logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
26m 13s

Formidable Heroines of History

History Hit
About this episode

From the notorious thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these heroines redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain.


Holly Kyte, author and literary critic, joins Dan to shine a light on some of the unsung heroines of British history who refused to play by the rules. They detail the histories of the formidable women whose grit, determination and radical unconventionality saw them defy the odds to forge their own paths.


Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Seyi Adaobi


If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Up next
Jul 8
Why Do Empires Fall?
For centuries, the Roman Empire commanded unparalleled control over the world around it. It expanded its borders through trade and conquest, sucking resources from the periphery into its thriving centre - Rome. And then, suddenly, everything changed. The Empire entered a state of ... Show More
42m 14s
Jul 6
Pirates: Piracy in the South China Seas
Zheng Yi Sao was a pirate leader so formidable that she made Blackbeard and Captain Morgan look like amateurs. From humble beginnings as a sex worker in Canton, she rose to command a vast pirate fleet that wrought havoc in the South China Sea. She took on the Qing Dynasty, the Po ... Show More
38m 48s
Jul 3
The Rise & Fall of Sparta
Today, we trace the rise and fall of ancient Greece’s most formidable warrior society - Sparta. This society's militaristic culture and battlefield feats are the stuff of legend - but how much of its story is based on cold, hard fact?Joining us is Dr Andrew Bayliss, a professor o ... Show More
46m 16s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2022
Banned History
How much did Britain and its allies know about the Holocaust? Could the Bengal Famine of 1943 have been helped? And was Elizabeth I really the Virgin Queen?  Lynsey Calver is a history teacher, and in this episode, she helps us to fill in some of the gaps on the history curriculu ... Show More
34m 12s
Nov 2022
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
*This episode contains very strong language and adult content* A semi autobiographical account from a conflicted man? An ode to a wife’s sexual desire? A criminally obscene novel? Lady Chatterley’s Lover is one of the most famous texts from the past century, but why? In this epis ... Show More
45m 10s
Nov 2023
Love, Lust & Fighting in World War II
It can be hard to comprehend the magnitude of historical events, with World War Two a prime example of this. By 1945, some 3 million British people had served. As such, the rich diversity of masculinity and sexuality of those men is often reduced or hidden from the history books. ... Show More
42m 1s
Sep 2022
Forbidden Books
What makes a book bad? Does it have to be nonsensical? Heretical? Libellous? Sexy? Well for 500 years, a panel from the Roman Catholic Church attempted to grapple with this distinction. Today Betwixt the Sheets, we find out what this collection of people deemed unsafe for the eye ... Show More
44 m
Dec 2022
Trash
From reality television to theatre productions to foreign goods, the word trash has a long history of being used to deride things that are thought to have no value. To find out what this history is, and how this language has been used against women in particular, Kate spoke to Ka ... Show More
37m 40s
Mar 2023
Women Rebels: The Spanish Civil War
From aristocratic rebels to Civil Rights activists, tens of thousands of people travelled to Spain during the Civil War - and not all of them were men... Whether they were fighting, nursing or reporting, in this episode of Betwixt the Sheets we are going to meet a few of the wome ... Show More
42m 35s
Feb 2023
How to Write Historical Fiction | Interview with historian and author Dan Jones on his new novel Essex Dogs
Every historian I know has a secret dream of writing historical fiction, but few ever do it. Dan Jones, a longtime friend of Tides of History and an outstanding historian, has actually done it: Essex Dogs, his fantastic debut novel about a group of soldiers during the Hundred Yea ... Show More
58m 38s
Feb 2024
Love: a weird & wonderful history
From prehistoric carvings and medieval spell books to grand romantic gestures and tokens of affection, throughout history there has been no shortage of ways to say those three little words. Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman, Edward Brooke-Hitching shares some incredible, and curious, ... Show More
26m 17s
Jun 2024
Tudor Lesbians
Throughout history, it's mostly been queer men who were persecuted under the historical sodomy laws, but the Tudor period saw a spike in women being tried under it. Why was this? And why was it mostly happening in what is modern day Belgium and Netherlands? Joining Kate today is ... Show More
45m 43s