January 1649, Whitehall. A king steps onto the scaffold. Moments later, Charles I is dead... tried and executed by his own subjects. For the first time in its history, England is without a monarch.

What follows is one of the most radical experiments in British history. The House of Lords is abol...

November 5th, 1605... beneath the shadowed vaults of the Houses of Parliament, a man waits with 36 barrels of gunpowder by his side, and a plan that could change the fate of a nation forever.

Then, in a moment, it's over... Guy Fawkes is caught and the plan thwarted. But what if he wasn't?

Led ...

17th century Iceland was a remote place. But its isolation didn’t stop it getting caught in one of the most horrifying crazes of the time, the witch hunts. But in the breathtaking landscape of Iceland something was different. In Iceland 93% of witches killed were men. Dr Kate Lister is on a missi...

Few British monarchs loom as large in the public imagination as King Henry VIII. Straddling the line between man and myth, he is best known for his infamous six marriages and his penchant for beheadings. But where does fiction meet fact? In cinema and on television, he has been portrayed by a hos...

History Hit's Dan Snow has been given exclusive access to the incredibly well-preserved remains of the 18th-century warship Northumberland.

Complete with cannons, muskets and coils of rope, it's a discovery that's rewriting our understanding of the evolution of the Royal Navy.

The special fil...

In this film Dan explores the Great Debasement, the infamous policy introduced in 1544 England by Henry VIII to help fund his wars and boost his finances by reducing the amount of precious metal in gold and silver coins and in some cases replacing them entirely with cheaper base metals like coppe...

Imagine coming face to face with the extraordinary people who filled the court of King Henry VIII.

Well we can! Thanks to the extraordinary work of the artist hans Holbein the Younger.

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to Buckingham Palace to enter the gallery of the Royal Collection where a bri...

Join Paterson Joseph, actor (‘Boat Story’, ‘Wonka’) and author (‘The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho’), in this special History Hit film as he takes us on a fascinating journey through 18th century London, discovering the life, loves and losses of a truly remarkable man.

Georgian Londo...

On November 17th 1558, Mary Tudor, Queen Mary I of England, died - the end of a short and still controversial reign. But what if history had been different, what if she didn’t die in 1558, but lived longer to reimpose Roman Catholicism on England and forge a long lasting Anglo-Spanish alliance?
...

Get ready for carriages pulled by headless horses, spooky palaces, a weird floating cylinder thing...and a single moment in history that has haunted England, and now Britain's, imagination for hundreds of years.

In this episode of After Dark, Anthony and Maddy talk the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Quee...

How far would you go to save your immortal soul?’

This is the question that plagued Tudor High Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. Lawyer, philosophiser, and advisor to Henry VIII, when the court turned on its head at the arrival of Anne Boleyn. Hounded by prolific characters like Thomas Cromwell, his ...

History Hit digs deep into a fascinating new discovery that has grabbed the attention of historians across the world.

Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb explores what is being called the most exciting Tudor find ‘in a generation’ as curators at Hever Castle identify a bejewelled, gilded prayer book, tuc...

On January 14th 1559 one of the most extraordinary royal parades of Tudor England made its way through the heart of London. It was the Coronation Procession of Queen Elizabeth I.

In this special History Hit film, made to coincide with the coronation of King Charles III, royal historian Tracy B...

Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn - the first two wives of Henry VIII - are so often portrayed as opposites. Katherine as the loyal, scorned wife - Anne as the bright, bewitching upstart.

But now Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb returns to Hever Castle to explore what Anne and Katherine were really l...

BREAKING NEWS: The bones of up to 10 soldiers killed in the Battle of Waterloo have been discovered - the largest cache of Waterloo casualties ever found.

Uncovered by a team of Belgium and German academics, it's believed these bones belong to a mix of Prussian, French and British Soldiers all ...

How do you tell the story of one of the most interesting and tumultuous times in history - when Henry VIII died, leaving three children from three different mothers?

A fantastic panel of historians and writers gathers to discuss the Starz TV series “Becoming Elizabeth”, and explore the real ev...

Earlier this year, to coincide with the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, History Hit took the long view on some of the other women who were queens in Britain - from the 12th century Empress Matilda right through to Queen Victoria.

In a lively and fascinating debate, Prof Suzannah Lipscom...

In this series, Alice Loxton and Dan Snow head to Stratford-upon-Avon to uncover the secrets of William Shakespeare’s early life and upbringing. Who were Shakespeare’s parents? What was rural Warwickshire like in the 16th century, and how was it changing? What sort of childhood did William have?
...