loved reading science fiction and fantasy before it was such a genre as it is now. I'm a huge fan of Diana Wynne Jones and people like that.Henry: Oh, my god, same. Which one is your favorite?Helen: Oh, that is an impossible question to answer, partly because I want to go back and read a lot of them. Actually, I've got something next to me, just to get some obscurity points. I want to go back to Everard's Ride because there is a story in here that is based on the King's square. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but early 15th century, the story of the imprisoned King of Scotland when he was in prison in England. That one's in my head.The Dalemark Quartet I love because of the sort of medieval, but then I love the ones that are pure, more science fantasy. Which is your favorite? Which should I go back to first?Henry: I haven't read them all because I only started a couple of years ago. I just read Deep Secret, and I thought that was really excellent. I was in Bristol when I read it quite unwittingly. That was wonderful.Helen: Surrounded by Diana Wynne Jones' land. I only discovered many years into an obsession that just meant that I would read every new one while there were still new ones coming out. I sat next to Colin Burrow at a dinner in--Henry: Oh my god.Helen: I did sort of know that he was her son, but monstered him for the whole time, the whole course of sitting together, because I couldn't quite imagine her in a domestic setting, if you like, because she came up with all these extraordinary worlds. I think in days gone by, I went into more obviously imaginary worlds. I think coming back to it now, I wanted something big and something that I really could disappear into. I've been told to read Bleak House for so many decades and felt so ashamed I hadn't. Having done that, I thought, "Well, the whale."Henry: Have you read Diana Wynne Jones' husband's books, John Burrow? Because that's more in your field.Helen: It is, although I'm ashamed to say how badly read I am in medieval literary scholarship. It's weird how these academic silos can operate, shouldn't, probably don't for many, many people. I always feel I'm on horribly thin ground, thin ice when I start talking about medieval literature because I know how much scholarship is out there, and I know how much I haven't read. I must put John Burrow on my list as well.Henry: He's very readable. He's excellent.Helen: I think I can imagine, but I must go into it.Henry: Also, his books are refreshingly short. Your husband is a poet, so there's a lot of literature in your life at the moment.Helen: There is. When we met, which was 10 years ago-- Again, I don't think of myself as knowledgeable about poetry in general, but what was wonderful was discovering how much we had in common in the writing process and how much I could learn from him. To me, one of the things that has always been extremely important in my writing is the sentence, the sound of a sentence, the rhythm of a sentence folded into a paragraph.I find it extremely hard to move on from a paragraph if it's not sitting right yet. The sitting right is as much to do with sound and rhythm as it is to do with content. The content has to be right. It means I'm a nightmare to edit because once I do move on from a paragraph, I think it's finished. Obviously, my editor might beg to differ.I'm very grateful to Thomas Penn, who's also a wonderful historian, who's my editor on this last book, for being so patient with my recalcitrance as an editee. Talking to my husband about words in space on the page, about the rhythm, about the sound, about how he goes about writing has been so valuable and illuminating.I hope that the reading I've been doing, the other thing I should say about going back to big 19th-century novels is that, of course, I had the enormous privilege and learning curve of being part of a Booker jury panel three years ago. That too was an enormous kick in terms of reading and thinking about reading because my co-judges were such phenomenal reading company, and I learned such a lot that year.I feel not only I hope growing as a historian, but I am really, really focusing on writing, reading, being forced out of my bunker where writing is all on the page, starting to think about sound more, think about hearing more, because I think more and more, we are reading that way as a culture, it seems to me, the growth of audiobooks. My mother is adjusting to audiobooks now, and it's so interesting to listen to her as a lifelong, voracious reader, adjusting to what it is to experience a book through sound rather than on the page. I just think it's all fascinating, and I'm trying to learn as I write.Henry: I've been experimenting with audiobooks, because I felt like I had to, and I sort of typically hate audio anything. Jonathan Swift is very good, and so is Diana Wynne Jones.Helen: Interesting. Those two specifically. Is there something that connects the two of them, or are they separately good?Henry: I think they both wrote in a plain, colloquial style. It was very capable of being quite intellectual and had capacity for ideas. Diana Wynne Jones certainly took care about the way it sounded because she read so much to her own children, and that was really when she first read all the children's classics. She had developed for many years an understanding of what would sound good when it was read to a child, I think.Helen: And so that's the voice in her head.Henry: Indeed. As you read her essays, she talks about living with her Welsh grandfather for a year. He was intoning in the chapel, and she sort of comes out of this culture as well.Helen: Then Swift, a much more oral culture.Henry: Swift, of course, is in a very print-heavy culture because he's in London in 1710. We've got coffee houses and all the examiner, and the spectator, and all these people scribbling about each other. I think he was very insistent on what he called proper words in proper places. He became famous for that plain style. It's very carefully done, and you can't go wrong reading that out loud. He's very considerate of the reader that you won't suddenly go, "Oh, I'm in the middle of this huge parenthesis. I don't know how--" As you were saying, Swift-- he would be very deliberate about the placement of everything.Helen: A lot of that has to do with rhythm.Henry: Yes.Helen: Doesn't it? I suppose what I'm wondering, being very ignorant about the 18th century is, in a print-saturated culture, but still one where literacy was less universal than now, are we to assume that that print-saturated culture also incorporated reading out loud —Henry: Yes, exactly so. Exactly so. If you are at home, letters are read out loud. This obviously gives the novelists great opportunities to write letters that have to sort of work both ways. Novels are read out loud. This goes on into the 19th century. Dickens had many illiterate fans who knew his work through it being read to them. Charles Darwin's wife read him novels. When he says, "I love novels," what he means is, "I love it when my wife reads me a novel." [laughs]You're absolutely right. A good part of your audience would come from those listening as well as those reading it.Helen: Maybe we're getting back towards a new version of that with audiobooks expanding in their reach.Henry: I don't know. I saw some interesting stuff. I can't remember who was saying this. Someone was saying, "It's not an oral culture if you're watching short videos. That's a different sort of culture." I think, for us, we can say, "Oh yes, we're like Jonathan Swift," but for the culture at large, I don't know. It is an interesting mixed picture at the moment.Helen: Yes, history never repeats, but we should be wary of writing off any part of culture to do with words.Henry: I think so. If people are reporting builders irritating the neighbourhood with George Eliot, then it's a very mixed picture, right?Helen: It is.Henry: Last literary question. Hilary Mantel has been a big influence on you. What have you taken from her?Helen: That's quite a hard question to answer because I feel I just sit at her feet in awe. If I could point to anything in my writing that could live up to her, I would be very happy. The word that's coming into my head when you phrase the question in that way, I suppose, might be an absolute commitment to precision. Precision in language matters to me so much. Her thought and her writing of whatever kind seems to me to be so precise.Listening to interviews with her is such an outrageous experience because these beautifully, entirely formed sentences come out of her mouth as though that's how thought and language work. They don't for me. [chuckles] I'm talking about her in the present tense because I didn't know her, but I find it hard to imagine that she's not out there somewhere.Henry: She liked ghosts. She might be with us.Helen: She might. I would like to think that. Her writing of whatever genre always seems to me to have that precision, and it's precision of language that mirrors precision of thought, including the ability to imagine herself into somebody else's mind. That's, I suppose, my project as a historian. I'm always trying to experience a lost world through the eyes of a lost person or people, which, of course, when you put it like that, is an impossible task, but she makes it seem possible for her anyway and that's the road I'm attempting to travel one way or another.Henry: What is it about the 14th and 15th centuries that is hardest for us to imagine?Helen: I think this speaks to something else that Hilary Mantel does so extraordinarily well, which is to show us entire human beings who live and breathe and think and feel just as we do in as complex and contradictory and three-dimensional a way as we do, and yet who live in a world that is stripped of so many of the things that we take so much for granted that we find it, I think, hard to imagine how one could function without them.What I've always loved about the late Middle Ages, as a political historian, which is what I think of myself as, is that it has in England such a complex and sophisticated system of government, but one that operates so overwhelmingly through human beings, rather than impersonal, institutionalized, technological structures.You have a king who is the fount of all authority, exercising an extraordinary degree of control over a whole country, but without telephones, without motorized transport, without a professional police service, without a standing army. If we strip away from our understanding of government, all those things, then how on earth does society happen, does rule happen, does government happen?I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Henry: Good. You went to the RSC to watch The Henriad in 2013.Helen: I did.Henry: Is Shakespeare a big influence on this book? How did that affect you?Helen: I suppose this is a long story because Richard II and The Henriad have been-- there is Richard II. Richard II is part of The Henriad, isn't it?Henry: Yes.Helen: Richard II. Henry, see, this is-Henry: The two Henry IVs.Helen: -I'm not Shakespearean. I am. [laughs]Henry: No, it's Richard II, the two Henry IVs, and Henry V. Because, of course, Henry Bolingbroke is in Richard II, and it--Helen: Yes, although I never think of him as really the same person as Henry IV in the Henry IV plays, because he changes so dramatically between the two.Henry: Very often, they have a young actor and an old actor, and of course, in real life, that's insane, right?Helen: It's absolutely insane. I always separate Henry IV, parts I and II, and Henry V off from Richard II because it feels to me as though they operate in rather different worlds, which they do in lots of ways. My story with the Henry ad, now that we've established that I actually know what we're talking about, goes back to when I was in my teens and Kenneth Branagh was playing Henry V in Stratford. I grew up very near Stratford.At 15, 16, watching the young Branagh play Henry V was mind-blowing. I went a whole number of times because, in those days, I don't know how it is now, but you could go and get standing tickets for a fiver on the day. More often than not, if there were spare seats, you would get moved into some extraordinary stall seats at-- I was about to say halftime, I'm a football fan, at the interval.Henry V was the play I knew best for a long time, but at the same time, I'd studied Richard II at school. The Henry IV plays are the ones I know least well. I'm interested now to reflect on the fact that they are the ones that depart most from history. I wonder whether that's why I find them hardest to love, because I'm always coming to the plays from the history. Richard II and Henry V actually have a lot to show us about those kings. They bear very close relationships with a lot of the contemporary chronicles, whereas the Henry IV ones is Shakespeare doing his own thing much more.Particularly, as you've just said, making Henry IV way too old, and/or depending which angle we're looking at it from, making Hotspur way too young, the real Hotspur was three years older than Henry IV. If you want to make Hotspur and how-- your young Turks, you have to make Henry IV old and grey and weary with Northumberland.Back in 2013, the really intense experience I had was being asked to go for a day to join the RSC company on a school trip to Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey at the beginning of their rehearsal process, so when David Tennant was playing Richard II and Greg Doran was directing. That was absolutely fascinating. I'd been thinking about Richard and Henry for a very long time. Obviously, I was a long way away from writing the book I've just written.Talking to actors is an extraordinary thing for a historian because, of course, to them, these are living characters. They want to know what's in their character's mind. They want to know, quite rightly, the chronological progression of their character's thought. That is something that's become more and more and more and more important to me.The longer I go on writing history, the more intensely attached I am to the need for chronology because if it hasn't happened to your protagonist yet, what are you doing with it? Your protagonist doesn't yet know. We don't know. It's very dramatically clear to us at the moment that we don't know what's happening tomorrow. Any number of outrageous and unpredictable things might happen tomorrow.The same certainly was true in Richard II's reign, goes on being true in Henry IV's reign. That experience, in the wake of which I then went to see Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 in Stratford, was really thought-provoking. The extent to which, even though I'd been working on this period for a long time, and had taught this period, I still was struggling to answer some of those questions.Then I'd just had the similarly amazing experience of having a meeting with the Richard II cast and director at the Bridge Theatre before the Nicholas Heitner production with Jonathan Bailey as Richard went on stage. That was actually towards the end of their rehearsal process. I was so struck that the actor playing Bolingbroke in this production and the actor playing Bolingbroke in the production back in 2013 both asked the same excellent first question, which is so hard for a historian to answer, which is at what point does Bolingbroke decide that he's coming back to claim the crown, not just the Duchy of Lancaster?That is a key question for Bolingbroke in Richard II. Does he already know when he decides he's going to break his exile and come back? Is he challenging for the crown straight away, or is he just coming back for his rightful inheritance with the Duchy of Lancaster? That is the million-dollar question when you're writing about Bolingbroke in 1399.It's not possible to answer with a smoking gun. We don't have a letter or a diary entry from Henry Bolingbroke as he's about to step on board ship in Boulogne saying, "I'm saying I'm coming back for the Duchy of Lancaster." The unfolding logic of his situation is that if he's going to come back at all, he's going to have to claim the crown. When he admits that to himself, and when he admits that to anybody else, are questions we can argue about.It was so interesting to me that that's the question that Shakespeare's Richard II throws up for his Bolingbroke just as much as it does for the historical one.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Henry: When I left your book, the one thing I thought was that in Shakespeare, the nobles turn against Richard because of his excesses. Obviously, he really dramatizes that around the death of Gaunt. From your book, you may disagree with this, I came away thinking, well, the nobles wanted more power all the time. They may not have wanted the king's power, but there was this constant thing of the nobles feeling like they were owed more authority.Helen: I think the nobles always want more power because they are ambitious, competitive men within a political structure that rewards ambition and competition. The crucial thing for them is that they can only safely pursue ambition and competition if they know that the structure they're competing within will hold.The thing that keeps that structure rooted and solidly in place is the crown and the things that the crown is there to uphold, namely, particularly, the rule of law because if the rule of law starts to crumble, then the risk is that the whole structure collapses into anarchy. Within anarchy, then a powerful man cannot safely compete for more power because an even more powerful man might be about to roll into his estates and take them over. There have to be rules. There has to be fair competition. The referee is there on a football pitch for a reason.The king, in some senses, whether you want to see him as the keystone in an arch that supports a building or whether he's a referee on a football pitch, there are reasons why powerful men need rules because rules uphold their power. What goes wrong with Richard is that instead of seeing that he and the nobles have a common interest in keeping this structure standing, and that actually he can become more powerful if he works with and through the nobles, he sees them as a threat to him.He's attempting to establish a power structure that will not be beholden to them. In so doing, he becomes a threat to them. This structure that is supposed to stand as one mutually supportive thing is beginning to tear itself apart. That is why Richard's treatment of Bolingbroke becomes such a crucial catalyst, because what Richard does to Bolingbroke is unlawful in a very real and very technical sense. Bolingbroke has not been convicted of any crime. He's not been properly tried. There's been this trial by combat, the duel with Mowbray, but it hasn't stopped arbitrarily, and an arbitrary punishment visited upon both of them. They're both being exiled without having been found guilty, without the judgment of God speaking through this duel.Richard then promises that Bolingbroke can have his inheritance, even though he's in exile. As soon as Gaunt dies, Richard says, "No, I'm having it." Now, all of that is unlawful treatment of Bolingbroke, but because Bolingbroke is the most powerful nobleman in the country, it is also a warning and a threat to every other member of the political classes that if the king takes against you, then his arbitrary will can override the law.That diagnosis is there in Shakespeare. It's the Duke of York, who in reality was just a completely hopeless, wet figure, but he says, and I've got it written down, keep it beside me.Henry: Very nice.Helen: Kind of ridiculous, but here it is. York says to Richard, "Take Herford's rights away and take from time his charters and his customary rights. Let not tomorrow then ensue today. Be not thyself, for how art thou a king, but by fair sequence and succession?" In other words, if you interfere with, and I know you've written about time in these plays, it's absolutely crucial.Part of the process of time in these plays is that the rules play out over time. Any one individual king must not break those rules so that the expected process of succession over time can take place. York's warning comes true, that Richard is unseating himself by seeking to unseat Bolingbroke from his inheritance.Henry: We give Shakespeare good marks as a historian.Helen: In this play, yes, absolutely. The things he tinkers with in Richard II are minor plot points. He compresses time in order to get it all on stage in a plausible sequence of events. He compresses two queens into one, given that Richard was married to, by the time he fell, a nine-year-old who he'd married when he was six. It's harder to have a six-year-old making speeches on stage, so he puts the two queens into one.Henry: You don't want to pay another actor.Helen: Exactly.Henry: It's expensive.Helen: You don't want children and animals on stage. Although there is a wonderful account of a production of Richard II on stage in the West End in 1901, with the Australian actor Oscar Asche in it, playing Bolingbroke. The duel scene, he had full armour and a horse, opening night. It was a different horse from the one he rehearsed with. He gives an account in his autobiography of this horse rearing and him somersaulting heroically off the horse.Henry: Oh my god.Helen: The curtain having to come down and then it going back up again to tumultuous applause. You think, "Oscar, I'm wondering whether you're over-egging this pudding." Anyway, I give Shakespeare very good marks in Richard II, not really in the Henry IV plays, but gets back on track.Henry: The Henry IV plays are so good, we're forgiven. Was Richard II a prototype Henry VIII?Helen: Yes. Although, of course, history doesn't work forwards like that. I always worry about being a historian, talking about prototypes, if you see what I mean, but--Henry: No, this is just some podcast, so we don't have to be too strict. He's over-mighty, his sense of his relationship to God. There are issues in parliament about, "How much can the Pope tell us what to do?" There are certain things that seem to be inherent in the way the British state conceives of itself at this point that become problematic in another way.Helen: Is this pushing it too far to say Richard is a second son who ends up being the lone precious heir to the throne who must be wrapped in cotton wool to ensure that his unique God-given authority is protected? Also describes Henry VIII.Henry: They both like fancy clothes.Helen: Both like fancy clothes. Charles I is also a second son who has to step up.Henry: With wonderful cuffs and collars. He's another big dresser.Helen: And great patrons of art. I think we're developing new historical--Henry: No, I think there's a whole thing here.Helen: I think there is. What Henry does, of course, in rather different, because a lot has changed thanks to the Wars of the Roses, the power of the nobility to stand up independently of the crown is significantly lessened by the political effects of the Wars of the Roses, not at least that a lot of them have had their heads cut off, or died in battle, and the Tudors are busy making sure that they remain in the newly subjected place that they find themselves in.Henry then finds to go back to Hilary Mantel, a very, very able political servant who works out how to use parliament for him in rejecting those extra English powers that might restrain him. I do always wonder what Richard thought he was going to do if he'd succeeded in becoming Holy Roman Emperor, which I take very seriously as a proposition from Richard.Most other historians, because it's so patently ridiculous, if you look at it from a European perspective, have just said, "Oh, he got this idea that he wanted to become Holy Roman Emperor," but, of course, it was never going to happen. In Richard's mind, I think it was extremely real. Whether he really would have tried to give the English crown to Rutland, his favorite by the end of the reign, while he went off in glory to be crowned by the Pope, I don't know what was in his head. The difference with Henry is that the ambitions he eventually conceives are very England-focused, and so he can make them happen.Henry: Is there some sort of argument that, if the king hadn't won the Wars of the Roses, and the nobility had flourished, and their sons hadn't been killed, the reformation would have just been much harder to pull off here?[silence]Helen: I wonder what that would have looked like, because in a sense, the king was always going to win the Wars of the Roses, in the sense that you have to have a king. The minute you had someone left standing after that mess, that protracted mess, if he knew what he was doing, and there are arguments about the extent to which Henry VII knew what he was doing, or was doing something very different, whether or not he knew it was different, but there was always going to be an opportunity for a king to assert himself after that.Particularly, the extent to which the lesser landowners, the gentry had realized they couldn't just rely on the nobility to protect them anymore. They couldn't just follow their lord into battle and abdicate responsibility.Henry: Okay.Helen: That's an interesting--Henry: How much should we blame Edward III for all of this?Helen: For living too long and having too many sons?Henry: My argument against Edward is the Hundred Years' War, it doesn't actually go that well by the end of his reign, and it's cost too much money. Too many dukes with too much power. It's not that he had too many sons, he elevates them all and creates this insane situation. The war itself starts to tip the balance between the king and parliament, and so now you've got it from the dukes, and from the other side, and he just didn't manage the succession at all.Even though his son has died, and it really needs some kind of-- He allowed. He should have known that he was allowing a vacuum to open up where there's competition from the nobles, and from parliament, and the finances are a mess, and this war isn't there. It's just… he just leaves a disaster, doesn't he?Helen: I think I'd want to reframe that a little bit. Perhaps, I'm too much the king's friend. I think the political, and in some senses, existential dilemma for a medieval king is that the best of all possible worlds is what Edward achieves in the 1340s and the 1350s, which is, fight a war for reasons that your subjects recognize as in the common interest, in the national interest. Fight it over there so that the lands that are being devastated and the villages and towns that are being burned are not yours. Bring back lots of plunder. Everybody's getting richer and feeling very victorious.You can harness parliament. When things are going well, a medieval king and a parliament are not rivals for power. An English king working with parliament is more powerful than an English king trying to work without parliament. If things are going well, he gets more money, he can pass laws, he can enforce his will more effectively. It's win-win-win if you're ticking all those boxes.As you're pointing out, the worst of all possible worlds is to be fighting a war that's going badly. To fight a war is a big risk because either you're going to end up winning and everything's great, or if it's going badly, then you'd rather be at peace. Of course, you're not necessarily in a position to negotiate peace, depending on the terms of the war you've established.Similarly, with sons, you want heirs. You want to know the succession is safe. I think Edward's younger sons would argue with you about setting up very powerful dukes because the younger ones really-- York and Gloucester, Edmund of Langley and Thomas of Woodstock, really didn't have much in the way of an estate given to them at all, and always felt very hard done by about that. John of Gaunt is set up very well because he's married off to the heir of the Duke of Lancaster who's handily died, leaving only daughters.Henry: That's the problem, isn't it, creating that sort of impact? John of Gaunt is far too rich and powerful.Helen: You say that, except he's unfeasibly loyal. Without Gaunt, disaster happens much, much, much earlier. Gaunt is putting all those resources into the project of propping up the English state and the English crown for way longer than Richard deserves, given that Richard's trying to murder him half the time in the 1380s.Henry: [laughs] For sure. No, I agree with you there, but from Edward III's point of view, it's a mistake to make one very powerful son another quite powerful son next to-- We still see this playing out in royal family dynamics.Helen: This is the problem. What is the perfect scenario in a hereditary system where you need an heir and a spare, but even there, the spare, if he doesn't get to be the heir, is often very disgruntled. [laughs] If he does get to be the heir, as we've just said, turns out to be overconvinced of his own-Henry: Oh, indeed, yes.Helen: -specialness. Then, if you have too many spares, you run into a different kind of problem. Equally, if you don't have a hereditary system, then you have an almighty battle, as the Anglo-Saxons often did, about who's actually going to get the crown in the next generation. It's a very tricky--Henry: Is England just inherently unstable? We've got the Black Death, France is going to be a problem, whatever happens. Who is really going to come to a good fiscal position in this situation? It's no one's fault. It's just there wasn't another way out.Helen: You could say that England's remarkably-- See, I'm just playing devil's advocate the whole time.Henry: No, good.Helen: You could say England is remarkably stable in the sense that England is very unusually centralized for a medieval state at this point. It's centralized in a way that works because it's small enough to govern. It's, broadly speaking, an island. You've got to deal with the Scotts border, but it's a relatively short border. Yes, you have powerful nobles, but they are powerful nobles who, by this stage, are locked into the state. They're locked into a unified system of law. The common law rules everyone. Everyone looks to Westminster.It's very different from what the King of France has been having to face, which has been having to push his authority outward from the Île-de-France, reconquer bits of France that the English have had for a long time, impose his authority over other princes of the realm in a context where there are different laws, there are different customs, there are different languages. You could say that France is in a much more difficult and unstable situation.Of course, what we see as the tide of the war turns again in the early 15th century is precisely that France collapses into civil war, and the English can make hay again in that situation. If Henry V had not died too young with not enough sons in 1423, and particularly, if he'd left a son who grew up to be any use at all, as opposed to absolutely none-- what am I saying? I'm saying that the structure of government in England could work astonishingly well given the luck of the right man at the helm. The right man at the helm had to understand his responsibilities at home, and he had to be capable of prosecuting a successful war abroad because that is how this state works best.As you've just pointed out, prosecuting a successful war abroad is an inherently unstable scenario because no war is ever going to go in your direction the entire time. That's what Richard, who has no interest in war at all is discovering, because once the tide of war is lapping at your own shores, instead of all happening over there, it's a very, very different prospect in terms of persuading parliament to pay for it, quite understandably.You talk about the Black Death. One of the extraordinary things is looking at England in 1348, 1349, when the Black Death hits. Probably, something approaching half the population dies in 18 months. If you're looking at the progress of the war, you barely notice it happened at all. What does the government do? It snaps into action and implements a maximum wage immediately, in case [chuckles] these uppity laborers start noticing there are fewer of them, and they can ask for more money.The amount of control, at that stage at least, that the government has over a country going through an extraordinary set of challenges is quite remarkable, really.Henry: Did Bolingbroke do the right thing?Helen: I think Bolingbroke did the only possible thing, which, in some senses, equates to the right thing. If he had not come back, he would not only have been abandoning his own family, his dynasty, his inheritance, everything he'd been brought up to believe was his responsibility, but also abandoning England to what was pretty much by that stage, clearly, a situation of tyranny.The big argument is always, well, we can identify a tyrant, we have a definition of tyranny. That is, if a legitimate king rules in the common interest and according to the law, then a tyrant rules not in the common interest, and not according to the law. But then the thing that the political theorists argue about is whether or not you can actively resist a tyrant, or whether you have to wait for God to act.Then, the question is, "Might God be acting through me if I'm Bolingbroke?" That's what Bolingbroke has to hope, because if he doesn't do what he does in 1399, he is abandoning everything his whole life has been devoted to maintaining and taking responsibility for. It's quite hard to see where England would then end up, other than with somebody else trying to challenge Richard in the way that Henry does.Henry: Why was he anointed with Thomas Becket's oil?Helen: Because Richard had found it in the tower, [chuckles] and was making great play of the claims that were made for Thomas. This is one of the interesting things about Richard. He is simultaneously very interested in history, and interested in his place in history, his place in the lineage of English kings, going all the way back, particularly to the confessor to whom he looks as not only a patron saint, but as in some sense, a point of identification.He's also seeking to stop time at himself. He doesn't like to think about the future beyond himself. He doesn't show any interest in fathering an heir. His will is all about how to make permanent the judgments that he's made on his nobles. It's not about realistically what's going to happen after his death.In the course of his interest in history, he has found this vial of oil in the tower somewhere in a locked drawer with a note that says, "The Virgin gave this to Thomas Becket, and whoever is anointed with this oil shall win all his battles and shall lead England to greatness," et cetera. Richard has tried to have himself re-anointed, and even his patsy Archbishop of Canterbury that he's put in place after exiling the original one who'd stood up to him a bit.Even the new Archbishop of Canterbury says, "Sire, anointing doesn't really work like that. I'm afraid we can't do it twice." Richard has been wearing this vial round his neck in an attempt to claim that he is not only the successor to the confessor, but he is now the inheritor of this holy oil. The French king has had a holy oil for a very long time in the Cathedral of Reims, which was supposedly given to Clovis, the first king of France, by an angel, et cetera.Richard, who is always very keen on emulating, or paralleling the crown of France, is very, very keen on this. If you were Henry coming in 1399 saying, "No, God has spoken through me. The country has rallied to me. I am now the rightful king of England. We won't look too closely at my justifications for that," and you are appropriating the ceremonial of the crown, you are having yourself crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 13th of October, which is the feast day of the confessor, you are handed that opportunity to use the symbolism of this oil that Richard has just unearthed, and was trying to claim for himself. You can then say, "No, I am the first king crowned with this oil," and you're showing it to the French ambassadors and so on.If we are to believe the chroniclers, it starts making his hair fall out, which might be a contrary sign from God. It's a situation where you are usurping the throne, and what is questionable is your right to be there. Then, any symbolic prop you can get, you're going to lean on as hard as you can.Henry: A few general questions to close. Should we be more willing to open up old tombs?Helen: Yes. [laughs]Henry: Good. [laughs]Helen: I'm afraid, for me, historical curiosity is-- Our forebears in the 18th and 19th century had very few qualms at all. One of the things I love about the endless series of scholarly antiquarian articles that are-- or not so scholarly, in some cases, that are written about all the various tomb openings that went on in the 18th and 19th century, I do love the moments, where just occasionally, they end up saying, "Do you know what, lads? Maybe we shouldn't do this bit." [chuckles]They get right to the brink with a couple of tombs and say, "Oh, do you know what? This one hasn't been disturbed since 1260, whatever. Maybe we won't. We'll put it back." Mostly, they just crowbar the lid off and see what they can find, which one might regret in terms of what we might now find with greater scientific know-how, and et cetera. Equally, we don't do that kind of thing anymore unless we're digging up a car park. We're not finding things out anyway. I just love the information that comes out, so yes, for me.Henry: Dig up more tombs.Helen: Yes.Henry: What is it that you love about the Paston Letters?Helen: More or less everything. I love the language. I love the way that, even though most of them are dictated to scribes, but you can hear the dictation. You can hear individual voices. Everything we were saying about sentences. You can hear the rhythm. You can hear the speech patterns. I'm no linguistic expert, but I love seeing the different forms of spelling and how that plays out on the page.I love how recognizable they are as a family. I love the fact that we hear women's voices in a way that we very rarely do in the public records. The government which is mainly what we have to work with. I love Margaret Paston, who arrives at 18 as a new bride, and becomes the matriarch of the family. I love her relationship with her two eldest boys, John and John, and their father, John.I do wish they hadn't done that because it doesn't help those of us who are trying to write about them. I love the view you get of late medieval of 15th-century politics from the point of view of a family trying to survive it. The fact that you get tiny drops in letters that are also about shopping, or also about your sisters fall in love with someone unsuitable. Unsuitable only, I hasten to add, because he's the family bailiff, not because he isn't a wonderful and extremely able man. They all know those two things. It's just that he's a family bailiff, and therefore, not socially acceptable.I love that experience of being immersed in the world of a 15th-century gentry family, so politically involved, but not powerful enough to protect themselves, who can protect themselves in the Wars of the Roses in any case.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. [chuckles]Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that. There are some very good selections. Richard Barber did one many years ago, and, of course, self-advertising. There is also my book, now more than 20 years old, about the Paston family, where I was trying to put in as much of the letters as I could. I wanted to weave the voices through. Yes, please go and read the Paston Letters in selections, in whatever form you can get them, and let's start lobbying for a complete modernized Paston.Henry: That's right. Why did you leave academia? Because you did it before it was cool.Helen: [laughs] That's very kind of you to say. My academic life was, and is very important to me, and I hate saying this now, because the academic world is so difficult now. I ended up in it almost by accident, which is a terrible thing to say now, people having to-- I never intended to be an academic. My parents were academics, and I felt I'd seen enough and wasn't sure I wanted to do that.I couldn't bear to give up history, and put in a PhD application to work with Christine Carpenter, who'd been the most inspiring supervisor when I was an undergraduate, got the place, thought, "Right, I'm just going to do a PhD." Of course, once you're doing a PhD, and everyone you know is starting to apply for early career jobs, which weren't even called early career jobs in those days, because it was a million years ago.I applied for a research fellowship, was lucky enough to get it, and then applied for a teaching job, utterly convinced, and being told by the people around me that I stood no chance of getting it, because I was way too junior, and breezed through the whole process, because I knew I wasn't going to get it, and then turned up looking for someone very junior.I got this wonderful teaching job at Sidney Sussex in Cambridge and spent eight years there, learned so much, loved working with the students. I was working very closely with the students in various ways, but I wasn't-- I'm such a slow writer, and a writer that needs to be immersed in what I was doing, and I just wasn't managing to write, and also not managing to write in the way I wanted to write, because I was becoming clearer and clearer about the fact that I wanted to write narrative history.Certainly, at that point, it felt as though writing narrative history for a general audience and being an early career academic didn't go so easily together. I think lots of people are now showing how possible it is, but I wasn't convinced I could do it. Then, sorry, this is a very long answer to what's [crosstalk] your question.Henry: That's good.Helen: I also had my son, and my then partner was teaching at a very different university, I mean, geographically different, and we were living in a third place, and trying to put a baby into that geographical [chuckles] setup was not going to work. I thought, "Well, now or never, I'll write a proposal for a book, a narrative, a book for a general readership, a narrative book about the Paxton family, because that's what I really want to write, and I'll see if I can find an agent, and I'll see if I," and I did.I found the most wonderful agent, with whose help I wrote a huge proposal, and got a deal for it two weeks before my son was due. At that point, I thought, "Okay, if I don't jump now, now or never, the stars are aligned." I've been a freelance medieval historian ever since then, touching every wood I can find as it continues to be possible. I am very grateful for those years in Cambridge. They were the making of me in terms of training and in terms of teaching.I certainly think without teaching for those years, I wouldn't be anywhere near as good a writer, because you learn such a lot from talking to, and reading what students produce.Henry: How do you choose your subjects now? How do you choose what to write about?Helen: I follow my nose, really. It's not very scientific.Henry: Why should it be?Helen: Thank you. The book, bizarrely, the book that felt most contingent, was the one I wrote after the Paston book, because I knew I'd written about the Pastons in my PhD, and then again more of it in the monograph that was based on my PhD. I knew having written about the Pastons in a very academic, analytical way, contributing to my analysis of 15th-century politics. I knew I wanted to put them at the center and write about them. That was my beginning point.The big question was what to do next, and I was a bit bamboozled for a while. The next book I ended up writing was She-Wolves, which is probably, until now, my best-known book. It was the one that felt most uncertain to me, while I was putting it together, and that really started from having one scene in my head, and it's the scene with which the book opens. It's the scene of the young Edward VI in 1553, Henry VIII's only son, dying at the age of 15.Suddenly, me suddenly realizing that wherever you looked on the Tudor family tree at that point, there were only women left. The whole question of whether a woman could rule was going to have to be answered in some way at that point, and because I'm a medievalist, that made me start thinking backwards, and so I ended up choosing some medieval queens to write about, because they've got their hands on power one way or another.Until very close to finishing it, I was worried that it wouldn't hang together as a book, and the irony is that it's the one that people seem to have taken to most. The next book after that grew out of that one, because I found myself going around talking about She-Wolves, and saying repeatedly, "The problem these queens faced was that they couldn't lead an army on the battlefield."Women couldn't do that. The only medieval woman who did that was Joan of Arc, and look what happened to her. Gradually, I realized that I didn't really know what had happened to her. I mean, I did know what--Henry: Yes, indeed.Helen: I decided that I really wanted to write about her, so I did that. Then, having done that, and having then written a very short book about Elizabeth I, that I was asked to write for Penguin Monarchs, I realized I'd been haunted all this time by Richard and Henry, who I'd been thinking about and working on since the very beginning of my PhD, but I finally felt, perhaps, ready to have a go at them properly.It's all been pretty organic apart from She-Wolves, which was the big, "What am I writing about next?" That took shape slowly and gradually. Now, I'm going to write about Elizabeth I properly in a-Henry: Oh, exciting.Helen: -full-scale book, and I decided that, anyway, before I wrote this last one, but I-- It feels even righter now, because I Am Richard II, Know Ye Not That, feels even more intensely relevant having now written about Richard and Henry, and I'm quite intimidated because Elizabeth is quite intimidating, but I think it's good, related by your subjects.[laughter]Henry: Have you read the Elizabeth Jenkins biography?Helen: Many, many years ago. It's on my shelf here.Henry: Oh, good.Helen: In fact, so it's one of the things I will be going back to. Why do you ask particularly? I need--Henry: I'm a big Elizabeth Jenkins fan, and I like that book particularly.Helen: Wonderful. Well, I will be redoubled in my enthusiasm.Henry: I look forward to seeing what you say about it. What did you learn from Christine Carpenter?Helen: Ooh. Just as precision was the word that came into my head when you asked me about Hilary Mantel, the word that comes into my head when you ask about Christine is rigor. I think she is the most rigorous historical thinker that I have ever had the privilege of working with and talking to. I am never not on my toes when I am writing for, talking to, reading Christine. That was an experience that started from the first day I walked into her room for my first supervision in 1987.It was really that rigor that started opening up the medieval world to me, asking questions that at that stage I couldn't answer at all, but suddenly, made everything go into technicolor. Really, from the perspective that I had been failing to ask the most basic questions. I would sometimes have students say to me, "Oh, I didn't say that, because I thought it was too basic."I have always said, "No, there is no question that is too basic." Because what Christine started opening up for me was how does medieval government work? What are you talking about? There is the king at Westminster. There is that family there in Northumberland. What relates the two of them? How does this work? Think about it structurally. Think about it in human terms, but also in political structural terms, and then convince me that you understand how this all goes together. I try never to lose that.Henry: Helen Castor, thank you very much.Helen: Thank you so much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Is it even remotely possible that Henry VII left his son over a million pounds?  And if he did, surely Henry VIII couldn't have spent it all in the first few years of his reign.

In this episode we sit down with historian and author Heather R. Darsie to discuss her new book 'Katharine of Aragon, Spanish Princess' I am not as Simple as I May Seem'' . In this episode the two discuss Katharine family's history, her years in limbo, and her parent's relationship with Henry VII.Grab a copy of Katharine of Aragon: Spanish PrincessKeep up to date with Heather through her website, Facebook, Instagram, and XIf you want to get in touch with History with Jackson email: jackson@historywithjackson.co.ukTo support History with Jackson to carry on creating content subscribe to History with Jackson+ on Apple Podcasts or support us on our Patreon!To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.ukFollow us on Facebook at @HistorywithJacksonFollow us on Instagram at @HistorywithJacksonFollow us on X/Twitter at @HistorywJacksonFollow us on TikTok at @HistorywithJackson Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who was Lambert Simnel—the boy who nearly claimed the Tudor throne? In late 15th-century England, identity wasn't just a matter of birth—it could be a political weapon, a tool for rebellion, and sometimes, an outright performance. The story of Simnel, a boy plucked from obscurity and passed off as the York heir, reveals how precarious the Tudor dynasty really was—and how easily the lines between truth and fiction could blur. Author Jo Harkin joins us to explore the strange life of Simnel, the so-called Yorkist “pretender” who nearly toppled Henry VII. In her new novel The Pretender, Harkin imagines Simnel's life beyond the history books, from his childhood on a farm to his years at court. Along the way, she unpacks what it meant to be groomed for kingship, what royal power struggles looked like from a child's point of view, and how historical fiction can fill in the gaps of the past. Though Shakespeare never wrote a play about Henry VII, his portrayal of Richard III helped shape how we remember the Wars of the Roses—and how we understand power, myth, and legacy. Harkin reflects on those cultural inheritances, showing how writing about this era means grappling with historical facts and the fictions we've come to accept. Simnel's story reminds us that what endures isn't always what's real, but what people are ready to believe. Jo Harkin's debut speculative fiction novel, Tell Me An Ending, was a New York Times Book of the Year. Her first historical novel, The Pretender, was published in April 2025 in the U.K. and the U.S. She lives in Berkshire, England. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 22, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

When Jo Harkin was in the middle of writing a science fiction novel, she took a procrastination break to read a book about kings and queens. That's when she came across the name Lambert Simnel in footnotes of British history, a known pretender to Henry VII's throne. In her novel, "The Pretender," Harkin elevates Simnel from the footnotes to an imagined history, filling in with fiction what written history might have left out. KMUW's Beth Golay talked to Harkin.

Jo Harkin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties before becoming a full-time writer. Her debut novel Tell Me an Ending was a New York Times book of the year. Her new novel is The Pretender, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-pretender/jo-harkin/9781526678348. She lives in Berkshire, England. The ruin of Minster Lovell. This was the estate of the Viscount Lovell, one of the main characters in The Pretender. It's got enough standing walls and a beautiful vaulted entryway to allow you to imagine life there, but also the setting is stunning. Alice Chaucer's tomb, and the concept of the Memento Mori. An hour away from Minster Lovell, in Oxfordshire, are the former lands of the Earl of Lincoln, another main character in the novel. In the pretty village of Ewelme, St Mary's church contains the tomb of Alice Chaucer – grand-daughter of the poet himself, and the grandmother of Lincoln. The Fabliaux. A modern English verse translation of medieval French Fabliaux. These were stories told across all levels of medieval society. And they were absolutely filthy. Food/drink suggestion. A recipe for an overlooked and delicious medieval dish – the pre-potato pea pottage. Exhibition. The British Library Treasures room has a permanent display of original books, maps and manuscripts, including medieval and Tudor era items such as pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, Beowulf, and the first printing of the Canterbury Tales. Misericords. Westminster Abbey is on every London tourist's must see list, but often-overlooked feature are the misericords. In the magnificent Henry VII's chapel, where his and Elizabeth of York's tombs are located, the original 16th century hinged oak seats were not visible to the general public. This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Much of Katharine of Aragon's story is dominated by the end of her marriage to King Henry VIII, but we seldom explore where it all started, back in her native homeland of Spain. What was Katharine of Aragon's ancestry, how did her marriages into the English royal family come about, and how did Katharines mother Isabella work with Henry VII to help legitimise each others claims to their respective thrones? Well to answer all of this I welcome back historian, author and attorney Heather Darsie onto the show. Heather's latest book, Katharine of Aragon, Spanish Princess, which comes out next month in the UK, is the basis for our conversation. Prepare to learn a lot about Katharine of Aragon that you did not know!

Welcome to our Romance Royale series.On this episode, we'll be talking about the King's many grannies. The royal couplings that had to happen to further the family tree. We're looking at five such couples today, James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort,Owain Tudor and Catherine of Valois,Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort,Henry VII and Elizabeth of York,And of course,James VI/I and Anna of Denmark.Let's welcome our experts Callum Watson, Nathen Amin and Mark Turnbull.Callum's Books:https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/1314-The-Year-of-Bannockburn-Hardback/p/49813/aid/1238https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-37767-0Find Callum:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiesDZuBN1Z0SE3Vq3Gjz_Ahttps://drcallumwatson.blogspot.com/https://www.instagram.com/cpwatson1375/Find Nathen:https://substack.com/@nathenaminhttps://www.instagram.com/nathenamin/Get Son of Prophecy:https://www.amberley-books.com/author-community-main-page/a/nathen-amin/the-son-of-prophecy.htmlGet Nathen's Books:https://www.amberley-books.com/author-community-main-page/a/nathen-amin.htmlGet Mark's Book:https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Charles-Is-Private-Life-Hardback/p/23661/aid/1238Find Mark:https://www.allegianceofblood.com/https://www.instagram.com/1642author/www.1642author.comhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cavaliercast-the-civil-war-in-words/id1521758820For more history fodder please visit https://www.ifitaintbaroquepodcast.art/ and https://www.reignoflondon.com/To book a walking tour with Natalie https://www.getyourguide.com/s/?q=supplier:252243 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever heard of a forbidden town in Conneticut? Apparently Dudleytown has been around for centuries. But due to a string of unexplained disasters, the town is completey forbidden (and illegal) to enter. Some say its due to a Native American curse that was put on the land itself. Some say its due to a curse that followed the founders of the town from England from an execution dating back to Henry VII. Some say its due to the witch trials that took place all around the town in the 1600s. The more we learn about this dark forboding place, the more questions arise. Come learn more with us and, as always, OPEN UP THAT THIRD EYE!To sign up for our Patreon go to-> Patreon.com/cultofconspiracypodcast o Join the Cajun Knight Patreon---> Patreon.com/cajunknight To Find The Cajun Knight Youtube Channel---> click hereTo Invest In Gold & Silver, CHECK OUT—-> Www.Cocsilver.com 10% OFF Rife Machine---> https://rifemachine.myshopify.com/?rfsn=7689156.6a9b5c To find the Meta Mysteries Podcast---> https://open.spotify.com/show/6IshwF6qc2iuqz3WTPz9Wv?si=3a32c8f730b34e79 50% OFF Adam&Eve products---> :adameve.com (promo code : CULT) To Sign up for our Rokfin go to --> Rokfin.com/cultofconspiracy Cult Of Conspiracy Linktree ---> https://linktr.ee/cultofconspiracyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cult-of-conspiracy--5700337/support.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the youngest child of the newly dominant Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella. When she was 3, her parents contracted her to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, the heir to the Tudor king Henry VII in order to strengthen Spain's alliances, since Henry's kingdom was a longstanding trade partner and an enemy of Spain's greatest enemy, France. For the next decade Catherine had the best humanist education available, preparing her for her expected life as queen and drawing inspiration from her warrior mother. She arrived in London to be married when she was 15 but within a few months she was widowed, her situation uncertain and left relatively impoverished for someone of her status. Rather than return home, Catherine stayed and married her late husband's brother, Henry VIII. In her view and that of many around her, she was an exemplary queen and, even after Henry VIII had arranged the annulment of their marriage for the chance of a male heir with Anne Boleyn, Catherine continued to consider herself his only queen.With Lucy Wooding Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, University of Oxford and Professor of Early Modern History at Oxford Maria Hayward Professor of Early Modern History at the University of SouthamptonAnd Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer Lecturer in Global Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of BristolProducer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio ProductionReading list:Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, 1503-1533 (Royal Historical Society, 2018)G. R. Bernard, The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (Yale University Press, 2007)José Luis Colomer and Amalia Descalzo (eds.), Spanish Fashion at the Courts of Early Modern Europe (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispanica, 2014), especially vol 2, 'Spanish Princess or Queen of England? The Image, Identity and Influence of Catherine of Aragon at the Courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII' by Maria HaywardTheresa Earenfight, Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England (Penn State University Press, 2022)John Edwards, Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles In Power (Routledge, 2004)Garrett Mattingley, Catherine of Aragon (first published 1941; Random House, 2000)J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (first published 1968; Yale University Press, 1997)David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (Vintage, 2004)Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen (Faber & Faber, 2011)Juan Luis Vives (trans. Charles Fantazzi), The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual (University of Chicago Press, 2000)Patrick Williams, Catherine of Aragon: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's First Unfortunate Wife (Amberley Publishing, 2013)Lucy Wooding, Henry VIII (Routledge, 2009)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the youngest child of the newly dominant Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella. When she was 3, her parents contracted her to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, the heir to the Tudor king Henry VII in order to strengthen Spain's alliances, since Henry's kingdom was a longstanding trade partner and an enemy of Spain's greatest enemy, France. For the next decade Catherine had the best humanist education available, preparing her for her expected life as queen and drawing inspiration from her warrior mother. She arrived in London to be married when she was 15 but within a few months she was widowed, her situation uncertain and left relatively impoverished for someone of her status. Rather than return home, Catherine stayed and married her late husband's brother, Henry VIII. In her view and that of many around her, she was an exemplary queen and, even after Henry VIII had arranged the annulment of their marriage for the chance of a male heir with Anne Boleyn, Catherine continued to consider herself his only queen.With Lucy Wooding Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, University of Oxford and Professor of Early Modern History at Oxford Maria Hayward Professor of Early Modern History at the University of SouthamptonAnd Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer Lecturer in Global Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of BristolProducer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio ProductionReading list:Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, 1503-1533 (Royal Historical Society, 2018)G. R. Bernard, The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (Yale University Press, 2007)José Luis Colomer and Amalia Descalzo (eds.), Spanish Fashion at the Courts of Early Modern Europe (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispanica, 2014), especially vol 2, 'Spanish Princess or Queen of England? The Image, Identity and Influence of Catherine of Aragon at the Courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII' by Maria HaywardTheresa Earenfight, Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England (Penn State University Press, 2022)John Edwards, Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles In Power (Routledge, 2004)Garrett Mattingley, Catherine of Aragon (first published 1941; Random House, 2000)J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (first published 1968; Yale University Press, 1997)David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (Vintage, 2004)Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen (Faber & Faber, 2011)Juan Luis Vives (trans. Charles Fantazzi), The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual (University of Chicago Press, 2000)Patrick Williams, Catherine of Aragon: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's First Unfortunate Wife (Amberley Publishing, 2013)Lucy Wooding, Henry VIII (Routledge, 2009)

Henry VIII's marital saga was as much a tale of personal ambition and passion as it was one of statecraft and religious upheaval. From the outset of his reign, Henry was fixated on securing a male heir—a goal driven by both the turbulent precedents of medieval succession and the very real fear of dynastic collapse. His own father, Henry VII, had claimed the throne through force rather than clear hereditary right, and Henry knew that a secure male successor was essential to solidify the Tudor legacy and avoid further civil strife.

In this episode I cover Marc Fasteau and Ian Fletcher's new, massive, authoritative tome on industrial policy, Industrial Policy for the United States. I look particularly at the qualities of advantageous industries, England's initiation of industrial policy under Henry VII, and Sematech's creation and development.

This week's interview is part of the discussion we had with Matthew Lewis in the Tudor Top 50 program on how there might be more to the traditional stories that we've been told, perhaps orchestrated by Henry VII as part of the Tudor Propaganda Machine. You can still join the Tudor Top 50 Program at https://www.englandcast.com/TudorTop50 Check out Matt Lewis' work:

On 19th February 1567, while imprisoned in the Tower of London, Lady Margaret Douglas received devastating news—her son, Lord Darnley, had been brutally murdered at Kirk o' Field. But this was more than just the loss of a son—it shattered her dynastic hopes, leaving her a grieving mother caught in the deadly game of Tudor and Stuart politics.     - Granddaughter of Henry VII, Margaret was born into royalty but repeatedly fell foul of the crown—not through open ambition, but by defying royal authority and making decisions without permission.   - She supported her son's marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, without Elizabeth I's blessing—only for him to be murdered in mysterious circumstances less than two years later.   - Her relentless pursuit of justice helped turn English and Scottish opinion against Mary, Queen of Scots.   - But Margaret's independent choices landed her in the Tower multiple times, including for arranging another unauthorised marriage—this time for her surviving son, Charles.     Despite losing her husband, both sons, and her own freedom, Margaret's bloodline ultimately prevailed. Her grandson, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England in 1603, uniting the crowns and shaping the monarchy as we know it today.     Margaret Douglas never ruled, but her defiance left a lasting mark on history. Listen now to uncover her extraordinary story!     #MargaretDouglas #TudorHistory #RoyalIntrigue #OnThisDay #HistoryMatters #BritishMonarchy

Anton Howes writes the brilliant Age of Invention substack. We were supposed to talk about the history of salt and its powerful impact on people and states. We certainly did talk about that but also a lot more!- history's efflorescences- Henry VII's ruthless tax grabs- The feebleness of England (until suddenly . . .)- Rebel space colonies- The Spanish and English Armadas- Lot's wicked daughters- The Roman (non) Industrial RevolutionAnd amidst all our digressions I mentioned the film with more digressions than even we could manage, The Saragossa Manuscript. Highly recommended. And also the documentary about salt production in My Name is Salt which is just wonderful.You can send a message to the show/feedback by clicking here. I can't reply so if you need one please include your email.

On this day in Tudor history, 11th February 1466, Elizabeth of York was born—a woman whose bloodline shaped the future of England. She was the daughter of a king, the sister of the Princes in the Tower, the wife of Henry VII, and the mother of Henry VIII. Yet, despite her importance, she is often overshadowed by the powerful men and women she was connected to.     But Elizabeth wasn't just a passive figure in their stories. She played a key role in uniting England, bringing an end to the Wars of the Roses, and founding the Tudor dynasty.     - Did she really want to marry Richard III?   - How did she go from being a Yorkist princess to the first Tudor queen? - What was her influence on her son, Henry VIII, and the future of England?   Her life was full of political intrigue, uncertainty, and personal tragedy. But was she merely a pawn in a bigger game, or was she the true heart of the Tudor dynasty?     Her tragic death on her own birthday left Henry VII devastated—he never remarried. But her legacy lived on through the Tudors and beyond.     Discover the full story of Elizabeth of York—her survival, her power, and her influence. What do you think? Was Elizabeth a forgotten queen or the true foundation of the Tudors?   #TudorHistory #ElizabethOfYork #OnThisDay #TudorQueens #WarsOfTheRoses #TudorDynasty #RoyalHistory #HistoryMatters

Let's welcome back Amy McElroy, to talk about Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, sister of Henry VIII, Queen of France by first marriage and Duchess of Suffolk by second.If you remember the Showtime series The Tudors, that's the one who marries Henry Cavill, and if you watched the recent Amazon Prime show My Lady Jane, which is awesome, by the way, it features her granddaughter as the lead character. Amy has just published her book Mary Tudor, Queen of France, with Pen & Sword.Find Amy:https://amymcelroy.blog/Mary Tudor, Queen of France:https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Mary-Tudor-Hardback/p/51784/aid/1238Educating the Tudors:https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Educating-the-Tudors-Hardback/p/22338/aid/1238Women's Lives in the Tudor Era:https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Womens-Lives-in-the-Tudor-Era-Hardback/p/24437/aid/1238Join Natalie on her London walking tours:Monarchy Anglo-Saxons to Stuarts: https://www.getyourguide.com/london-l57/london-the-royal-british-kings-and-queens-walking-tour-t426011/Monarchy Stuarts to Windsors: https://www.getyourguide.com/london-l57/royal-london-georgian-and-windsor-monarchs-walking-tour-t481355Naughty London: https://www.getyourguide.com/london-l57/london-unsavory-history-guided-walking-tour-t428452/and a new one Royal Love Stories:https://www.getyourguide.com/london-l57/royal-love-stories-walking-tour-t481358/https://www.ifitaintbaroquepodcast.art/ Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this day in 1495, Anne of York, daughter of Edward IV and sister of Queen Elizabeth of York, married Thomas Howard, the future 3rd Duke of Norfolk. But this was far more than just a royal love story—it was a political gamble that shaped the future of the powerful Howard family.   Just ten years earlier, Thomas Howard's family had been on the losing side at the Battle of Bosworth. His father and grandfather had fought for Richard III against Henry Tudor, and yet now, Henry VII had approved a marriage between his own sister-in-law and the son of a former enemy.   - Why did Henry VII allow this match? - How did it shape the Howards' future at the Tudor court? . And what happened to Anne after this grand wedding?   Listen now to uncover the strategic marriage that helped forge one of Tudor England's most powerful families!   #TudorHistory #AnneOfYork #ThomasHoward #TudorCourt #RoyalMarriage #HistoryLovers #MedievalHistory 

The Story of Three Kings   28th January is a date packed with significance for the Tudors—marking the birth of Henry VII, the death of Henry VIII, and the accession of Edward VI.   From Henry VII's rise from exile to establish the Tudor dynasty, to Henry VIII's dramatic reign that forever changed England, and Edward VI's short but impactful time as the Boy King—this day is a snapshot of Tudor triumphs, transformations, and tragedies.   How did these three events shape history? And what legacies did these kings leave behind?   Discover the stories of ambition, reform, and succession in today's podcast!   #TudorHistory #HenryVII #HenryVIII #EdwardVI #OnThisDay #HistoryLovers

In this episode, Jackson sits down to talk to author and historian and Katharine of Aragon Festival Speaker Nathen Amin to discuss the Welsh roots of the Tudors, and to reinsert the Welshness of Henry VII back into the historical narrative of the Tudors, which Nathen brings to us in his brand new book 'Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor'.This is a rerun from July 2024The Katharine of Aragon Festival runs from the 22nd to the 29th of January and is hosted by Peterborough Cathedral and Peterborough Museum. Tickets are still available follow the link lets you learn more about the Katharine of Aragon Festival Grab a copy of Son of Prophecy hereKeep to date with Nathen via his X, Instagram, website and NewsletterIf you want to get in touch with History with Jackson email: jackson@historywithjackson.co.ukPlease support us on our Patreon!To catch up on everything to do with History with Jackson head to www.HistorywithJackson.co.ukFollow us on Facebook at @HistorywithJacksonFollow us on Instagram at @HistorywithJacksonFollow us on X/Twitter at @HistorywJacksonFollow us on TikTok at @HistorywithJackson Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our Tudor Top 50 yearlong program yesterday (englandcast.com/TudorTop50) we had our first call, this time with historian Nathen Amin, talking about Henry VII's early rule. This is the highlight reel from that hour-long call. Hop into the Tudor Top 50 so you can be part of these calls, and the program, moving forward! We talked about how Henry got to Bosworth, and the early years of his reign, including the marriage to Elizabeth of York. Also busted some myths along the way! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the more fascinating women of the Tudor era was actually one of the last Plantagenets, Margaret Plantagenet, later Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (he of Malmsey wine fame), and a niece to both King Edward IV and King Richard III, Margaret and her brother were taken into the care of King Henry VII after Richard's defeat at Bosworth Field. Henry's wife, Elizabeth of York, was Margaret's cousin, and perhaps because of his insecurities about his claim to the throne, Henry preferred to keep the remaining Plantagenets close. As a consequence, Margaret had a front-row seat to some of the most consequential moments in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, including as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, who would become a close a friend across the decades. But she also suffered mightily; Henry VII imprisoned and then executed her brother, and after the death of her husband, Hank VII kept her nearly destitute through the confiscation of the Salisbury estate, rightfully her brother's Earldom. When Henry VIII succeeded his father - and Catherine of Aragon made a big return - Margaret was made whole, becoming one of only two women in 16th century England who was a peer in her own right. Her success as a landowner did not sit well with the increasingly paranoid Henry VIII, who spent her last decade cracking down on her children, and eventually put Margaret into the Tower of London for a couple of years before Henry ordered her executed on the Tower Green on May 27, 1541. A contemporary report has it that she taunted her inexperienced executioner to the last. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prepare to dive into the tumultuous world of Tudor politics in this special episode of History Rage, brought to you in partnership with the Catherine of Aragon Festival. Host Paul Bavill is joined by Nathan Amin, author, historian, and renowned critic of historical misconceptions, as they embark on a spirited discussion about the often overlooked reign of Henry VII.The Tudor Tantrum:- Nathan Amin passionately argues for a re-evaluation of Henry VII's legacy, challenging the prevailing perception of him as a mere bridge between Richard III and Henry VIII.- Discover why Henry VII's reign deserves more attention, as Nathan details his significant contributions to England's stability and prosperity, overshadowed by his more infamous successors.Restoring Royal Authority:- Learn how Henry VII consolidated power and restored royal authority, navigating the treacherous political landscape left by the Wars of the Roses.- Explore the measures he implemented to centralise government and reduce the influence of overambitious nobles, ensuring lasting peace and stability.Financial Reforms and Misconceptions:- Nathan debunks the myth of Henry VII as a miserly king, highlighting his strategic financial policies that strengthened the crown's independence.- Uncover the truth behind Henry's avaricious reputation and how his financial acumen laid the groundwork for a prosperous Tudor dynasty.Diplomacy and Foreign Policy:- Delve into Henry VII's foreign policy strategies, which prioritised peace and alliances over warfare, securing England's continental reputation.- Understand the significance of his diplomatic ties with France, Scotland, and the Spanish Trastamara dynasty, which bolstered England's position in Europe.Join us as Nathan Amin sheds light on the complexities of Henry VII's reign, advocating for a more nuanced understanding of this pivotal Tudor monarch. To explore Nathan's work further, visit the History Rage bookshop for his latest book, "Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor," and follow him on social media at @NathanAmin.Support the rage that fuels our historical deep dives by clicking the Apple Subscription link or at patreon.com/historyrage, and don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.To catch up on all the rage from bygone times, visit our website at www.historyrage.comIf you want to get in touch with History Rage, email historyragepod@gmail.comFollow History Rage on Social MediaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryRageTwitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryRageInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyrage/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/historyrage.bsky.socialStay informed, stay passionate, and let the rage for truth in history rage on! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Think Henry VII was just a penny-pinching miser? Think again! Dive into the hidden world of this Tudor monarch's extravagant celebrations, complete with castles on wheels, knights, dragons, and pageantry fit for royalty. From dazzling Christmas revels to the legendary wedding of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, discover a side of Henry VII you've never seen before. Get ready to challenge the stereotypes and uncover the surprising flair of a king who loved a good party. #HenryVII #TudorHistory #RoyalPageantry #HiddenHistory #History Uncovered Link for primary source account - https://archive.org/details/englishpageantry01with/page/112/mode/2up?view=theater

Who was Henry VII, and how did he change history forever? From his stunning victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field to his clever handling of rebellious pretenders and the economy, this video answers the top 10 most frequently asked questions about the first Tudor king. Discover how he united England, secured the Tudor dynasty, and left a legacy that paved the way for iconic figures like Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Was he a cunning mastermind, a frugal ruler, or both? Dive in to uncover the truth behind the man who founded one of England's most legendary dynasties! #TudorHistory #HenryVII #BattleOfBosworth #TudorDynasty #HistoryLovers

Murderer and brothel-keeper?  Then why was he standing at the end of Henry VII's deathbed?     Relevant Episodes   Cameo 23 - Hugh Denys | Tudoriferous S1 - 023 - Edmund de la Pole - 6th Earl of Suffolk | Tudoriferous Sex and Why You Shouldn't | Tudoriferous     Join our Patreon family for yet more episodes - Tudoriferous | creating a Podcast discussing the great, good and mad Tudor Era | Patreon

The 1499 execution of Edward of Warwick snuffed out the final embers of the Wars of the Roses. In this Long Read written by Sarah Norton, we introduce the last male heir to the House of York – and explain why he “had to perish” to secure the crown for Henry VII. HistoryExtra Long Reads brings you the best articles from BBC History Magazine, direct to your ears. Today's feature originally appeared in the November 2024 issue, and has been voiced in partnership with the RNIB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For our "Something Wicked" series finale we're talking about perhaps England's most famous king, if not its most infamous, Henry VIII.We start off chatting about the context in which Henry VIII ascended the throne - the death of his elder brother and the heir apparent Arthur Tudor, the work Henry VII had done to create peace and a functioning economy after The Wars of the Roses, and the issue of quite what to do with Arthur's teenage widow, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon... From there though, we're off to the races, with Henry inheriting the English crown, finally assenting to marry Catherine, and enjoying a fair bit of success on the European stage - all of which rather climaxed at The Field of the Cloth of Gold, where he wrestled with (and lost to) the King of France.All of that stuff, though already fairly murdery, was very much Henry's upswing. The downwards trajectory of his life, frankly, then ensued, starting in the mid-1520s, quickly spiraling out of control and crashing into near bankruptcy for the nation by the time of Henry's death in 1547.From the "King's Great Matter" to the break with Rome, the subsequent systematic destruction of almost all of England's ancient art, music and literature, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and his other five, largely disastrously unsuccessful marriages, it's a mess. More than a pickle, we make the case that Henry VIII was an increasingly septic, smelly tyrant, the mass killer of about 2% of the English population of his day, and a truly deluded ruler who squandered his inheritance.Yes, he made some big changes which benefited his successors, but by golly did he do some damage as he did so! It's a whip-cracking rollick through the highlights, and the low-lights, of the reign of "Fat Hank" in which we detail exactly which wives were beheaded, divorced, survived, and why - as well as which of them rivaled Henry in terms of total number of spouses, if not in regards to waistline... The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 A look at Henry VII, Ivan and the Mongul Horde, and how Michaelangelo got his start....and we see the fading of the Great D'Medici! #shoshonefalls #campeddy #coloradonationalmonument #grandmesa #Michaelangelo #ivanandsophia #arthurtudor

Join host Natalie Grueninger in this episode of Talking Tudors as she explores the unique 1502 royal progress of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York with guest Sarah Morris, also known as The Tudor Travel Guide. This journey, unlike any other, was not about pomp and ceremony but rather a personal and intimate voyage through England and Wales. Discover the historical context surrounding this progress, marked by personal losses and political challenges, and learn how this journey served as a path to healing for the Tudor monarchs. Sarah delves into the sources used to reconstruct the itinerary, offering insights into the places visited, including Woodstock, Raglan Castle, and the wool-rich Cotswold towns. The episode provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the royal couple, the people who accompanied them, and the hosts who welcomed them. Listen to the stories of the people they met and the places they stayed, painting a vivid picture of Tudor life away from the capital. Link to progress map: https://thetudortravelguide.com/the-1502-progress-of-henry-vii-elizabeth-of-york/ Visit Sarah Morris' official website: https://thetudortravelguide.com/ Visit Simply Tudor Tours: https://simplytudortours.com/ Find out more about your host at https://www.nataliegrueninger.com Buy Talking Tudors merchandise at https://talkingtudors.threadless.com/ Support Talking Tudors on Patreon

After his father shipped his sister Margaret off to be the Queen of Scotland, it fell to Henry VIII to manage his baby sister Mary's love life. A genuine beauty, France's King Louis XII, then 52, was undoubtedly happy to walk down the aisle with the 18-year-old English princess. The bliss would not last, as just three or so months later, Louis was dead, with salacious whispers in the French court that Mary had "intercoursed" him to death. Ah, the 16th century. But this wasn't the end for Mary's heart, not by a long shot. It turns out that she had long nurtured a desire for Tudor courtier and man-about-town Charles Brandon. Charles's father had been a loyal partisan of Henry Tudor's claim to the throne before he became Henry VII, and Sir William Brandon had died at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Young Charles was raised at court, a few years older than Henry VIII, and enjoyed a bit of hero worship from the future king. He was also a scoundrel who fleeced a number of rich women (and girls) through the hazy definitions of marriage and engagement in the period. Still, in spite of Henry making him promise not to marry his sister, Charles was dispatched to France after the death of Louis XII to negotiate the young queen's return to England, and once there, the long-suffering Mary convinced the dashing man of her dreams to abandon the pledge and marry her anyway. Her brother was, to put it mildly, displeased. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henry VII has gone down in history as the miserable miser who, rightly or wrongly, seized the English Crown from the hands of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth. But, according to historian and author Nathen Amin, Henry's rise to power was unprecedented – and his rotten reputation blown out of proportion. In this 'Life of the week' episode, Nathen speaks to Emily Briffett about the life and legacy of the first Tudor monarch – from his major political successes to his close family bonds. (Ad) Nathen Amin is the author of Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor (Amberly, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Son-Prophecy-Rise-Henry-Tudor/dp/1398110477/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One subtle but powerful way that the Tudor and Stuart monarchs tried to show off their magnificence was through the creation of gardens that conveyed authority and cultural achievement. Garden history gives us an insight into statecraft, foreign influence and changing ideas of beauty. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. David Jacques OBE, who explains why so much money was spent on royal gardens from the reign of Henry VII through to Queen Anne. Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, the audio editor is Max Carrey and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Not Just the Tudors is a History Hit podcastEnjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘TUDORS' https://historyhit.com/subscriptionYou can take part in our listener survey here > https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6FFT7MK

This is the last episode of this season and it is time to say goodbye to Karl IV, Ludwig the Bavarian, Henry VII, Albrecht of Habsburg, Adolf von Nassau and Rudolf of Habsburg. These have been some eventful 138 years. When Karl IV died in 1378 he left behind an impressive list of achievements but also a number of failures. And he left behind a son, Wenceslaus he had invested with so much hope and so many crowns, it not only broke the bank but even chunks of the political edifice he had so patiently built.How and why is what we will discuss in this episode.The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.As always:Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.comFacebook: @HOTGPod Twitter: @germanshistoryInstagram: history_of_the_germansReddit: u/historyofthegermansPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/HistoryofthegermansTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The Ottonians Salian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic KnightsThe Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

Welcome back to Queens Podcast's Wars of the Roses week. Today we're we diving into the second part of Margaret Beaufort's story, a key figure in the Wars of the Roses and the mother of Henry VII. Today we're discussing Maggie's part in ending the civil war this week is named after, her unwavering love for her son and her new (self appointed) title as Lady The Kings Mother. If you like this episode, you may like some of our other Wars of the Roses and relevant women like... Elizabeth Woodville Katherine Swynford Jacquetta of Luxembourg We've also got a Spotify playlist Maggie features on titled Tudor Women Some sources: https://rebeccastarrbrown.com/2017/05/31/did-john-beaufort-1st-duke-of-somerset-commit-suicide/ https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-beaufort-life-story/marriage-childbirth https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-beaufort-life-story/remarriage Queens podcast is part of Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast.Want more Queens? Head to our Patreon, check out our merch store and follow us on Instagram! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join host Natalie Grueninger in this fascinating episode of "Talking Tudors" as she delves into the incredible story of Henry Tudor's rise to power. Sponsored by the Gloucester History Festival, this episode features special guest Nathan Amin, author of 'Son of Prophecy'.  Nathan shares his extensive knowledge of the Tudor dynasty, focusing on Henry VII's unlikely ascent to the throne. Discover the Welsh origins of the Tudors, the significance of the prophetic "Son of Prophecy," and the intricate relationships between the Welsh and the English during the 15th century. Learn how Henry's lineage, personal qualities, and strategic marriage to Elizabeth of York played pivotal roles in his survival and success. This episode promises a deep dive into the dramatic and lesser-known aspects of Tudor history, offering fresh perspectives and captivating narratives. Visit Nathen Amin's official website. https://nathenamin.com/ Find out more about your host at https://www.nataliegrueninger.com Buy Talking Tudors merchandise at https://talkingtudors.threadless.com/ Support Talking Tudors on Patreon

Henry VII was descended from some of the greatest Welsh princes. When word spread that he had a chance of taking the English throne, Welsh prophecies - which foretold that one day, one of their own would become king of the islands and would be crowned in London - looked to be coming true.Professor Suzannah Lipscomb introduces a special crossover edition with Not Just the Tudors' sister podcast Gone Medieval in which Matt Lewis is joined by historian Nathen Amin, author of Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor, to share the surprising story of the medieval ancestors of the Tudor monarchs.This episode was edited by Max Carrey. The producers are Joseph Knight and Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Not Just the Tudors and Gone Medieval are History Hit podcasts.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘TUDORS'You can take part in our listener survey here >

We don't often use the word 'Tudor' on Gone Medieval but we can't ignore how the Tudors have a sensational medieval story. Henry VII was descended from the greatest Welsh princes and when word spread that he had a chance to sit on the English throne the Welsh prophecies, which foretold that one day one of their own would become king of the islands and would be crowned in London, looked to be coming true.Nathan Amin joins Matt Lewis to share the surprising story of the medieval ancestors of the Tudor monarchs, the greatest dynasty that's ever reigned over this country.Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and edited by Max Carrey. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘MEDIEVAL' https://historyhit.com/subscriptionYou can take part in our listener survey here: https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MK