As the daughter of England’s most famous king, Mary Tudor spent much of her life in Henry VIII’s shadow, forced to navigate his capricious moods and murderous whims. But she played the long game, outlasting nearly everyone around her to assume the throne in 1553 as Britain’s first ruling queen. 

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In the 15th century, Queen Isabella became convinced that heretics and infidels were threatening Christendom. She became the architect of a 300-year-long religious genocide: The Spanish Inquisition. Then she set her sights to the West, and funded an audacious plan by an Italian navigator. 

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She was never supposed to be queen. But in 1474, when Isabella of Castile’s half-brother King Enrique died, she seized her chance to take what was hers. And after holding onto the crown from Portuguese invaders, Isabella set out to do what no other Spanish monarch had been able to accomplish in nearly 700 years: reclaim Granada. 

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Tired of playing second fiddle, Isabella decided to turn on her husband and join forces with his enemies: the exiled barons. Together, they planned an invasion of England to take the throne from Edward II and install Isabella's young son as king... with Isabella as the ruling regent.

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All her life, Isabella of France knew she was going to be Queen consort of England. But when her husband took the throne in 1307, it became obvious that he had chosen another as his favorite: Piers Gaveston. To survive, Isabella walked the tightrope of court politics, proving she was more than a pawn in the ever-changing relationship between England and France.

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He attacked the press, oversaw egregious human rights violations, and even welcomed a notorious Nazi war criminal into his country. For decades, Alfredo Stroessner largely acted with impunity—until the late 1980s, when a chaotic schism in his party drove him into exile.

For more information on Paraguayan history and Alfredo Stroessner, check out The Dictator Dilemma: The United States and Paraguay in the Cold War by Kirk Tyvela. We found it extremely helpful in our research for this episode!

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In 1932, 20-year-old Alfredo Stroessner was a cadet at the Paraguayan military academy. It would take a little over two decades for him to seize power through a military coup, and begin his 35-year reign as an implacable autocrat. 

For more information on Paraguayan history and Alfredo Stroessner, check out The Dictator Dilemma: The United States and Paraguay in the Cold War by Kirk Tyvela. We found it extremely helpful in our research for this episode!

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