Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Scotland in the 1560s was chaotic even by Tudor standards. In this thought experiment episode, we ask: what if Mary Queen of Scots had fled to France in 1567 instead of marrying Bothwell? We walk through the real history, then imagine how one different decision might have changed the Catholic plots against Elizabeth, the Spanish Armada, and the entire trajectory of the British monarchy. Plus: come join us at TudorCon, October 23-25 in Richmond, Virginia. tudorcon.englandcast.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

History says medieval women were powerless. Some of them knew exactly where the power was and went and got it.

In this episode I'm looking at four women who built careers, won lawsuits, and left things behind that still exist today, all inside a legal system that was stacked against them. Katherine Fenkyll ran one of the most active cloth businesses in Tudor London for thirty years, negotiated with guilds and cardinals, and took people to court over bad silk. Rose de Burford chased Edward II for an unpaid debt five times while simultaneously producing embroidered vestments for the Pope. Alice Chester took over her late husband's international shipping operation and donated the first crane to the Port of Bristol. And Joan Bradbury founded a school in Saffron Walden that is still open today.

None of them were rebels. They were just very good at finding the gaps.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of how a respected Elizabethan botanist looked at a tomato, applied perfectly logical medical reasoning, and concluded that English people shouldn't eat one, and why it took two hundred years for anyone to prove him wrong.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henry VIII's kitchens at Hampton Court occupied 55 rooms, employed 200 men, and burned six tons of wood every single day. This episode spends 24 hours inside that operation, from the scullions lighting fires before dawn to the leftover food going to the poor at the end of the day. We cover the kitchen hierarchy, the staggering food quantities, the spit boy and his very specific idea of a holiday, who ate what and where, and the theft problem that required a royal decree to address.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Tudor England, a dream wasn't private. It was medical evidence, potential divine communication, and possibly a message from Satan. This video explores the three frameworks Tudor people used to understand their dreams, and the story of Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent, whose visions made her famous across England and then got her executed in 1534.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices