History Hit Podcasts

The Death of Henry VIII

On 28 January 1547, King Henry VIII died at the age of 55. Just hours before his passing, his last will and testament had been read, stamped,...

The Greatest Tea Race of the Victorian Age

2/4. With towering masts and billowing sails, the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae raced neck and neck through relentless waves to be the first to...

Roman Roads

Do all roads lead to Rome? We find out in today's episode all about one of the Roman Empire's greatest legacies - it's web-like network of roads...

Royal Murder: 1810 Death in St James's Palace

In 1810 a valet called Joseph Sellis was found dead in St James's Palace. All eyes turned to his master the Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of...

The Cutty Sark

1/4. Join Dan for the first episode in a mini-series telling four stories of ships that have shaped Britain and its maritime history, from the...

Surprising History of Redheads: From Prehistoric Gingers to Ed Sheeran

Boudica. Elizabeth I. Ed Sheeran. The history of the redhead goes back thousands of years, and it fluctuates from prejudice in medieval Europe, to...

Henry II & Thomas Becket: A Doomed Friendship

It's 1163; Thomas Becket has cast off the shackles of his working class roots to become King Henry II's right-hand man. He is appointed to the...

President Grover Cleveland: Panic in the Second Term

What caused the economic panic of 1893? In this episode we are delving into the event that made Grover Cleveland's second term so different from...

Birth of the Iron Age

It’s the end of the 12th century BC, and a once remarkable Near eastern world lay in ruin. Drought, warfare, famine, earthquakes, plague - all...

Tutankhamun's Curse

Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient curse? When the tomb of King Tutankhamun was...

The First Japanese Visitor to Elizabethan England

In November 1588, a 21-year-old Japanese man called Christopher met Queen Elizabeth I. On the way, he had already become the first recorded...

Britain's Secret Atomic Tests in Australia

During the 1950s, in the remote expanses of Australia's outback, the British government conducted a series of clandestine nuclear tests. These...

Was Scott's Antarctic Expedition Sabotaged?

In the winter of 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his party set out into the frozen heart of Antarctica. Battling blizzards and treacherous...

Pope vs. Emperor: An 11th Century Crisis

When you think of drama in the medieval period the appointment of bishops would not naturally come to mind. But the Investiture Controversy is...

Queer London & The Post-War Moral Panic

In the wake of the Second World War, a moral panic swept through Britain around a rise in homosexuality.

London was the heart of this scare...

Communism in America

The history of the United States' relationship with communism is one littered with fear and persecution. So where did the American Communist Party...

Zionism in Texas

What do you know about Galveston, Texas? Perhaps you've heard about the disastrous hurricane of 1900, perhaps not. This was also likely the case...

Charles II's Lost Queen: Catherine de Braganza

Despite Catherine of Braganza's crucial place in British history, she has always been overshadowed by stories of Charles II’s many mistresses...

How The Metropolitan Police Shaped London

Scotland Yard: the home of London's Metropolitan Police Force. In this episode, Matt Lewis and Dr Jonah Miller put a magnifying lens to the...

Emperor Heraclius: Rome vs Persia

Emperor Heraclius took the Byzantine Empire from its lowest ebb to its greatest heights. After years of turmoil at the hands of invading Persian...

Bell Witch of Tennessee: America's Greatest Ghost Story

It's America's greatest ghost story: the 1817-1821 haunting of a rural family by a mysterious entity—sometimes violent, sometimes mischievous,...