Not Just the Tudors

In the 17th century, England was known as "Devil-Land" - a diabolical country torn apart by seditious rebellion, religious extremism and royal collapse. Dr. Clare Jackson has written a dazzling, original account of English history's most turbulent and radical era telling the story of a nation in a state of near continual crisis.  

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Jackson about England between 1588 and 1688 which was, in many ways, an unstable state, rocked by devastating events from the Gunpowder Plot to the Great Fire of London.

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The Ottoman Empire has long been seen as the Islamic-Asian opposite of the Christian-European West. But the reality was very different: the Ottomans played an integral role in European history. Their multiethnic, multilingual, and multi-religious domain reached deep into the heart of the continent, connecting the East and West as never before.  

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Marc David Baer about the extraordinary Ottomans, how their rulers saw themselves as the New Romans, how they fascinated Henry VIII, and how a true picture of their power and influence upends our common concepts of the Renaissance.

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In an age before newspapers and mass media, how did the general public keep abreast of what was going on? How did they find out about the seismic changes going on at court, and in the religious life of the country?  

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Jenni Hyde, whose extensive research into the early modern period proves that the news was not only spread by word of mouth and pamphlets, it actually became the stuff of ballads and communal songs.

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In the Vatican Library, there survive 17 highly personal love letters, written in King Henry VIII's own hand to Anne Boleyn between 1527 and 1528. How the letters got there no one exactly knows - they were probably stolen from Anne to be used as evidence in Henry's divorce trial with Catherine of Aragon. 

In the second of her Explainer podcasts, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explores these extraordinary letters that changed history. The podcast includes excerpts from History Hit's newly released audio book of the Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, read by Matt Lewis, which can be listened to in full here >

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On a remote Massachusetts plantation in 1651, an unpopular local brickmaker was blamed for a wave of animal ailments, children dying and vanishing property. The argumentative Hugh Parsons was accused of being a vengeful witch.  

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Malcolm Gaskill about his research into this dark, real-life folktale of family tragedy, supernatural obsessions and social anxiety in the New World of the Puritans.

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The royal wedding of Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre on 18 August 1572, was designed to reconcile France’s Catholics and Protestants - or Huguenots. But six days later, the execution of Protestant leaders led to a massacre by Catholics of thousands more Protestants in Paris and across France. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Sophie Nicholls - who is currently writing a popular history of the French Wars of Religion - to explore the events and tensions that led to one of the most frenzied and brutal outbreaks of religious violence in early modern history.

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Philip II of Spain - the most powerful monarch of the early modern period - was married to Queen Mary Tudor from 1554 until her death in 1558. But Philip was not merely Mary's King Consort. Rather he was King of England, co-ruler with Mary. But Philip's character and central role in the English monarchy was forever blackened by anti-Catholic versions of Tudor history. 

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, whose ground-breaking research shows that the reign of Mary and Philip was much more than an anomalous glitch on England's journey towards Protestantism.

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The Spanish infanta Catalina of Aragon was raised to be a Queen, betrothed at the age of three to the heir apparent of the English throne, Arthur Prince of Wales. Eight years after Arthur's death, she became the first of Henry VIII's six wives. Catalina's mother - Queen Isabella I of Castile - was the most influential person in her life. Witness at an early age to the expulsion of Jews, the defeat of the Moors in Spain, and the triumphal return of Christopher Columbus, Catherine grew up to be a intelligent, highly literate, multi-lingual woman, devoted to her Catholic faith, and a popular, charismatic Queen.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb discovers more about the early life of Catherine with two leading experts: Dr. Theresa Earenfight, Professor of History at Seattle University and author of a forthcoming biography of Catherine, and Emma Cahill Marron, whose dissertation is focused on the Queen's role as a patron of the arts in Tudor England. 

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In 1549, the Tudor establishment was rocked by a series of popular rebellions, born of deep discontent over the enclosure by wealthy landowners of common land, which were essential to ordinary people's livelihoods. In Norfolk, yeoman Robert Kett agreed to the rebels' demands and offered to lead them, storming and taking the city of Norwich - an act which prompted a brutal response from the full military might of the state.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Andy Wood about the Norfolk insurrection - known as the Ketts Rebellion - and its long-term significance for the development of English society.

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For most of western history, sex outside of marriage was forbidden by law, with adulterers even facing the death sentence. The church, the state and neighbours all put huge amounts of energy into catching sexual wrongdoers and seeing them punished. But between 1600 and 1800, this entire world-view was shattered by revolutionary new ideas - that consenting adults have the freedom to do what they like with their own bodies, and morality cannot be imposed by force.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Faramerz Dabhoiwala, author of The Origins of Sex, about his groundbreaking research into how the modern approach to sex came about.

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