063 – After Legnano, the cool Crusade an...

In this episode, we pick up with Emperor Charles V consolidating his power over Italy after the Battle of Pavia (1525), where the French king Francis I was captured. The uneasy Italian states, including Pope Clement VII (Giulio de’ Medici), soon realized they had traded one maste ... Show More

After three episodes exploring the life of Leonardo da Vinci, we return to the turbulent stage of the Italian Wars. In this episode, we pick up in the early 1520s, a period shaped by papal politics, dynastic rivalries, and the shifting fortunes of France and Spain.Highlights incl ... Show More

This is a guest episode by Dirk Hoffmann of the history of the German podcast, in which he tells us all about the impact of one of the most important inventions in human history, Gutenberg printing press. 

By 711 Europe and the Frankish warlords were facing a graver threat than ever before. Bands of Northern African, nominally Muslim raiders had begun a steady incursion throughout the West, loosely unified under the banner of the Umayyads. Having already taken and plundered the Chr ... Show More

In 9CE three Roman legions were walking through Germany when they were ambushed in what would become one of the most notorious defeats throughout Rome’s history. The loss of the legions were a crippling blow to Rome’s plans of expansion, and redrew the borders in the province. Gu ... Show More

The Frankish king, Charlemagne the Great, is one of the titanic figures of European history, simultaneously renowned and shadowy. His rise to supreme power is a staggering story of warring religious empires, betrayal, battle, blindings and brutal conquest. How, then, did this one ... Show More

Following the death of Eudoxia, the Praetorian Prefect Anthemius took control of the Eastern Empire and ran it wisely for the next decade. Meanwhile in the West, anti-barbarian policies will lead to the invasion of Italy by Alaric. 

For centuries, Rome grew unchecked, until one man was able to reverse their fortunes, and free his country. On this episode, we take a look at the story of Arminius, and what it teaches us about how to overcome an unstoppable force. 00:00 Battle of the Teutoburg Forest 03:00 Intr ... Show More

An introduction to my new podcast series which will be published from September dealing with the wars of German unification and influence of Otto von Bismarck on Germany and Europe.  The first series will deal with the Revolutuion of 1848 and the First Schleswig War.  Later serie ... Show More

By the year AD 719, the Arab/Berber army had conquered Iberia and was invading Gaul or what is modern France. They seemed unstoppable. Would western Europe fall to Islam? And would the Qu’ran be taught in the schools of Oxford, as Edward Gibbon rather mischievously speculated. Of ... Show More

St Crispin’s day, 1415: Henry V stands victorious, after a tremendous defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Agincourt. He is just about to make a historic speech which will be retold by Shakespeare nearly two centuries later. There are mounds of bodies, too many dead for t ... Show More

In this episode, I’m going to focus on one of the most famous battles in history: the battle of Tours, or Poitiers as it’s sometimes called, in 732. It’s famous because some historians think it stopped the Arabs from conquering Europe. But others think its significance has been e ... Show More

During World War Two, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal engagements of the entire conflict, and would go on to be one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. Over a course of six months, Soviet forces fought to defend their city against the German Ar ... Show More