Kings and peoples

This lecture asks what weapons people owned in Henry VIII's England and whether they knew how to use them, some of its evidence drawn from coroners' inquests into accidents with bows, guns and swords. Exhortations to manly valour egged soldiers on to fight, but as in most wars be ... Show More

This lecture examines war and the economy in Henry VIII's England: heavy taxation and disrupted trade threatened recession. But, arms traders, fortification builders, privateers and those who raided the Scots for their livestock, often with names familiar to followers of North-Ea ... Show More

This lecture explores how military service related to the social power and self-image of lords and gentlemen in Henry VIII's England. While contemporaries complained that they were giving up the knightly ways of their forebears, many still valued their martial honour and found a ... Show More

Historian Heather Jones tackles the familiar image of a war centred on a static front line in northern Europe, and looks at how World War One affected populations beyond the front line. 

Much has been written about the Crusades, the religiously-inspired wars that pockmarked the later centuries of the Middle Ages. Yet for all of the many books on the subject there has been surprisingly little focus on the men and the women who were entangled in these conflicts. In ... Show More

Although the 2003 Iraq War was linked to the "War on Terror" the case for the war was presented, at least in the UK, within the terms of the established framework of international relations, with the UN at the centre. The aftermath of the war pushed the UK into an arena in which ... Show More

<p>We all think we know the story of Richard III and Henry VII, or do we? Richard III is often portrayed as a child-murdering usurper whose reign was brought to a bloody end by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth. It was a grudge match to decide who would become King of England, ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brutal events of 26 August 1346, when the armies of France and England met in a funnel-shaped valley outside the town of Crécy in northern France. Although the French, led by Philip VI, massively outnumbered the English, under the command of Ed ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brutal events of 26 August 1346, when the armies of France and England met in a funnel-shaped valley outside the town of Crécy in northern France. Although the French, led by Philip VI, massively outnumbered the English, under the command of Ed ... Show More

Lecture eight in the Approaching Shakespeare series asks the question that structures Richard II: does the play suggest Henry Bolingbroke's overthrow of the king was justified?