British History Podcasts

Why would a king seal a peace treaty on the first anniversary of his brother's death? In The Price of Peace, The British History Podcast stops over that choice. Jamie points out that the parties had been in Winchester since July 31st, so the ceremony on August 2nd "wasn't an accident." A date becomes evidence, and evidence becomes an argument about how power talks. That is the best thing British history does in audio: it puts the record in front of you and then asks what it was trying to say.

Rex Factor covers some of the same ground with a scorecard. It reviews the kings and queens of England and Scotland, and its fourth series turns to "nearly monarchs," including a recent episode on Robert Curthose. Series 4 Introduction lays out the plan and promises what-if scenarios. The hosts admit that Richard III's young son Edward of Middleham might get an interview episode instead of a review. Later in that episode, a square-root formula for longevity reshuffles the all-time table, which previously had Edward I fifth on 77.5 and Robert the Bruce fourth on 80.

Where the chronicle shows hand you one narrator's judgment, the interview shows let you hear a scholar argue. In A new take on the battle of Hastings (33 minutes) from HistoryExtra podcast, David Musgrove questions Professor Tom Licence of the University of East Anglia about his theory of 1066. Licence says that no source in the original Latin and Old English mentions marching or riding south after Stamford Bridge, although a couple of translations inserted those words. He reads Harold's shield wall on Senlac as a containment operation within a larger pincer plan. Musgrove presses him on how a fleet fits the surprise attack on Hardrada, which keeps the theory honest. Rex Factor's Tom Licence on 1066 covers the same year, and the Military History page continues the thread.

Travels Through Time asks each guest which year they would visit, then walks through it in scenes. Peter Moore's [From the Archive] Philip Stephens: Britain Alone (1962) traces Britain's search for a role after Suez. It covers Macmillan's talk of "interdependence," de Gaulle's suspicion that Britain was an American Trojan horse, and a nuclear deterrent placed under NATO command with a clause for taking it back in extreme national emergency. Near the end, Moore reflects on hearing the conversation again five years on. Pair Sean Cunningham: King Henry VII and a Year of Peril (1497) with HistoryExtra's Henry VII episode for two angles on one reign.

The English Heritage Podcast begins from something you can picture. In Northumberland: castles and the borderlands of power, Amy Matthews says "we, as always, start with an object." The episode explains how, in 1159, Henry II made Malcolm IV give up Carlisle and Northumbria, when the Solway-to-Tweed line began to be thought of as the border. Matthews asks whether locals felt Scottish or English, comparing it to her own Dagenham. The reply: their first answer would probably be "I'm Northumbrian." Memories of flowers: a country house and its community draws on recorded recollections from Brodsworth Hall, including a man who put bulbs in a trough beneath a big mirror each morning. The bittersweet history of chocolate moves from a tin marked "South Africa 1900" to adulteration with brick dust and iron filings. Matthews's chatty asides are part of the appeal.

Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places, a Historic England series from 2018, presented by Susanna Lipscomb, builds a list of places from public nominations. Peterloo, Cable Street and Olaudah Equiano sets the gathering in context. It describes a pro-democracy rally of 60,000 when Manchester had no MPs and Old Sarum had two for 11 people. For Cable Street, it keeps the qualifier on "modern claims, which are hard to verify" of up to 250,000. Nuclear Physics in Manchester and the Bristol Bus Boycott recounts how Guy Bailey's job interview was withdrawn once he said he was West Indian, and how organisers built a boycott around it. These episodes are short. The Historical Events page is the natural next stop.

That Shakespeare Life, hosted by Cassidy Cash, uses Shakespeare as a way into ordinary early modern life. Easter in Shakespeare's England: Faith, Feasting, and a New Doublet (58 minutes) considers Mercutio's new doublet. It reaches Elizabeth washing the feet of 39 poor women in 1572, "if I've got this right," the guest adds, feet pre-washed by court officials. The guest also explains why popular customs are hard to trace: folklorists only recorded them systematically from the mid-to-late 18th century, and diaries from modest households are scarce. In Courts, Rackets, Balls, and Rules: The Game of Tennis in the 16th Century, the guest's tentative view of the colour of a period tennis ball rests on an object in the London Museum. Expect commercial breaks in the feed.