Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History

In this podcast I’m taking you to a place that’s part of my ‘origin myth’, it’s a location that witnessed a bloody and brutal battle which is famous around the world. As a wee lad, it was here, that I discovered many of my ancestors from Clan Cameron were killed and buried. This realisation clicked a switch in my young brain and I realised that if I was connected to this part of history then I was connected to every part of it.

The build-up to this battle begins less than a year before when Bonnie Prince Charlie, the dashing young pretender, lands on the Scottish island of Eriskay, striding onto the bloody historical stage. He raises his standard and builds an army around himself, determined to claim the British crown by force. On 16th April 1746, on the beautiful moorland of Culloden his Jacobite army fought what would prove to be the last pitched battle ever to take palce on British soil – the Battle of Culloden.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast we’re walking down the aisle with a couple who fought like cat and dog for years, but are now about to be joined in union.

The Act of Union came into force in 1707 and England and Scotland were finally brought together by the pen and not the sword. The independent parliaments of Scotland & England were united and a prosperous new beginning was promised, but as the Act that would legally bring them together was signed the bells of St Gilles’ Cathedral, on Edinburgh’s royal mile, rang out with the mournful lament, ‘Why am I so sad on this my wedding day?’

To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to new videos packed with history and current affairs every week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we’re landing in Lyme Regis with a swashbuckling Duke who is determined to be the King.

Charles II’s eldest illegitimate son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lands in the west country with a small army of soldiers intent on deposing his catholic uncle, King James II.

The duke’s uprising gains momentum and his army swells to around 8000 strong. Because the majority of the Duke’s new raw recruits are agricultural worker, rather than trained soldiers, it becomes known as the pitchfork rebellion.

The Duke’s and the King’s army meet at Sedgemoor in what is the last battle of any note ever fought on English soil.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast we’re travelling the sharp end of a war which ripped the British Isles apart.

King Charles I went head to head with increasingly bold Parliamentarians. Bitter, internecine politics and deadly powerplays led to opposing armies being raised, and a bloody civil war swept across the whole of the British Isles. Families, neighbours and lifelong friends were pitted against each another as people were compelled to pick a side and face each other in the blood and gore of lethal combat.

In the beautiful rolling hills of the west country, near the city of Bath, a brutal battle was fought that throws the personal tragedy of civil war into sharp relief - horror and heroism side by side with the intimate heartbreak of friends fighting against each other to the death. The battle of Lansdown Hill fought in 1643.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast we’re teetering on the brink of a war that would rip the three kingdoms apart.

In what is one of the most significant moments in Scottish history the National Covenant was born. King Charles I of England and Scotland, an imperious and domineering monarch, went heat to head with the Presbyterian Scots who were in no mood to listen to new ideas, not even from a king.

Riots and rebellion swept the country and the King found himself at war with the nation. A resounding clash of religious faiths, a ground-breaking document, rebellion and a blood-soaked island.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast we’re prowling the beautiful coves and bays of the Irish coast with Barberry Corsairs.

On a dark night in 1631 a notorious Dutch pirate known as ‘Captain Murat’, who operated out of Morocco with the blessing of the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul, sailed ashore to Dunashad castle in Baltimore, County Cork. On this one fateful night Captain Murat and his pirates left a dark shadow of violence and slavery over the whole town. All the inhabitants, every man, woman, and child were taken aboard their pirate ships and transported to north Africa to be sold into slavery.

Sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon to get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week and to help support this podcast.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast Neil takes us to a place where all our modern senses and sterile sensibilities are thrown into shock. London at the turn of the C17th was a major metropolis, a city teeming with life, where pestilence and poverty sat cheek by jowl with great wealth and riches. A major industrial centre it was ripe with every stink of animal and human imaginable, streets crowded and claustrophobic, some lined with the rotting body parts of dismembered criminals.

Striding into this world came William Shakespeare, a man who had the power to entertain the thongs. Conjuring and conceiving magical words and language he became one of the pillars of the English language. His plays and poetry, that have moved and shaped the whole world, were written, read and performed on Bankside at the Globe theatre.

To help support this podcast and get exclusive access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.

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The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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In this podcast Neil takes us with him, setting foot into a building whose history is inextricably woven into the story of the British Isles.

A landmark building, that’s as beautiful as it is beguiling. In 1944 General Dwight Eisenhower camped beside it and planned the D-Day landings, William Shakespeare and his troop of actors performed in it’s Great Hall, but Henry VIII’s bloated and corrupt shadow falls most darkly on its red bricks.

It’s a palace with panache, a building that’s full of intrigue, politics and high drama. It’s a place that gave birth to a book, but not just any book, a book whose poetic words, cadences, and rhythms made it a cornerstone of English literature – the King James Bible. The elegance of the humanity expressed within its pages helped empower the formation of modern democracy, and this book was conceived within the walls of the magnificent Hampton Court Palace.

To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.

The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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This week we’re witnessing the final destructive crescendo that put paid to a powerful, but ill-fated invasion fleet bent on conquering England. Queen Elizabeth I stood firm against the mighty Spanish Armada, and the elemental forces of nature came to her assistance.

The Spanish ships sent to invade England were bristling with the latest weapons of war and full of men and treasure. After being attacked by Sir Francis Drake in the channel they were scattered by a powerful storm. Pushed by the weather right around the eastern seaboard of the British Isles, around the tip of Scotland some of the remnants of this once formidable invasion fleet ended up at the Giant’s Causeway on the Irish coast. Here, at this this world-famous stage of staggering natural beauty, they were hit by another deadly storm and finally destroyed leaving Elizabeth I and England safe.

To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.

The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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This week Neil takes us along an Elizabethan jetty to hear one of history’s great speeches.

In 1588, as Sir Francis Drake sailed to meet the mighty Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth I travelled down the river Thames to Tilbury fort where she addressed her army. If the powerful Spanish force landed and invaded England these are the men who would defend the country and its queen. Dressed in white and surrounded by her soldiers, Elizabeth delivered a legendary speech that put steel resolve into their hearts and helped define England as a nation. Stirring stuff indeed!

To help support this podcast and get access to New Videos Every Week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.

The series Instagram account is – Neil Oliver Love Letter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.