logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2025
35m 45s

‘Dollar princesses’ or influential heire...

English Heritage
About this episode
In the late 19th and early 20th century, glamorous, exciting and often very wealthy American women mingled with the British aristocracy and set the gossip pages alight with rumours of engagements. But alongside this fascination, anti-American sentiment and xenophobia saw them dismissed them as mere ‘dollar princesses’ trading cash for coronets.   This label ... Show More
Up next
Yesterday
Windmills: restoring England’s working giants
Mills have towered over English landscapes since the medieval period. In this episode, Amy finds out how modern conservation and passionate people are working to keep windmills alive today. Sibsey Trader Windmill is a magnificently restored mill, now reopened to the public in Lin ... Show More
46m 35s
Apr 16
Northumberland: castles and the borderlands of power
A stone knight, an emerging frontier and a story of shifting identity: this time, Amy and her guests explore how the Anglo-Scottish border began to evolve in the centuries following the Norman Conquest, right through to a critical 1237 treaty. English Heritage’s Will Wyeth and Pr ... Show More
50m 20s
Apr 9
Memories of flowers: a country house and its community
Some blocked plumbing at Brodsworth Hall, a pre-ball dancefloor drama and the fiercely competitive annual May Queen crowning at the local school: these are just some of the stories that emerge from this country house’s ‘floral’ history! This week, Amy is joined by Eleanor Matthew ... Show More
45m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
The secret club for radical New York women
In downtown New York, in the early 20th century, a secret club of women met regularly, to discuss ideas, politics, art and their own lives. They forged friendships and alliances, and took up some of the most significant social fights of the day. Joanna Scutts joins Elinor Evans t ... Show More
43m 57s
Aug 2024
7 Tiaras of European Royal Families
You can’t be a King without the bling, and you can’t be a Queen without the sheen. Royal women have long donning glittering headgear to make them stand out from the crowd. Tiaras are works of art and are fitted with pricey diamonds, pearls and other precious stones. As these heir ... Show More
24m 16s
Oct 2024
32. Princess Caraboo - Fake Princess
Lucy Worsley and her all-female team of detectives travel back in time to meet con artists, hoaxers and crooks from across the world. Women living extraordinary lives in a world made for men.In this episode of Lady Swindlers, Lucy meets Princess Caraboo, a woman abducted from pal ... Show More
28m 50s
Dec 2024
Audacious lady swindlers, con-women and hustlers
New BBC series Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley tells the stories of female criminals from the 18th to 20th centuries. Their chicanery often earned them great riches, yet, their schemes didn’t always go to plan… This Long Read, written by series consultant Rosalind Crone, examine ... Show More
24m 30s
Sep 2024
British Brides for American Tobacco: A Tudor Trade
<p>In 1621 the Virginia Company of London put out a call for young, handsome and honestly educated women to become wives for the planters in its new colony in Jamestown. Hopeful husbands were supposed to pay for their English brides in best leaf tobacco. But who were the women wh ... Show More
34m 47s
Jan 2025
Princesses of Wales
In September 2022 Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge became Princess of Wales, the title previously held by her late mother in law, Diana. Let’s meet the 16 Princesses of Wales, both Native Welsh and English royal... Joan, Lady of Wales Isabella de Braose Eleanor de Montfort Elizabe ... Show More
31m 25s
Sep 2024
Introducing Lady Swindlers
In this brand new series of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley we switch our attention to the swindlers, conwomen and hustlers. This is where true crime meets history - with a twist. Join Lucy Worsley and a team of all female detectives as they travel back in time to revisit the auda ... Show More
3m 47s
Oct 2023
The Six Foot Tall Russian Empress Who Loved To Crossdress
This week we're talking about the six-foot-tall fashion and party-loving queen who had a loving male companion she discovered singing in a choir... no, not Mary QofS, it's Empress Elisabeth!!! With a thrilling cameo of a past VH fav but I'll wait for you to hear until I reveal wh ... Show More
1h 29m
Apr 2025
The Anglo-Saxon Queens & Consorts of England 1/8
The first Anglo-Saxon Queens of England before the Norman conquest are shrouded in the mists of history. Their stories read like fairytales and in fact one of them inspired the evil stepmother. The Anglo-Saxon Queen Consorts were: Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury Æthelflæd of Damerham Ælfg ... Show More
19m 46s
Aug 2024
Gulbadan Begum: princess, explorer, author
Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in a Mughal harem. Instead she set off on a daring pilgrimage to Islam's holy cities and, on her return, wrote an extraordinary account of her dynasty. In conversation with Spencer Mizen, Ruby Lal explores the life of a princess who t ... Show More
27m 41s