History Hit Podcasts

Speaking with the Dead: Ancient Necromancy

In Ancient Mesopotamia, the boundary between the living and the dead was not always fixed... some even believed it could be crossed. But why would...

The Persian Gulf

Near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital commercial chokepoints, lies an ancient trade route that powered civilisation 4,000...

Bloody Mary

In 1553, Mary Tudor became the first woman to sit on the English throne - a reign of just five years, that history has remembered almost...

Anne of Cleves: New Discoveries

What if Henry VIII’s “discarded bride” actually showed real promise as queen?

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr James Taffe...

How Scandalous Were Masquerade Balls?

Faces covered, identities unknown - masquerade balls sound like a place of anonymity and, therefore, SCANDAL.

But how true is this in the...

Saving Byzantium

Did Constantinople’s fall in 1453 end the Byzantine Empire as neatly as we think?

Dr. Eleanor Janega and Dr. Laura Bolick unpack the...

Geronimo's Rebellion and the Apache Wars

Geronimo's name is famous across the world: the Apache warrior who led a resistance movement against the United States out in the South West for...

Francisco de Cuéllar: Spanish Armada Captain

How did a condemned Spanish Armada captain survive shipwreck, betrayal, and war to leave behind one of the most extraordinary first-person...

Dark Side of Prehistoric Britain

Across prehistoric Britain people raised vast stone circles, buried their dead in monumental tombs, and left offerings in rivers and bogs....

The Black Prince

He was one of medieval England’s most formidable warriors. Today we hear how Edward of Woodstock - the Black Prince - earned that reputation,...

The Ottoman Conquest of Constantinople

Assassin's Creed Revelations transports us to Constantinople, only a couple of generations after its conquest by the Ottoman Empire. It is one of...

The Last Days of Pompeii

In 79 AD, life in Pompeii unfolded beneath the shadow of a tremoring Mount Vesuvius. Streets bustled, businesses thrived, and merchants built...

The Brothels of Imperial Russia

In today's episode we're taking you back to the brothels of 19th century St. Petersburg.

Sex work was legalised under the Emperor Nicholas...

Offa, King of the Mercians

Was Offa a tyrant whose reputation was forever tainted by the killing of his prospective son-in-law? Or a visionary ruler whose achievements have...

The Astors, The Gilded Age & The Building of New York

From fur traders to rulers of the New York social scene - how did the Astors rise to the top? What did it mean to be 'Old Money' in the Gilded...

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On a summer day in Sarajevo in 1914, a young man fired two rounds of his pistol in the middle of the street, killing a Royal couple... He didn't...

The Assassination of Trotsky

This is the true story of the plot to kill Stalin's greatest enemy. It involves ice axe, a bloody study in Mexico City, and a betrayal years in...

The First Tools

What if the first technology was just a stone?

Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emma Finestone, - Curator and the Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz...

Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle

What was Anne Boleyn like before she became the most controversial queen in English history? Can the rooms and gardens at her childhood home...

Who was the first 'Lesbian'?

Was Sappho queer? Or was this Ancient Greek poet just really really good friends with women?

Today on Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by...

Challenging the Pope: The Avignon Papacy

Who would pick a fight with the Pope?? Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega dive into the explosive clash between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of...