Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.
286 episodes transcribedWhen the monarchy of England was restored and King Charles II became king, the playhouses were reoppened. And for the first time, women would be permi...
Over her lifetime, Dame Barbara Cartland would write over 700 books that would sell more than 750 MILLION copies worldwide. Though her books were prim...
When Pope Stephen was putting his predecessor on trial, there were signs that what he was doing wasn't quite right. For one, in the middle of the tria...
From wife and sister of a Pharaoh, to regent to eventually Pharaoh in her own right, Hatshepsut is one of the most compelling figures of the ancient w...
George Villiers was in his early twenties when he caught the eye of King James the VI and I. Almost immediately, George became an intimate "favorite,"...
CW: murder, gore. Sister Virgina (born Marianna) had made a terrible choice in secret lovers. When a young secular boarder at the convent where she wa...
For plenty of young women in the early modern era, if their families couldn't afford their dowries, they simply shipped them off to a nunnery. That wa...
Why did the Roman Empire do away with kings? Simone de Beauvior would write that, through women, "certain historical events have been set off, but the...
History is fascinated by the possible escape of Anastasia Romanov, the Grand Duchess killed alongside her family in the Russian Revolution. But there...
When a coalition of European nations invaded Paris in 1815, they offered Napoleon what they believed to be very generous terms of surrender: he would...
When Mohammad Reza Shah got into a helicopter in 1979, he had no idea that it would be the last time he would ever see his country again. Nor did he k...
The Western Roman Empire was conquered by Odoacer, who styled himself as the "King of Italy." But the leader of the Ostrogoths, a warrior named Theodo...
Was Napoleon a military dictator, or a man who did what was necessary in order to preserve a French republic that was crumbling? To discuss the coup i...
When Annabella Millbanke had a daughter with her husband, Lord Byron, she was terrified that their child might inherit his poetical madness. And so sh...
Mary Eleanor Bowes managed to escape her abusive husband, Andrew Stoney, but the trial to divorce him and secure her financial freedom would ultimatel...
When Mary Eleanor Bowe's first husband died, he left her a letter warning her that, "A living man have no interest to mislead. A living man may." He c...
In 2018, Sheika Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, attempted a daring escape to international waters, away from what...
From the Salem Witch Trials to O.J. Simpson, trials have always revealed hidden truths about our society. History on Trial will dig into these cases,...
Along the walls of the Chamber of the Great Council in the Doge's Palace in Venice, there are portraits—one after another—of the Republic's doges. Eac...
On Very Special Episodes, we tell one incredible story each week. Stranger-than-fiction tales about normal people in extraordinary situations. Stories...
