In March 1582, a number of women from the small Essex village of St Osyth were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. Several others, including one man, died in prison, in what was a shocking and highly localised witch-hunt. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Marion Gibson, who offers revelatory new insights into the personal histories of those who were denied the chance to speak for themselves.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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On the 4th of June 1942, the US Navy took on the might of Japan's Imperial Navy in the battle of Midway. It was America's Trafalgar! At the end of the fighting devastating losses had been inflicted on the Japanese and the entire strategic position in the Pacific was upended in favour of the Allies. Never again would Japan be able to project power across the ocean as it had done at Pearl Harbour. In this explainer episode, Dan takes you through this key turning point in the Pacific War. He examines the key intelligence that allowed the American Navy to turn the tables on the Japanese fleet, a blow-by-blow account of the battle itself, the terrible human cost of the fighting and the aftermath of this decisive American victory.

Edited by Dougal Patmore

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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It's the 13th of December, 1642, and Parliamentarian soldiers have just stormed the city of Winchester. They burst into the city's grand cathedral on horseback, and begin tearing it apart. The soldiers smash windows, burn tables and tapestries and steal anything of value. Stashed away in ornate wooden chests, they stumble across something unique - inside are the sanctified bones of English kings and queens, diligently collected over hundreds of years. But they are of no material interest to the rampaging soldiers, who turn the chests inside out and shatter many of the bones to dust.

Nearly four hundred years later, Dan is joined by historian and bioarchaeologist Cat Jarman, to talk about her new book, The Bone Chests. Cat picks up this intriguing tale, and explains what the remaining fragments can tell us about the world of England's Anglo-Saxon forebears.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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This is the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as you've never heard it before. From their childhoods and courtship through to their union and Anne's brutal execution, we'll peel back layers of historical myth to find out how this marriage changed England forever.

Dan is joined by the Tudor historians John and Julia guy, authors of Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe, to examine one of the most famous and consequential marriages in history.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Ella Blaxill.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, so how did it work out when he became the leader of this nation that he was so instrumental in founding?

For the third episode in American History Hit's special series about the Presidents, we're exploring Jefferson's presidency. What challenges did he face during his time as President, and how did he mould the early years of the nation?

Don is joined for this episode by Professor Frank Cogliano, direct from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Frank is a Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Siobhan Dale. The senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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Dan explores his great-grandfather's part in the First World War. Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow was a senior officer in the British Army who commanded troops on the first day of the Somme. It was a disaster; thousands of men died for almost no strategic gains, and his legacy would be tarnished forever. But Snow's record is more complicated than that, having proved himself a competent defensive commander earlier in the conflict. So how should we remember the men who presided over catastrophes like the Somme? Were these disasters due to a lack of preparation, failures in leadership, or both?

Dan speaks to Paul Reed, a leading historian of the First World War, to find out more about his great-granddad's wartime service and his complex legacy.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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The popes of Rome emerged from the humblest of beginnings. The first was a fisherman, charged with spreading the word of God under the watchful eye of a pagan Roman Empire. But just a few centuries later, the papacy had flourished into one of the wealthiest, most powerful institutions on the planet. Surviving the rise and fall of great empires, including that of Rome, the Vicars of Christ became crucial arbitrators on the world stage.

So what can the lives of the popes tell us about the history of Rome? And how is it that the leaders of a minority cult came to be more powerful than the Emperors themselves? Dan is joined by Jessica Wärnberg, a historian of the early modern world and author of City of Echoes: A New History of Rome, Its Popes, and Its People to answer these questions and more.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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It’s one of the most dramatic stories you might never have heard. Featuring a seaborne assassination, a vengeful manhunt and London Bridge in flames, the rebellion of Jack Cade in 1450 shook the English Crown to its very core and lit the spark that began the Wars of the Roses.

In today’s episode of Gone Medieval Matt responds to a listener suggestion from Brett Fancy, unpacking and explaining how Cade went from an ordinary man to the leader of a 47,000-strong popular uprising. It is a thrilling and intriguing tale about a man who set not just London, but all of England on fire.

This episode was produced by Elena Guthrie and mixed by Joseph Knight

weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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In the spring of 1782, it wasn't the American Revolutionary War that had Londoners worried. The city and nearby countryside had been covered in ominous, mysterious webs, filled with untold numbers of caterpillars and their eggs. The city responded with panic, and rumours of plague and pestilence spread like wildfire. It seems far-fetched that an insect like the brown-tail moth could begin a citywide crisis; so why were Londoners so concerned? And how did the caterpillars become scapegoats for the city's recent tensions?

Dan is joined by John Lidwell-Durnin, a lecturer in the History of Science at Exeter University, to delve into the bizarre history of the 1782 caterpillar outbreak.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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Few organisations in history have names as loaded with legend as the Knights Templar. Western culture is infused with the mythology of these pious warrior monks, who wielded magic and went on quests for legendary treasures. In reality, it was an elite fighting force that became a Middle Ages military and financial powerhouse. Its members moved in the same circles as kings and popes, their influence spanning from Portugal to the River Jordan. But as the Holy Land was lost, European leaders began to turn on the Order, and its final leaders would meet a violent end at the stake.

In this Explainer episode, Dan takes us from their pious beginnings in the first Crusades through to the height of their power in the 13th century, and finally, to their abrupt end.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.

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