Why did people start cremating bodies? When did black become the colour of mourning? And who are the 'invisible dead'? Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman, historian Douglas Davies answers your top questions about traditions surrounding death and mourning in Britain through the centuries.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazin ... Show More
Today
Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week
She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-century polymath and nun challenged a host of social conventions – earning, through her extraordinary books and poems, a place in the pa ... Show More
30m 40s
Mar 1
Does Magna Carta matter today?
Politicians invoke it, activists wield it, and legal thinkers debate what it can offer the modern world. But what does Magna Carta really mean today? In this fourth and final episode of HistoryExtra's Sunday Series on the charter, Emily Briffett and historian Nicholas Vincent con ... Show More
38m 15s
Feb 2024
Lady Killers: what murder scandals reveal about Victorian society
What can brutal murders reveal about society at the time they were committed? And what additional insights can we gain when those killings were committed by women? In today's Long Read, Rosalind Crone, historical consultant on the BBC series Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley, reveal ... Show More
20m 49s
Oct 2023
The Murders of Alexander the Great
<p><em>This episode contains strong language, and references to sexual assault.</em></p><br><p>Alexander the Great - conqueror, legend, <em>murderer</em>. After ascending to the throne at aged 20 in 336BCE, his rule started with mass executions and political assassinations - them ... Show More
43 m
Jan 2024
Murder in the Stuart Court
<p>The public fascination with true crime is nothing new. Four centuries ago, the sensational story of the death in the Tower of London of Thomas Overbury, a lawyer in the court of King James I, led to a scandal that rocked the monarchy to its core. </p><br><p>In this e ... Show More
44m 44s
Nov 2023
Season 3 | 11. Into the Fire
Magna Carta has failed and the country is plunged into war. John devises a cruel plan that involves taunting his starving enemies with the delicious smell of bacon. Meanwhile, Louis the Lion, the son of the French King, prepares to invade England, while the Pope’s representative ... Show More
19m 37s