Episodes

  • #20 Hanging on Russia's apron strings - Ep 4 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?

    #20 Hanging on Russia's apron strings - Ep 4 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?
    Oct 2 2024
    In 1912 a deal between War Secretary Haldane and the German chancellor Bethmann-Holweg to allow Britain to retain naval supremacy if they both remained neutral (if neither side had started the war), was rudely sabotaged. It involved lying to Cabinet that the Germans were demanding a full-scale Anglo-German alliance, which they weren’t. It meant throwing away what the majority of the Cabinet saw as the best chance to contain Russian expansion, by making common cause with Germany. Russia, allied to the French, could now call all the shots. (R)

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    23 mins
  • #19 Bicycling holidays along the French-Belgian border - Ep 3 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?

    #19 Bicycling holidays along the French-Belgian border - Ep 3 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?
    Sep 25 2024
    How did what friendly chats between British and French generals since 1905 turn into a commitment to send a small British Expeditionary Force to France at the start of a war with Germany? A commitment that had not been agreed by Cabinet, Parliament or the Navy? (R)

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    29 mins
  • #18 Spies of the Kaiser - Ep 2 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?

    #18 Spies of the Kaiser - Ep 2 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?
    Sep 18 2024
    We look at anti-German hysteria in Britain 1906-1909. The British publishing phenomena of 1906 was The Invasion of 1910 (by Germans), serialised in the Daily Mail and marketed by men walking around London in Prussian uniforms. This chimed perfectly with the anti-German clique at the foreign office. (R)

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    26 mins
  • #17 The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?

    #17 The Elephant in the Room - Ep 1 WW1: how much was it Britain's fault?
    Sep 11 2024
    Britain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown. So why did Britain go to war to SUPPORT Russia and AGAINST Germany which was its closest European friend and trading partner? (R)

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    35 mins
  • #40 Henry VIII: the pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence

    #40 Henry VIII: the pope, Katherine, Anne and Florence
    Sep 4 2024
    After years of negotiation and confrontation, Pope Clement VII was heard swearing unpapally over Henry VIII’s divorce. And no wonder. The history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. Pope Clement was trapped between a rock and a hard place: the only way to save his Medici family’s city of Florence was to refuse Henry his divorce and split Christendom. (R)

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    37 mins
  • #52 Anne Boleyn - Henry's MacGuffin

    #52 Anne Boleyn - Henry's MacGuffin
    Aug 28 2024
    Most of what we think we know about Anne Boleyn turns out to be later invention, with no historical basis. We argue that she was a MacGuffin: she was necessary to the way things turned out for Henry, but unimportant in herself. We’re not even sure he was in love with her. (R)

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    45 mins
  • #51 Marrying Anne Boleyn, the best of a bad job - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #51 Marrying Anne Boleyn, the best of a bad job - Ep 6 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Aug 21 2024
    The Ambassadors painting by Hans Holbein reveals the French horror at Henry’s decision in January 1533 to defy the pope and get remarried to a pregnant Anne Boleyn. But since Henry couldn't get an annulment he had no choice. No big-time European princess would marry him. With the Spanish seriously weakened by war, Turkish invasion and protestant revolt in Germany, and Henry’s French allies now needing him more than he does them, Henry’s long game to get the Pope on side against the Spanish is now in extra time. Henry is free to make himself head of the Church in England. See the painting at the National Gallery, London. (R)

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    30 mins
  • #50 No more ménage á trois - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French

    #50 No more ménage á trois - Ep 5 Henry VIII: the king, his wife, his lover, the French
    Aug 14 2024
    In a dynamite French document from August 1530, still overlooked by historians, the King of France offers to send troops to England to defend Henry VIII against the Spanish. No French government before or since has ever promised to send troops to defend England. Does this explain Henry’s sudden move in August 1530 to go on the offensive against Rome and the clergy in England? (R)

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    29 mins