Episode notes
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. There you can also listen to this week’s bonus episode, where we discuss the Duke of York’s super-royal credentials, and why the Duke of Somerset fails upward. Henry VI’s royal court breathes a collective sigh of relief — Queen Margaret of Anjou is pregnant. It’s a welcome addition to what remains of a vanishingly thin Plantagenet dynasty. Aside from Henry, this is the first royal birth in 50 years. The celebrations don’t last long. As…
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This is History: The Tudors
Sony Music Entertainment · History · English
Historian Dan Jones returns with This Is History: The Tudors. Season one gives you the extraordinary origin story of England’s most iconic royal family. This is the ultimate story of kings and queens, seduction and spectacle, where power is seized in private chambers, performed in public and, too
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S9 · E14 · 7 Apr 2026 · 34 min
Was Richard III a Failure?
He died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. And we haven’t been able to stop talking about him since. Yes, it’s time to consider the story of England’s last Plantagenet king, Richard III — a centuries-old tangle involving alleged murder, Shakespeare, vanquish and one mighty rediscovery. In this debut episode of History’s Greatest Fails, Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day argue that the story of Richard’s rise and fall (and rise again) is much more modern that you’d first believe. Not least because of the reality-TV-style discovery of his remains under a Leicester council car park in 2022. In many…
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S9 · E12 · 24 Mar 2026 · 36 min
S9 E12 | Rise of the Yorks
To learn more about the last time an English king was usurped, listen to Season 7, Bonus Episode 12, where Dan tells the story of Henry VI’s grandfather, Henry Bolingbroke. In 1399, he toppled Richard II to become King Henry IV. By 1460, England has emerged into a polycrisis. King Henry VI has been relegated to a pawn. His son and wife have been disinherited, with Richard, Duke of York, now heir presumptive. Violence pulses through the countryside. In this pivotal chapter of the Wars of the Roses, it appears that Yorkist forces have finally overwhelmed the Lancastrians in the battle for the…
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S9 · E11 · 17 Mar 2026 · 37 min
S9 E11 | The Pact
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan gives an explainer on Warwick's piracy, the value of Calais, and the risks of another royal usurpation. Plus, hear more about Dan’s meltdown over a parking ticket. All is not well in a simmering kingdom. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick — a key ally of Richard Duke of York — is holding the last skerrick of English territory in France: Calais. He’s the top military…
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S9 · E10 · 10 Mar 2026 · 35 min
S9 E10 | The Battle of St Albans
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan gives you a primer on the pirate-cum-warlord, the Earl of Warwick. Plus, Dan makes good on his promise to tell the story of when he absolutely lost it over something rather inconsequential. All the drift and failure of Henry VI’s reign is coming home to roost. The fizzer of a king’s dodging arrows and men coming his way — and they’re not holding back. It’s 1455,…
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S9 · E9 · 3 Mar 2026 · 31 min
S9 E9 | Madness Descends
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan discusses what likely triggered Henry VI’s descent into silence, while he also gives a primer on England’s warring noble families: the Nevilles, Percys, and Courtenays. Henry VI isn’t responding to anyone. Not to his physician, nor to his newborn son, Prince Edward. He’s just inert, catatonic. If the king’s health is said to be a mirror of the health of the realm,…
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S9 · E7 · 17 Feb 2026 · 26 min
S9 E7 | Cade’s Rebellion
Don’t forget! Dan’s gifted you his favourite bonus episode from this season. To listen for free, simply search for the last episode before this one. England is descending into mob rule. Henry VI has presided over a catastrophic loss over almost all of the Plantagenet possessions in France, and many in the realm want a scapegoat. Assassinations of powerful officials including the Duke of Suffolk, William de La Pole ensue. And in the summer of 1450, the violence comes to a head. Rebels led by military captain Jack Cade storm London in an echo of the Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381. Remember, you…
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S9 · 13 Feb 2026 · 38 min
Was the Queen of England a French spy?
Hello! We’ve gifted one of Dan’s favourite bonus episodes from Season 9 just for you. To listen to all bonus episodes, ad-free, subscribe at patreon.com/thisishistory Dan and Producer Al explore the likelihood of Margaret of Anjou, the English queen, having been a sleeper agent for the French. How involved was she in getting Henry VI to give up Maine? And what made Henry so useless? Did he have any redeeming features? – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email…
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S9 · E6 · 10 Feb 2026 · 25 min
S9 E6 | The Ambush
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester — Henry V’s last surviving brother — is lost in delusion. He still believes England can somehow hold its possessions in France, even as its soldiers are exhausted, its treasury is drained, and its enemies grow stronger by the day. Across the Channel, King Charles VII of France hardly needs to fight; he simply needs to wait for England to collapse under the weight of its own war. But in Westminster, reality…
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S9 · E5 · 3 Feb 2026 · 29 min
S9 E5 | Enter the She Wolf
Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory England’s grip on France is collapsing. After more than a century of brutal conflict, English forces across the Channel are exhausted, bankrupt, and beaten down. In London, hopes rest on King Henry VI — now an adult and expected to rescue his father’s dying empire. But Henry is no warrior king, and the French are dismantling England’s hard‑won gains with shocking ease. Then, a new force enters the fray: Margaret of Anjou. Young,…
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S9 · E4 · 27 Jan 2026 · 26 min
S9 E4 | Tainted Love
Owen Tudor is running out of time. With Queen Mother Catherine de Valois dead, their once‑secret marriage — and the Tudor bloodline it produced — is suddenly exposed. The English court is alarmed, the line of royal succession is in question, and powerful enemies are closing in. But political panic is only the beginning. When Eleanor Cobham is accused of witchcraft and plotting against King Henry VI, England is convulsed by one of the most explosive scandals of the 15th century. Accusations of sorcery, prophecies of regicide, and ruthless factional battles collide at the heart of the medieval…
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