The Tudor Chest Podcast

It's the most magical time of the year for millions around the world, but how did the Tudors spend Christmas? What food did they eat? How did they exchange gifts? Well to answer these questions plus much more, I am thrilled to welcome Dr James Taffe, historian and author of his brand new book "Christmas with the Tudors". 

He is one of the most controversial and often villainised figures from Tudor England, but irrelevant of what people may think, Thomas Cromwell was a staggeringly effective statesman's who totally transformed the landscape of English politics and governance. He oversaw the downfall of Queen Anne Boleyn and the dissolution of the monasteries, only to suffer his own fall from grace in 1540, but who was the real man, and why was he one of the very few people who King Henry VIII freely admitted regret at destroying?

She was the sole daughter of a royal countess, Margaret Pole, and thus a great-niece of two of England's kings, Edward IV and Richard III, and yet Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford's life is seldom explored at length. She would manage to avoid involvement in the scandal that tore her family apart, living twelve years into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but who was she, this long forgotten daughter of the house of Plantagenet?

He is the man to whom all historians and fans of Tudor England owe an enormous debt. Without the work of Hans Holbein, we wouldn't know what practically all the key players of King Henry VIII's court looked like. As a fabulous new exhibition is launched at the Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace, featuring many of Holbeins original sketches, portraits and creations, there is no more apposite time than to look back at the life of this most iconic Tudor artist, the man who gave us a front row seat to the court of King Henry VIII.

She was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. Plucked from relative obscurity, Katheryn Howard would reign for just eighteen months before a scandalous affair engulfed the court and ended with the teenage queen becoming the second of Henry VIII's queens to lose her head on the executioners scaffold, but is Katheryn really the airhead history has led us to believe, or was she a victim, brought down by power politics and salacious gossip?

She was the daughter of a king, the sister of a king and the wife of a king. Princess Mary Tudor, Queen of France and later Duchess of Suffolk was the younger, famously stunning, sister of King Henry VIII. Her scandalous marriage to the king's best friend almost spelt disaster, but she overcame it and twenty years after her death, her granddaughter became the shortest reigning sovereign in English history. In this weeks episode I explore the life of this elusive Tudor princess!

He was the brother of Henry VIII, the boy born to be king, and yet how much do we actually know about this oft forgotten Tudor prince? In this weeks episode I am thrilled to welcome my first guest, Gareth Streeter to discuss his book "Arthur, Prince of Wales: Henry VIII's Lost Brother". Expert some serious conversation intermingled with a more light-hearted discussion about the virtues of Max Iron.......... 

She was one of England's highest members of the nobility. The niece of two king's of England, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth of York, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was one of only two peeresses in her own right. She was the royal governess to Princess Mary, she was the wealthiest woman in England, with sons who were popular and beloved members of Henry VIII's inner court, and yet, in the end, all of this went against her, for Margaret could not escape the blood that ran in her veins, which eventually put her, and her family, on an explosive collision course with the most volatile man to ever sit on the throne of England.

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. The six wives of Henry VIII are amongst the most famous women in English history, but a question we seldom ask is who was the true love of King Henry VIII's life? Was it the pious and loyal Catherine of Aragon, the tempestuous and exciting Anne Boleyn, or the dutiful but dull Jane Seymour? In this episode, historian and author Adam Pennington attempts to answer this question.