History Hit Podcasts

President Zachary Taylor

Once the most popular man in America, hero of the Mexican-American war Zachary Taylor is our twelfth President and the subject of this...

Ireland's Bloodiest Murders: Maamtrasna Murders

One summer night in 1882 the Maamtrasna Valley in the West of Ireland became forever notorious when three generations of the Seoige (Joyce) family...

Harold Godwinson

All this month on Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis uncover the stories of the protagonists and events that led up to the Battle of...

2. Thomas Cochrane: The Battle of Basque Roads

2/3. Thomas Cochrane and his crew of the HMS Imperieuse embark on their greatest and most audacious scheme yet; Cochrane leads a flotilla of...

Elizabeth I's Spymaster, Walsingham

For anyone studying the politics of the 1570s-80s, it would be hard to avoid Elizabeth I’s ‘spymaster’ Sir Francis Walsingham, who seemingly...

Jericho

The ancient city of Jericho is often thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world. Made famous by the biblical tale of...

The Ancient Origins Of Sex

Going back hundreds of thousands of years, bumping uglies had to start somewhere.

What was the first sexual position? Was sex even for...

The WW2 Witch Trial of Hellish Nell

What made a working class woman from Edinburgh become such a threat to British intelligence services during the Second World War, that they tried...

The Tet Offensive: Turning Point of the Vietnam War?

January, 1968. Fighting in Vietnam has been ongoing since the 1950s. Ho Chi Minh and the leaders of the communist forces in Hanoi have concocted a...

Tower of London: Most Infamous Prisoners

From William Wallace and King Henry VI, to Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh, London's iconic Tower of London has held some of history's most...

How to Survive in Ancient Rome

This episode contains a reference to animal cruelty

Would you be able to survive in ancient Rome?

Today, Tristan Hughes is joined by...

Medieval Werewolves, Ghosts & Zombies

How did Medieval people fight against the Undead? What motivated their Ghosts? And why do stories of Werewolves persist until today?

Anthony...

Princes in the Tower: The Tudor Pretenders?

The unsolved mystery of what happened to the Princes in the Tower - Edward V and Richard, Duke of York - is possibly English history’s greatest...

3. Thomas Cochrane: From Disgrace to Freedom Fighter

3/3. After a meteoric rise to fame, Cochrane finds himself in front of a court and stripped of his titles for fraud on the London Stock Exchange....

1. Thomas Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander

Dan tells a story as dramatic, unlikely and exciting as any ever penned by an author about one of Britain's greatest sailors. Thomas Lord Cochrane...

Napoleon's Penis & Other Iconic Body Parts From History

Perhaps without you realising it, history is marked by iconic body parts.

From Frida Khalo’s monobrow, to Queen Victoria's swollen armpit,...

The Romanovs

The Romanov family were the first imperial dynasty to rule Russia, reigning from the early seventeenth century until the Russian Revolution of...

The Tudors & the American West Coast

In the summer of 1579, Francis Drake had to land in a ‘fair and good bay’ on the western coast of the New World when his ship - The Golden...

Tudors in Love

From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant’ of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors,...

How To Keep Fit in the Middle Ages

If your new year's resolutions include getting more exercise, drinking less, or eating well, you might be surprised to know that medieval people...

Exploding Kings & Red Hot Pokers: Gruesome Deaths of Monarchs

Edward II died by red-hot poker. William the Conqueror exploded on his way into the coffin. Mary II went down covered in so many pustules she was...