History Hit Podcasts

Who Was Ancient Rome's Darkest Emperor?

There are a disturbingly high number of contenders for the title of Rome's Darkest Emperor - so as you can imagine, things get extremely...

Habsburg Women: Matriarchs of Power

When we think of the Habsburgs, the spotlight usually falls on emperors, kings, and archdukes—powerful men who dominated Europe. But behind the...

Ancient Egyptian Architecture In Assassin's Creed Origins

Historians Review & Ubisoft Developer Interview with Maxime Durand

In Assassin’s Creed Origins players can do what no tour group today...

Did the Trojan War Really Happen?

The Trojan War is one of the great foundational stories of Western literature - a tale of gods and heroes, betrayal and siege, immortalised by...

The Picts: Rulers of the North

Tristan Hughes journeys up to windswept Scotland to uncover the secrets of the Picts — fierce warriors, skilled artisans, enemies of Rome and...

Æthelstan: The Birth of England

Matt Lewis shifts the Gone Medieval spotlight from well-known Viking raiders and celebrated Anglo-Saxon kings to consider Æthelstan, an often...

Who Was The Naughtiest Pope In History?

Sex, scandal and ... the Sacraments? Renaissance Rome wasn't for the faint hearted. And the Vatican? For some that was the source of the...

Anne Boleyn: Myths vs Reality

The life of Anne Boleyn has intrigued audiences for centuries. Everyone knows something about her time as Queen of England, and of course, her...

What Caused the Civil War? | John Brown's Raid

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry helped cause the Civil War. His is a magnetic persona that's hard to take your eyes away from. But who were the...

Day In The Life Of A Body Snatcher

Join Anthony and Maddy as they spend a day - or should that be night? - in the life of a 19th century body snatcher.

Find out which months...

The Permian Extinction: When Life Nearly Died

It was the biggest mass extinction event in Earth’s history. 250 million years ago, a 252 million years ago, Earth faced its deadliest crisis....

Vanity of Henry VIII with Kate Lister

With six wives, Henry VIII must have had something going for him, right? Was he handsome? Charming? Intelligent? Just plain powerful? In this...

Emperor Augustus

Augustus has often been hailed as Rome’s greatest emperor - he ended civil war, built an empire and declared a new age of peace. But behind the...

The Real Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a queen who defied expectations, a duchess who outmanoeuvred kings, and a mother whose dynasty shaped the future of...

History's Worst F*ckboys: Emperor Nero

Where does Emperor Nero fit in the pantheon of history's worst f*ckboys?

Does he measure up against the likes of previous episodes on...

The Origins of California

How did California become the Golden State? It's a story that includes conquistadors, missionaries, gold miners, railroad builders and tourists,...

Georgian England's Notorious Dumpling Poisoner

Did she do it? Did serving girl Eliza Fenning poison the dumplings she served the Turner family? This is a true crime case from 1813 that brings...

The Ottoman-Venetian Wars

Ezio Auditore, the hero of Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed Revelations, travels from Venice to the...

Charles V, Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor

In the second episode of our special Habsburg dynasty series, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by renowned historian Professor Geoffrey...

The Greatest Knight That Ever Lived: William the Marshal

William the Marshal’s story reads like a legend. Born a landless younger son, he rose through sheer skill and courage to become the greatest...

541 AD: The Worst Year in History

Was this the worst year in human history? Bubonic plague sweeps across the Mediterranean. The sun vanishes behind volcanic ash. Crops fail, famine...