Coronations - pomp and pageantry or a vital link with the timeless traditions of taking the throne?

In our second coronation special, History Hit’s Matt Lewis digs deep into the past to investigate how centuries old aspects of Anglo-Saxon and Medieval coronations will be mirrored in Charles III...

Queen Elizabeth II was born in a totally different world to today. Her life spanned decades of profound change, both in the United Kingdom and around the globe.

In this special programme, Dan Snow and royal historian Prof. Kate Williams reflect on the early years of Elizabeth II’s remarkable l...

This film celebrates the glory of England's forgotten royal churches and their links to the most opulent country residences.

The church has always been at the heart of the English monarchy. From operating as a place of contemplation and refuge to symbolising national celebration, art historian...

When he died just weeks before his 100th birthday, the country celebrated Prince Philip's devotion to duty and to the Queen as friends and family paid tribute to his many accomplishments.

But, as the Queen also said, Prince Philip didn’t “take easily to compliments.’ This film, as far as possib...

Mary’s biography is enormously dramatic, packed with romance, betrayal, imprisonment and violence. Unsurprisingly, it has proved irresistible to film-makers, recreating a time when two queens vied for power - Mary in Scotland and Elizabeth I in England. Their relationship was blighted with mistr...

Elizabeth I is one of the most iconic figures from British history - her image can be recognised in an instant. But this was no mistake, for Elizabeth’s portraits were an audacious act of spin to cement her image of female majesty. In this documentary Dr Nicola Tallis and Prof Anna Whitelock take...

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...

On Midsummer's Day in 1509 a 17 year old was crowned king of England. He would go on to transform his realm over almost four decades on the throne. He would revolutionise its religion, reforge its politics and its relations with neighbouring countries, and establish a royal navy. But, by the time...

March 2022 marks the 500th anniversary since Anne Boleyn made her debut at the court of King Henry VIII.

Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb investigates the story of Anne’s remarkable upbringing in England, the Netherlands and France before she arrived at the heart of Tudor England. For all Anne Boleyn’s...

Matthew Lewis, an author and historian who specialises in the 15th century, provides a fascinating talk about Richard Duke of York as a Marcher Lord. He explains this powerful noble's close relationship with the Mortimer family and how this further emboldened him to strive for the English Throne.

Wars of the Roses historian Matt Lewis visits the Tower of London to talk through one of the building’s greatest mysteries: the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. He talks through the possibility that the two young boys were not murdered on King Richard III's orders, but in fact survived ...

Eleanor of Aquitaine is at least as responsible for the vast empire of the Plantagenets as her more celebrated husband, Henry II. Sara Cockerill has written a wonderful biography of Eleanor, placing her back at the centre of English medieval history where she belongs. Sara and Dan discuss her lon...

Thomas Penn talks Dan through the rise, zenith and fall of the House of York during the latter half of the 15th century. They discuss some of the key figures of the polarising Wars of the Roses - including the charismatic Edward IV, the cunning Earl of Warwick, the incompetent Henry VI and the (s...

Legend of popular history Mike Loades provides Dan a detailed run down of Henry V's famous victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and how his men were more a band of brigands than a 'band of brothers'. They discuss the arms, the armour, the tactics and the popular myths today associated with the...

On the 26 February 2021, around 38 metres of wall collapsed at Hurst Castle, one of a series of vital coastal forts built by Henry VIII in the 16th century to protect England from threat of invasion by the European powers. Recently, Dan went out on his kayak to assess the damage at the castle whi...

Andy Silen-McMillin has been mapping and examining the financial patterns associated with the queen’s lands of consort queens from the Elizabeth of York to Anna of Denmark. One of the focus points has been the impact of various policies brought out by Henry VIII and his dissolution of the monaste...

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...

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...

By virtue of being England’s first crowned queen regnant – a queen in her own right – Mary I set a precedent for English regnant queenship. She struggled to establish her reign amidst the religious, nationalist, and gendered contexts of sixteenth-century England. Focusing particularly at the mome...

What did Charles II do in the English Civil Wars? Why was he known as the merry monarch? When did things start to go wrong for Charles II? What happened during the Great Fire of London? How did Charles II die? Stuarts and Restoration London historian Rebecca Rideal answers some of the key questio...

Christina of Sweden (1626-1689), a queen, a Catholic convert, an LGBTQ icon, and one of only three women to be buried in the Vatican. Who was she? And what impact did she have on culture and society? At best she has been described as clever and ‘unconventional’ and at worst as over-emotional, as ...

The voices of early modern women have long been silenced by historical record, but historical fiction gives us new ways of understanding and even relating to these colourful characters from centuries past! This discussion will examine literary representations of women in a patriarchal period; wom...