A Galley Slave, A Massacre, and Henry VIII Being Winched Onto A Horse

2026-02-28

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We think of the Tudor period as velvet and poetry and dramatic executions. We do not think of it as siege warfare. That's a mistake. In this episode I'm looking at three Tudor sieges that completely wrecked my assumptions about this era: - Henry VIII personally showing up to besiege a French city (and having to be hoisted onto his horse to get there), - a Protestant reformer who ended up as a galley slave after one of the most dramatic castle standoffs in Scottish history, - and a massacre on an...

We think of the Tudor period as velvet and poetry and dramatic executions. We do not think of it as siege warfare. That's a mistake.

In this episode I'm looking at three Tudor sieges that completely wrecked my assumptions about this era:

- Henry VIII personally showing up to besiege a French city (and having to be hoisted onto his horse to get there),

- a Protestant reformer who ended up as a galley slave after one of the most dramatic castle standoffs in Scottish history,

- and a massacre on an Irish headland that the Elizabethan golden age narrative tends to skip past.

Gunpowder was changing everything in this period. The Tudors were living in a world of constant violence and instability that the pretty portraits don't show us. And some of the most consequential moments of the 16th century happened not in a court or a council chamber, but outside a set of walls.

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