Early modern history with evidence and atmosphere.
Not Just the Tudors treats early modern history as a living political landscape, not a costume drama. Its episodes move from Tudor succession crises to early English trade in Asia, Irish sea power, Shakespearean performance, diplomacy, shipwreck, and the afterlives of violence.
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Not Just the Tudors is a history show about the early modern world in all its pressure and complication. The title is accurate. Tudors matter here, but they sit beside Mughal India, Gaelic Ireland, Renaissance theatre, Spanish shipwrecks, Venetian diplomacy, and the political imagination of Europe. The format is steady and interview-led. A scene is often set first, then a historian is invited to test the story against evidence. That evidence may be a succession act, a voyage, a castle, a will, a playhouse anecdote, or a letter written carefully enough to save a reputation. The show has a particular gift for making institutions feel physical. Power is not an abstraction; it lives in a castle, in the Tower of London, in Asian markets, in ships off the Irish coast, and in the performance practices of London theatres. It also has an eye for people caught inside systems larger than themselves. Lady Jane Grey is treated not as a symbol first, but as a young woman pushed toward a throne she did not seek. Gráinne is approached through legend, Gaelic law, patriarchy, and sea power rather than simple pirate romance. English merchants in India appear weak before the Mughal world, learning from indigenous guides and traders before imperial dominance was imaginable. The Spanish Armada story lingers on the terrible human cost after the famous naval defeat, including executions and the survival of a final testament. The theatre episode treats boy actresses with care, acknowledging historical distance while asking serious questions about performance, gender, and identity. Not Just the Tudors is best for listeners who like their history textured, sourced, and unhurried. It trusts a complicated answer. It also understands drama, but earns it through context rather than exaggeration. The recurring pleasure is the way each episode takes a familiar period and opens a side door: trade before empire, queenship before coronation, diplomacy before policy, folklore before reputation. The past becomes less tidy, and more interesting.
Made for: For listeners who want serious, accessible history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially Tudor politics, global encounter, court power, theatre, warfare, and maritime worlds. It suits patient listeners who enjoy scholars, primary sources, and careful interpretation.
What sets it apart: The show sets vivid historical scenes, then lets guests complicate them with documents, geography, law, and material detail. It ranges beyond familiar Tudor court stories while keeping the period's political texture firmly in view.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks about everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower. Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.Each episode Suzannah is joined by historians and experts to reveal incredible stories about one of the most fascinating periods in history, new releases every Wednesday and Sunday.A podcast by History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, The Ancients, and Betwixt the Sheets.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a n...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Suzannah Lipscomb uses close questioning to separate historical reputation from evidence, revealing how power operated through law, commerce, medicine, and performance.
Not Just the Tudors turns early modern history into a sustained conversation between Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and scholars who are willing to test familiar labels.
The crown is only the doorway; Suzannah Lipscomb leads you into stranger rooms of the early modern world.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, tightly argued look at the uneasy beginnings of English contact with India.
Elizabethans in India corrects a familiar colonial story by showing English travel to India before conquest hardened into empire: tentative, commercial, and still uncertain.
A brief, devastating account of Jane Grey's rise, refusal, and ruin.
Lady Jane Grey is presented as a tragic clash between learning and power: a 16-year-old who loved books, Greek philosophy, and Latin poetry, and who spent her short life trying to satisfy parents who never made that easy.
A careful look at power, gender, and memory through Grainne and Gaelic society.
The episode places Grainne on the western edge of Ireland and uses her story to sketch a world where 16th-century power rested on ships as much as land.
Boy actors were not substitutes; they were trained professionals at the center of Elizabethan stagecraft.
This episode treats the boys trained to play women in Renaissance London as skilled professionals, not as theatrical stand-ins. It follows the craft behind those roles, from rehearsal and vocal discipline to mentorship and the climb from small parts to commanding tragic…
An Armada voyage that ends in wreckage, execution, and records that still feel close.
The episode follows the Armada from its delayed departure in July 1588 to the wrecks and executions on Ireland's coast, and it keeps the chain of cause and effect in view without losing the human cost.
A slippery diplomat's life becomes a clear portrait of statecraft built on wit, letters, and compromise.
The episode presents Sir Henry Wotton as a restless diplomat: student, traveller, secretary, soldier, scoundrel, and spy, with a career that runs from service to Essex through Essex's downfall and into the harder work of recovering his reputation in England.
A sharp, measured look at Tudor legitimacy and the Yorkist claim.
This episode treats Tudor legitimacy as a live political problem rather than a settled fact, and that framing gives it real momentum. It moves neatly through Margaret Countess of Salisbury, Edmund de la Pole, and the wider Yorkist family, showing how Tudor power could lean…
A haunted Scottish story that becomes a sharper argument about belief, doubt, and history.
Not Just the Tudors follows Robert Kirk into Aberfoyle, where the village, the dark, and old beliefs frame a story about second sight, spirits, and fairies that seem to sit just beyond official certainty.
Multi-part dramatized retellings of scandals like OceanGate's Titan and the Lehman Brothers collapse.
A season-by-season history show pairing dramatized Rasputin and Salem narratives with historian interviews.
Greg Young and Tom Meyers explain how New York City's streets took shape.
Fashion historians April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary dig into garments, letters, and the people who wore them.
Before empire, England looked small.
Not Just the Tudors follows Lady Jane Grey from her childhood at Bradgate House to her brief rule in July 1553, using Suzanne Lipscomb, Nicola Tallis, Anna Whitelock, Joanne Paul, and art historian Verity Babs to reconstruct her story.
Not a pirate, not a queen.
Silk gowns did some of the arguing.
The Armada leaves Spain after months stuck waiting.
Diplomacy begins with a double meaning.
This episode explores the dramatic life and notorious legacy of pirate Captain Kidd, from his rise to infamy to his eventual execution.
Yorkist blood would not stay quietly buried.
This episode explores the possibility of the first female serial killer in Tudor history, connecting it to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's era through historical sites and documentaries.
A history podcast exploring Tudor-era topics with expert guests, hosted by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb.
This episode explores the often-overlooked roles of women in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, contrasting indigenous and colonial societies.
This episode examines the pivotal 1714 transition from the Stuart to Hanoverian dynasties in Britain, exploring the political and constitutional implications of this engineered succession.
This episode covers the death of Henry VII and the rise of Richmond Palace, symbolizing his improbable ascent to the English throne.
A podcast exploring the reign of Queen Anne, challenging common perceptions and highlighting her role in creating Great Britain.
A minister walks into the mist.
This episode explores the role of Queen Mary II in the Glorious Revolution, challenging the simplistic view of a bloodless coup.
A London street turns murderous.
This episode introduces a series on Restoration monarchs following Charles II's return to the throne in 1660.
This episode previews a documentary about Catherine Howard, focusing on her life and choices beyond the scandal of her downfall.
This episode narrates the return of Charles II from exile in 1660, marking the end of Puritan rule and the beginning of the Restoration.
A history podcast exploring Tudor and early modern topics with expert guests.
A history podcast exploring Tudor-era topics with expert guests, hosted by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb.
This episode explores how Tudor monarchs gradually extended English control over Ireland through everyday pressure and steady intrusion, beyond dramatic rebellions.
This episode recounts the tragic story of Dr.
This episode explores the mystery of Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and its cultural impact, framed within a broader historical context.
This episode explores the Pilgrimage of Grace, a massive uprising in 1536 against Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries and religious reforms.
This episode explores the theory that Shakespeare's Hamlet was named after his son Hamnet, who died at age 11, as a hidden biographical clue.
The episode recounts the tragic story of Beatrice Cenci, a young woman executed in Rome in 1599 after enduring her father's cruelty.
This episode promotes History Hit subscription and an avocado mattress ad, but the show focuses on Tudor history interviews.
This episode explores the life and genius of Christopher Marlowe, a playwright and spy in Elizabethan England.
This episode explores the pivotal 1525 Battle of Pavia, focusing on the conflict between King Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.
This episode features Philippa Gregory discussing Jane Boleyn and Tudor history, with promotions for History Hit and Shopify.
Not Just the Tudors examines how people tried to stay alive in Renaissance England, where illness, childbirth, wounds, and plague shaped daily life.
This episode imagines a fictional meeting between Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, exploring their potential rivalry and collaboration on the Henry VI plays.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb introduces a history podcast covering Tudor and early modern topics with expert guests.