Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

What If Reginald Pole Had Just Shut Up? (Margaret Pole's Survival)

Margaret Pole was 67 years old when Henry VIII had her executed. She wasn't plotting. She wasn't scheming. She was an old woman in the Tower whose son kept writing angry letters from Rome calling Henry a heretic. So today we're playing a game. What if Reginald Pole had kept his opinions to himself? Could Margaret have survived to see Mary on the throne? I think the answer is yes, and the story of why is one of the most infuriating what-ifs in all of Tudor history. We're talking about a man who had every possible advantage, chose righteousness over his mother's life, and then got a whole second act anyway. Margaret didn't. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What If Katherine Howard Had Culpepper's Baby?

Katherine Howard is remembered as the tragic teenager who lost her head at seventeen. But what if she didn't have to? In the winter of 1541, everyone at the English court thought Henry VIII was dying. They were just waiting him out. All Katherine had to do was survive a few more months. And then Cranmer slipped that letter under Henry's door, and everything fell apart. But what if two things had gone differently? What if Katherine had gotten pregnant during her secret meetings with Thomas Culpepper? And what if Henry had died when everyone expected him to? Today we're following that thread all the way to the ending Katherine Howard never got. I've also been reading Philippa Gregory's newest book, The Boleyn Traitor, and it gave me a lot to think about regarding Jane Boleyn's role in all of this. Links below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He Betrayed His Brother to Save Himself. Then He Had to Live With It.

In 1538, a man named Geoffrey Pole was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. He hadn't plotted against Henry VIII. He hadn't raised an army. He'd written letters to his brother and said, once, that he wished he could see him. That was enough. What followed was one of the most psychologically devastating interrogations of the Tudor period, and one of the least talked about. Over seven sessions, Geoffrey gave evidence that brought down his entire family: his brother Lord Montagu, his cousin Henry Courtenay the Marquess of Exeter, and eventually his 67-year-old mother Margaret Pole, the last surviving Plantagenet. He survived. He was pardoned. He spent the next twenty years in exile carrying what he'd done. This is not really a spy story. It's a story about what surveillance states actually run on, not information, but fear. And about the brother who burned the family from a safe distance in Rome and somehow came out of it as Archbishop of Canterbury. Tudor history has been calling Geoffrey Pole weak for five centuries. I want to make the case that we don't get to say that from here. 📧 Join 13,000+ Tudor fans on my email list: https://www.englandcast.com/newsletter 🏰 TudorCon 2025 — tickets and info: https://tudorcon.englandcast.com #TudorHistory #HenryVIII #Tudor #HistoryYouTube #BritishHistory #MedievalHistory #RenaissanceHistory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The York Sisters: Five Women, One Dynasty Collapse

Everyone knows the Princes in the Tower, but what happened to their sisters? After Bosworth, five daughters of Edward IV faced a new Tudor king who needed one of them and feared the rest. This is the story of how Henry VII solved the problem of Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne, Catherine, and Bridget of York... and what each solution cost. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices