They called her a treasonous nymphomaniac who bankrupted France for diamonds and cake. The revolutionaries didn't just execute Marie Antoinette - they waged a brutal smear campaign to ruin her first. But what if almost everything you’ve been told about 'Madame Déficit' is a lie? From fake royal s...

They called her a treasonous nymphomaniac who bankrupted France for diamonds and cake. The revolutionaries didn't just execute Marie Antoinette - they waged a brutal smear campaign to ruin her first. But what if almost everything you’ve been told about 'Madame Déficit' is a lie? From fake royal s...

Marie Antoinette famously spent quite a lot of money and time on her outfits and make-up. But what would it feel like to actually wear it?

Kate is joined by the amazing Casta Hex, historical drag queen, embroiderer and textiles artist for film and TV. Casta creates all her costumes using histori...

We've spent a lot of time in of Victorian London on this podcast- a world of cobbled streets, grimy buildings and crowded homes. But how accurate is this- what was it really like to live in the slums of Victorian London?

Our guest today is Dr. Jackie Riding! Jackie is a specialist in the history...

The fate of the Mediterranean hung in the balance during this bloody battle between the Knights of St John and the armies of Suleyman the Magnificent in the summer of 1565. The Ottoman Empire had carved its way across three continents and now turned its sights to the tiny island of Malta. Tens of...

Did Ancient Rome have as many adult group activities as we think they did? Or was this just a Victorian myth?

Joining Kate to get behind the bacchanalia is fan-favourite Emma Southon, whose new book is 'Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire'.

How did the Romans ambush a massive Carthaginian fleet from behind a Sicilian island to win one of history's fiercest sea battles? For over 20 years, Rome and Carthage fought a brutal war for supremacy over Sicily. Tristan Hughes is joined by Carthage expert Dr. Eve MacDonald to explore the epic ...

One of history’s greatest invasion stories, stitched into 70 metres of medieval embroidery. In this episode, we unravel 10 top scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry to learn about this dramatic tale of conquest, betrayal and bloodshed, the mystery of who really made it, and what it reveals about the No...

In 1381, thousands of ordinary people rose up against the Crown, marched on London, and came close to bringing England’s political establishment to its knees... In this episode, Anthony and Maddy are joined by our very own Matt Lewis to discuss the Peasants’ Revolt: why it happened, who led it, a...

It's the most famous sunken ship in history, but its story is surrounded by a lot of myth.

Were the working classes locked below deck and doomed to drown? Could the Titanic have avoided the iceberg? And most importantly (to us, at least), what sex and scandals took place on board?

Joining Kat...

Professor Chris Stringer is on the Ancients podcast to talk about recent discoveries, DNA, and migration patterns of early humans.

The story of human origins is often imagined as a simple journey from Africa, but is the truth actually much messier? Tristan Hughes and leading palaeoanthropologis...

Babylon has a PR problem, and it's 2,600 years in the making.

The Bible remembers it as the ultimate city of sin, the place that crushed Jerusalem and dragged the Jewish people into exile. But if you look beyond this chapter, you find history's first true megacity. An ancient metropolis so influ...

Benedict Arnold was celebrated as a war hero of the American Revolution before he betrayed George Washington and the Continental Army by joining the British.

In today's episode, Anthony and Maddy take you through his rise and infamous plot to hand over West Point, cementing his name as history'...

Augustus was Rome's first Emperor. But who made his empire possible? Behind the throne stood Marcus Agrippa, the brilliant general whose victories secured the Roman world yet whose name was consciously erased from the record by his erstwhile great friend.

In this very special episode Tristan Hug...

The Magdalene Laundries existed throughout Ireland up until the late 20th century. Women and young girls were sent to these institutions that were run by orders of nuns. They were told they could not leave and were forced to work - all because they were perceived to be ‘fallen’ and in need of sal...

Above the trenches of WWI, pilots faced flaming wreckages, machine-gun fire and deadly dogfights in brutal battles for the skies. From fragile reconnaissance aircraft to fearsome fighters, aerial warfare evolved at astonishing speed, producing legendary aces like the Red Baron. But behind the fam...

What kind of predator needs no teeth to terrify its prey? The terror birds were enormous flightless hunters that ruled South America for millions of years, standing metres tall and built for a life of pursuit and slaughter.

In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by palaeontologist Dr Steve Br...

Tyrannical, egotistical, paranoid, vengeful... Few names in history conjure up such a deadly list of words. But the wife-murdering Tudor king Henry VIII is certainly one of them. Today, we examine his spectacularly complicated love life, break with Rome, political executions and ruthless pursuit ...

The Chevalier d’Éon was one of France’s most daring spies... until they began making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Armed with explosive state secrets and at the centre of a very public scandal over their identity, d’Éon went from trusted agent to international sensation.

Join Anthony an...

Was the Roman Empire really made by conquest? Or was it powered by something much darker?

For centuries, millions of enslaved people sacrificed their lives and their labour on the altar of Roman progress, an integral cog in the grinding imperial machine. And so today on The Ancients, Tristan Hu...

No throne on Earth came close to rivalling it. Vast and wealthy beyond comprehension, the court of Kublai Khan seemed a world away from medieval Europe. Yet one young Venetian made the staggering 4-year journey, and wrote down everything that he saw. His name was Marco Polo.

Today, Dan draws on ...

When you think of the Aztec Empire, what do you picture? Human sacrifice?

In today's episode, Anthony is joined by Aztec expert Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock, to unpack why we fetishise the Aztecs in this way, why ritualised violence is certainly not limited to this civilisation in this time in hi...

Few rulers humbled Rome quite like Shapur I. A King of Kings, he rebuilt the Sasanian Persian Empire, defeated Roman armies and captured Emperor Valerian in one of antiquity's most remarkable military triumphs.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Eve MacDonald to explore...

Their dragon-prowed longships and war axes brought terror to Britain's shores, unleashing centuries of invasion and conquest.

In this episode, historian Dan Snow traces the dramatic story of the Vikings in Britain, from the first brutal raids to the epic battles that gave rise to a united Englan...