History Cafe

By Jon Rosebank, Penelope Middelboe

True history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History... more

· History

4.6

1515 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about History Cafe:

How many episodes does History Cafe have?

The podcast currently has 288 episodes available.

History Cafe episodes:

July 29, 2025 #29 The King's Fear - Ep 6 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
As his father had done, Cecil built his entrapments around a germ of genuine plotting. We uncover a small Catholic rebellion in Warwickshire in response to the king’s tougher anti-Catholic laws. And we examine Cecil’s imaginative embellishment: a mystery letter delivered to a compromised Catholic peer on 26 October warning of ‘a terrible blow this Parliament.’ It was handed to the king to decipher. If anything was designed to terrify James I, whose father had narrowly escaped death from a gunpowder blast, this was it. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
33min
July 23, 2025 #28 'A formidable network of secret agents' - Ep 5 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
We dig deeper into the animosity between the king and Cecil whom he bullied and called names. And we see the Gunpowder plot in the context of the previous plots hatched by the Cecils against their enemies. All of which historians now agree were largely fabrications. Father and son had spies everywhere and openly boasted of their policy of entrapment. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
32min
July 16, 2025 #27 'Hellish miners' - Ep 4 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
To avoid any possible blame for the plot falling on himself or the king, Cecil procures confessions saying the seven gentlemen plotters began excavating a tunnel under the House of Lords long before the government stepped up its anti-Catholic legislation. They apparently lived on site, in an upstairs room, seven to a bed. They dug unnoticed, only in the day (or was it only in the night?) for almost a year, before spying a handy cellar next door for the gunpowder barrels. Yes. Of course. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
34min
July 09, 2025 #26 Why blow up Parliament anyway? - Ep 3 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
The parliament of 1604 refuses to grant the king money. They’re still paying for the effects of the last plague. But this is Cecil’s job. What to do? On 5 November 1605 the assembled MPs and peers are calmly informed that there has been a devilish Catholic plot to blow the lot of them up. A plot that their king and Cecil have brilliantly foiled. Unsurprisingly, this time, they vote the king the money he so badly needs. Job done. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
31min
July 02, 2025 #25 'Here lieth the Toad' - Ep 2 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
We take a look at James I’s shadowy chief minister Robert Cecil who manages to implicate most of his Catholic enemies in the plot. Cecil was so desperate to improve King James’s dire view of him (his father had caused the execution James’ mother, Mary Queen of Scots) he would stoop to anything. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
35min
June 25, 2025 #24 'There is no state trial so totally devoid of reality' - Ep 1 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot
We look at the story the government published as The King’s Book, more than 500 witness statements and other contemporary sources and conclude, like the Victorian antiquarian Jardine who wrote up the trial from the State Papers, there is no reliable corroborating evidence for the gunpowder story we’ve been told. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
33min
June 18, 2025 #67 The King, the lies and the whitewash - Ep 7 Nightmare in the trenches 1914-16
On 14 July 1916 senior officers finally decided to ignore Haig. At the Battle of Bazentin Ridge they put to use everything that was good practice and broke in to the German lines. But because junior officers at the front were not permitted to take a decision, and their commanders in their chateaux were hopelessly out of touch, it was never converted into a ‘break through.’ Another 9,000 lives lost for very little gain.
After the disaster of the Somme, whitewash was elevated to a new military art form. Haig and other senior officers lied in their accounts. Haig ultimately blamed the French. Haig was even promoted by his friend the King. But he got his comeuppance on 26 March 1918 when command of the British army was handed to the French. The defeat of the Germans would be masterminded not by Haig but by Ferdinand Foch. (R)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
42min
June 11, 2025 #66 The British who cheated on the Somme - Ep 6 Nightmare in the Trenches 1914-16
At the southern end of the line, next to the French, British units took all their objectives on the first day of the battle. They succeeded mainly because their maverick commanders had learnt from the French how to bombard the Germans accurately, putting them out of action long enough for the infantry to mop up. They’d also been assisted by the French big guns. By lunchtime some of these units were being served a hot meal in a newly occupied German trench. It’s a remarkable story the British Army has done its best to forget. Some military historians say, with all that French help, they cheated! (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
42min
June 04, 2025 #65 Haig's war crime on the Somme - Ep 5 Nightmare in the Trenches 1914-16
The French decided they only had enough artillery to attack on a 9-mile front if they were to neutralise the German guns so that their infantry were not needlessly slaughtered. Haig had fewer guns – enough for perhaps 4 miles of front – but he chose to attack across 16 miles. 57,000 British soldiers died on the very first day, 1 July 1916, and no ground was gained. The French achieved all their objectives and lost 1,500 men. This is not a story that’s usually told (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
44min
May 28, 2025 #64 They had the wrong guns - Ep 4 Nightmare in the Trenches 1914-16
On the eve of the Somme the British had far too few artillery guns, and most of the ones they had were the wrong sort. They needed five times as many heavy guns before they could launch an attack. The few big guns they did have were grossly inaccurate, sometimes missing a target by one mile. They were firing shells that were not fitted with delayed-action fuses which meant the German machine-gunners were safe in their deep underground bunkers. And yet British schoolchildren are still taught it was a surprise that the bombardment that preceded the infantry attack failed so catastrophically. (R)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
41min

FAQs about History Cafe:

How many episodes does History Cafe have?

The podcast currently has 288 episodes available.

More shows like History Cafe

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,195 Listeners

Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast by Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast

Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast

292 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,675 Listeners

The English Heritage Podcast by English Heritage

The English Heritage Podcast

230 Listeners

Tudors Dynasty & Beyond by RedTop Media / Rebecca Larson

Tudors Dynasty & Beyond

716 Listeners

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk by Goalhanger

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

1,331 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

742 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,989 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,109 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,764 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,289 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,107 Listeners

The News Agents by Global

The News Agents

983 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics: Leading by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics: Leading

989 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics: US by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics: US

2,300 Listeners