Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Latest Episodes:

[YouTube Drop] Tudor Love Potions and Deadly Brews Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

In Tudor England, potions promised power, whether to spark desire or to silence rivals. In this spooky Halloween Spooky Week minicast, we’re diving into real Tudor recipes for love and poison, pulled straight from 16th-century sources like The Good Huswifes Jewell and early herbals.

Here's the link to the Haunted Tudor London halloween tour: https://www.englandcast.com/haunted-tudor-london-walk/

Sources:

https://carolcmcgrath.co.uk/aphrodisiacs-in-tudor-times/

https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/medieval-renaissance/mandrake-menstrual-blood-10-medieval-love-potion-recipes-and-ingredients

https://distillatio.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/medieval-poisons-for-killing-animals-and-people/

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[YouTube Drop] 👻 Haunted East Anglia Oct 27, 2025

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We’re kicking off spooky week with a talk from Tudorcon 2024! Victoria Thompson takes us deep into the haunted landscape of East Anglia; a place of ghostly monks, witchcraft, and eerie folklore that has lingered since the Tudor period.

Hear stories of drowned towns, spectral hounds, and strange rituals hidden inside old Suffolk homes. It’s the perfect start to a week filled with Tudor hauntings and supernatural tales.

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]YouTube Drop] Elizabeth Sydenham Oct 26, 2025

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Elizabeth Sydenham was the Somerset heiress who married Sir Francis Drake, but only after a meteor crashed through the roof of the church on her first wedding day. That fiery omen ended her engagement and changed her fate. This is the story of the woman who became Lady Drake and then vanished from history.

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[YouTube Drop] Love, Poison, and Witchcraft Oct 25, 2025

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A countess, a court favorite, and a corpse in the Tower.

Frances Howard and Robert Carr’s forbidden love became England’s first celebrity crime, complete with potions, poison, and accusations of witchcraft.

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Episode 313: The Dudley's Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

They served every Tudor monarch, and often paid dearly for it.

From their medieval stronghold at Dudley Castle to the heart of the Tudor court, the Dudley family shaped English history for five hundred years. They raised money for Henry VII, ruled the realm under Edward VI, tried to make Lady Jane Grey queen, and stood beside Elizabeth I as she faced the Spanish Armada.

This episode traces their meteoric rise and tragic fall from Edmund Dudley’s execution, to John Dudley’s failed gamble for the crown, to Robert Dudley’s service to Elizabeth, and finally to exile in Florence, where the last of the line became a scientist and mapmaker.

Sources mentioned:

House of Dudley by Joanna Paul: https://www.amazon.com/House-Dudley-History-Tudor-England/dp/1639363289

Dudley Family History on Internet Archive

https://ia601608.us.archive.org/29/items/historyofdudleyf115dudl/historyofdudleyf115dudl.pdf

Support the show and unlock exclusive Tudor deep dives at patreon.com/englandcast.

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[YouTube Drop] The Nun Who Faked Her Own Death Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

In 1318, a Yorkshire nun named Joan of Leeds faked her own death to escape convent life, crafting a dummy, staging a burial, and vanishing into the wider world. Her story survives only in a scathing letter from Archbishop William Melton, recently translated by historians at the University of York. This minicast explores Joan’s daring plan, why medieval women entered convents, and what her brief rebellion reveals about life, faith, and freedom in 14th-century England.

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[YouTube Drop} She Ordered a Priest’s Assassination Oct 20, 2025

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In 1337, priest John Forde was murdered on London’s Cheapside in full view of witnesses. Modern research links the killing to Lady Ela Fitzpayne — a noblewoman, excommunicated rebel, and Forde’s alleged former lover. Witnesses named her own brother as the attacker… yet no one was punished. This is medieval true crime with all the politics, scandal, and power plays intact.

Read the full article and get sources...

https://www.englandcast.com/a-medieval-murder-mystery-sex-scandal-and-a-throat-slit-on-a-london-street/

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[YouTube Drop] Who Was Nan Cobham? Oct 18, 2025

Show notes

Nan Cobham appears just once in the historical record, as one of the women who accused Anne Boleyn in 1536...and then disappears without a trace. In this minicast, we look at the theories around her identity and how a single, almost-forgotten figure may have helped bring down a queen.

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[YouTube Drop] Arthur Dudley Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

In 1587, a man calling himself Arthur Dudley arrived in Spain and declared that he was the secret son of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Spanish officials called him a spy. He claimed he was a prince. This video looked at his story, the timing of Elizabeth’s mysterious illness in 1561, the ambassador gossip, and what historians actually say about the case today.

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Episode 312: Three Who Might Have Ruled Oct 15, 2025

Show notes

In the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign, the throne was anything but secure. With no husband and no children, three names rose as potential heirs: Lady Katherine Grey, legal heir by Henry VIII’s will; Henry Hastings, the Protestant council’s quiet favorite; and Mary, Queen of Scots, the dynastic threat watched by all of Europe. This episode looks at the rivals Elizabeth refused to name, and how each of them waited for a crown that never came.

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