349 The Country House

    The Elizabeth and Jacobean age was a time of social mores and the way England was ruled – and the great medieval household withered away. To leave something smaller, more symmetrical – and of extraordinary beauty. And then there’s also Little Moreton Hall, a gentry interpretation of the Great Rebuilding.

    348 The Great Rebuilding

    Somewhere in the 16th and 17th centuries, ordinary people started building differently – private buildings, public buildings. They used brick, glass, decoration and portraiture; and it wasn’t just the aristocracy; Yeomen, merchants, towns, husbandmen. The historian W G Hoskins gave it a name – the Great Rebuilding

    345 Theatre II: Playwrights

    The University Wits was a term invented by Saintsbury for a group of 6 Elizabethan playwrights. They were not consciously a coherent group but part of a vibrant society of playwrights, actors and writers who made English theatre shine.

    344 Theatre I: The New Playhouse

        The first of three celebratory episodes about English Renaissance Theatre! Talking about dramatic tradition and the new playhouses that begin to appear in London – and the horrifiedRead More

    341 Knights Adventurer

    In March 1623 Simon Digby noticed two suspicious looking blokes with dodgy beards hanging around outside his uncle’s house in Madrid. He rushed over to find out what they wereRead More

    Anne and Elizabeth by Leah Garden - Members Only

    A fascinating relationship – what influence did Anne Cleves have when she befriended the young Princess Elizabeth, and did her example shape England’s future? Transcript This article is by LeahRead More

    Margaret 20 A Pious Legacy - Members Only

      Margaret’s personal life and charitable activities were dominated by three priorities – piety, social and moral responsibility, and family, in common with many powerful women of the time. OneRead More

    Margaret 19 Magnate - Members Only

      From 1499, Margaret moved her main place of residence to Collyweston in Northamptonshire. Once there, she operated as the king’s agent as a regional magnate, with powers that onRead More

    321 Fin de Siecle

        The final years of Elizabeth’s reign inevitably have the sense of the end of an era; she retreated to her chambers, court was no longer the attraction it hadRead More

    319 Dearth and Discord

      The last 15-20 years of Elizabeth’s reign have been described as the Golden Age. It’s a description that might have seemed incomprehensible to many of the people that lived throughRead More

    318 The Nine Years’ War

    In Ulster near the end of the 16th century, it appeared that Elizabeth could reply at least on one of her favoured Irish subjects – Hugh O’Neill, Baron of DungannonRead More

    317 Well Worth a Mass

    Henry IV of France, regarded as one of France’s greatest leaders, looks for way to bring peace and unity to his divided country, while England and Spain trade blows. AndRead More

    316 The Valois Extinguished

    The defeat of the Armada feels in retrospect like a watershed in Elizabeth’s reign; many of her closest advisers and companions died, and for the remainder of her reign EnglandRead More

    315 God Breathed

      As the Armada sailed serenely up the Channel, the English tried desperately to make some impression before it reached Flanders. But Medina Sidonia had worries of his own… Transcript Ok, soRead More

    Sh 36b King in Parliament - Members Only

    The 14th to 16th centuries saw the increasingly professionalism of Common law, and the embedding of parliament at the centre of government. Jurists claimed that the people were sovereign, thoughRead More

    314 Drake goes Bowling

      The Great Armada was do to sail in 1587; but Elizabeth had other ideas. By in May 1588 the Duke of Medina Sidonia led his fleet of 130 shipsRead More

    313 England is Ours

      From a desk in a small suite of rooms in El Escorial Philip II ran a vast colonial empire. With France torn by civil war, war against the DutchRead More

    312 My Heart is my Own

      By the mid 1580’s Mary was at her wits’ end – feeling betrayed by her son, 18 years of incarceration, beset by a unsympathetic jailer. She would listen toRead More

    HiT The Private Life of Henry VIII

    The 1933 classic from Alexander Korda which certainly convinced my mother that Henry VIII threw chicken bones around. It was a major international success, in particular for Charles Laughton,  

    311 Fears of State

    In a time of existential and moral threat, the English state developed a network of informants and spies at home and abroad. While Catholics tried to steer a path throughRead More

    310 The English College

      By the 1580s, the confessional lines between Protestant and Catholic were increasingly strongly drawn; repressive legislation increased, and the English College was established to renew the stock of priestsRead More

    308 Fool’s Gold

        A host of Elizabeth explorers explored the world in the late Elizabethan reign. Did they achieve anything, or were there efforts a false start?

    308a Roanoke by Joel Kindrick

    In 1585, a colony was established at Roanoke, sponsored by Walter Raleigh. Find out what happens from historian and Birkenstock wearer Joel Kindrick.

    307 All Around the World

    For a couple of years in the mid 1570s Elizabeth nixed proposed exploration projects for fear of Spain. At the same time she was discussing a secret voyage with a selectRead More

    306 A Devil and No Man

        Together the Elizabethan explorers, and authors like John Dee and Richard Hakluyt built excitement about the possibilities of global exploration. Francis Drake gave it expression. The Spanish MainRead More

    305 The Frog Prince

    From 1578 to 1582 the courts of France, Spain and England buzzed with the possibility of the latest office romance – between the Queen of England and Duke of Anjou.Read More

    304 Seeds of Irish Nationhood

    By the 1580s, the English atrocities and the rebellion of James Fitzmaurice and the Earl of Desmond, Catholicism and its association with resistance ot English rule was clearly established. Events atRead More

    303 Shane the Proud

    The later Tudors faced a choice in their policy towards Ireland – would they resign themselves to the old ways, ruling through the Old English with minimal control; or wouldRead More

    302 England’s Garland

    This beautiful technical drawing of Revenge was left by Matthew Baker; unlike the equally beautiful Anthony Roll of 1545, it is technically accurate, created by one of England’s greatest shipwrights.Read More

    301 Black Tudors

    Black Africans began to make their way in increasing numbers to England – firstly mainly via trading countries like Spain and Portugal, but increasingly direct. What sort of lives didRead More

    300 Trade and Exploration

      Elizabeth’s reign famously saw England enter the search for new markets with which to trade and explore. In this episode, we focus on trade with West Africa, and John Hawkins’ infamousRead More

    299 West Africa

      A horribly brief introduction to the West African kingdoms with which the Portuguese started to trade and a smidge of their backstory, before the English began to arrive inRead More

    Sh 33 Thomas Gresham - Members Only

    Written up as a sort of national patriotic hero by the Victorians, Thomas Gresham was in fact as hard as nails, a deal maker, a money man, a controller. ButRead More

    298 A Curate’s Egg

      What started as a curate’s egg of an episode, ends up with an introduction to a new player, Francis Walsingham, and the story of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacreRead More

    297 Servant of Crime

      Through the 1560s, the progress of the reformation gave both the Protestant Godly and Catholics much leeway and wriggle room. A series of events in the late 1560’s and earlyRead More

    296 Rising of the North

      The saga of the life and times of Mary Queen of Scots continues, but in 1568 something stirs in the north of England… Transcript Last time, I left you withRead More

    295 Marvellous Good Order

    In Scotland Mary’s grasp on her kingdom begins to wobble. In 1566, Elizabeth’s parliament also gives her serious grief, drawing an increasingly waspish response.              Read More

    294 Alarms and Excursions

      Did Elizabeth have a foreign ‘policy’? If so what principles drove it – dynasty, parsimony, protestantism? This week Elizabeth intervenes in Scotland and France.   Transcript   This week,Read More