History Hit Podcasts

The Habsburgs

How did an obscure Swiss family grow in power to gain control of the Holy Roman Empire in the 15th century? How did they manage to then take in a...

How Shakespeare Depicted Race

In the same way that Shakespeare’s women characters were performed by boys in female costume, African, Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Jewish roles...

The Palace of the Golden Gate

Alongside the Great Mosque, the palace was the first structure built in Baghdad. Let’s imagine this…

You’re a new visitor, you’ve...

The Caravanserai

Let’s take a jaunt to an ancient structure that made all of medieval Baghdad possible, the caravanserai or funduq. Originally built by the...

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Jesus, John the Baptist & Essenes

Part 2/2. Of unknown authorship, the Dead Sea Scrolls - also known as the Qumran Scrolls - are some of the most important ancient documents ever...

Julius Caesar's Sex Life

"I came. I saw. I conquered".

Perhaps the most famous Julius Caesar quote of all time. But after hearing all about his bedroom antics, it...

President James Monroe

Serving from 1817 to 1825, James Monroe's presidency was only the fifth presidency of the United States. Monroe's time in power saw the...

Mysterious Anglo-Saxon Bone Chests with Cat Jarman

In 1642, a Parliamentarian army smashed up Winchester Cathedral, including ten beautiful, 7th century mortuary chests, that housed the mortal...

Anne Boleyn & Catherine Howard's Uncle, Thomas Howard

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, is often vilified as one of the Tudor century's most unpleasant characters. His was a family marked by...

Roman Emperors with Mary Beard

When examining the role of the Emperor within the Roman Empire, it is often easier to focus on the individual rather than the role itself. With...

Roman Emperors with Mary Beard

What did it take to become a Roman emperor? Pliny the Elder wrote that a ruler should be generous, victorious in battle and a father to his...

Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects

If you can never connect to a printer, if furniture jumps out to stub your toe, if when you do the dishes the water jumps out the sink to soak you...

Witches of St Osyth

In March 1582, a number of women from the small Essex village of St Osyth were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. Several others, including one...

Polari: The Secret Language of Gay Men

It's a credit to the resilience of the gay community that when society tried to outlaw and silence them, they just created a language of their own...

The Battle of Midway

On the 4th of June 1942, the US Navy took on the might of Japan's Imperial Navy in the battle of Midway. It was America's Trafalgar! At the end of...

How Kateryn Parr Championed the Reformation

Henry VIII's sixth wife Kateryn Parr was a scholar and a writer in her own right. She was one of the first English women to have works published...

Margaret of Anjou

Dr. Eleanor Janega continues Gone Medieval’s special series exploring Medieval Queens with a look at Margaret of Anjou, who rose to become a...

The Bones of Anglo Saxon England

It's the 13th of December, 1642, and Parliamentarian soldiers have just stormed the city of Winchester. They burst into the city's grand cathedral...

Hammam

With their elaborate domed ceilings and ornate mosaics, these public steam baths were adopted by Muslims from the Greco-Roman world. Stemming from...

Battle of Little Bighorn

Not one of the US forces led by General George Custer into the attack on 25 June 1876 survived. But the story of 'Custer's Last Stand' as it was...

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of Qumran

Part 1/2. Potentially one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever, the Dead Sea Scrolls - also known as the Qumran Scrolls - are a...