Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

In the summer of 1546, Henry VIII signed a warrant for the arrest of his sixth wife. Katherine Parr found out because somebody dropped it on the floor.

Today we're spending time with the queen who's usually remembered as Henry's nurse, and I think that does her a real disservice. Before she ever married the king, Katherine had been held hostage by rebels in a Yorkshire castle. As queen, she ran England as regent while Henry was at war in France, and she became the first woman to publish a book in English under her own name. She also turned her rooms at court into a study circle for reform-minded women, which is exactly what put her in danger.

We'll look at Anne Askew, who was racked in the Tower by the Lord Chancellor himself and still wouldn't give up the queen's ladies. We'll get the plot from Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Wriothesley, the paper on the floor, and the night Katherine went to Henry's bedchamber and gave the performance of her life. And then there are the secret letters she wrote to Thomas Seymour after Henry died, and the book she'd been sitting on the whole time.

I also make the case for the villains, because Gardiner and Henry had their reasons too.

Do you think Henry ever meant to go through with it, or was the whole thing a test? Tell me in the comments!

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#KatherineParr #HenryVIII #TudorHistory

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It’s the Wednesday after TudorCon and I’m finally coming up for air! I’m so excited to share Nathen Amin’s keynote with you. This was Nathen’s first ever talk in America, and it only took us six years to get him here.

Nathen walks us through how Henry VII, the great-great-great-grandson of a king (through a female line with a whiff of illegitimacy, no less), convinced an entire country he was supposed to be on the throne. And the man put his message on EVERYTHING. Red dragons and Welsh prophecy, the Tudor rose, a fertility-themed bed of state (yes, really), naming his son Arthur, gold coins as propaganda you carry around in your pocket. He even had an astrology book made where the constellation Draco gets redrawn as a Welsh dragon in Tudor green and white. I cannot get enough of this guy.

Stick around for the Q&A, where Nathen takes on the whole “Henry dated his reign to the day before Bosworth” debate, talks about Elizabeth of York as a full partner in the Tudor project, makes the case that Henry VII was actually a Yorkist king in a lot of ways, and explains why Henry definitely had the rizz.

Also, I picked Nathen up at Dulles, and on the drive down to Richmond we both decided at the exact same moment that we needed to stop at Waffle House. That story is right at the start.

This is the raw livestream footage, so it’s not polished, but the talk is so, so good. Regular uploads are coming back now that I’ve caught my breath. I’ve missed you all!

📚 Nathen’s books, including Son of Prophecy, The House of Beaufort, and Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nathen-Amin/author/B00JSVRKQE

🎧 Renaissance English History Podcast: https://www.englandcast.com
📬 Newsletter: https://www.englandcast.com/newsletter-sign-up/

#HenryVII #Tudors #TudorHistory #TudorCon #NathenAmin
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Long before anyone in England was hanged as a witch, ordinary women had a magic of their own. They wrapped parchment girdles covered in prayers around their bellies in labor. They borrowed holy relics from the parish like library books. They baked cakes in total silence on St Agnes’ Eve, hoping to dream of the man they’d marry. Nobody called them witches. It was just how you got through life.

In this audio episode, I follow what happened to that magic from the 1400s to the Pendle trials of 1612. You’ll meet Eleanor Cobham, who went to the Witch of Eye for help having a baby. There’s Ursula Kemp, the Essex cunning woman whose healing skills became the evidence against her. And there’s Old Demdike, who spent fifty years as the woman her neighbors went to for help. It’s the story of how the Reformation took away women’s protective magic, until the same skills that made a woman useful could get her hanged.

🎟 TudorCon From Home, October 23 to 25. We livestream the main room all weekend, and every talk is recorded with audio and slides so you can listen afterward. Every ticket comes with a digital swag bag worth over $100: https://tudorcon.englandcast.com/tudorcon-from-home/

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This summer I travelled around the south of England staying in historic inns, and stop number three was the White Horse in Dorking, Surrey. There's been a building on this spot since at least 1278, when it belonged to the Knights Hospitaller, and it later became one of the big coaching inns on the road from London to Horsham.

We got there way too early to check in, so we played board games at Game N Play (a board game café AND a ukulele shop). Then I fell in love with St Martin's Church, spent far too long in Waterstones, and went for an evening walk toward Box Hill (Jane Austen's Emma picnic, Keats, and a major who was buried upside down on purpose). Along the way I found out about Dorking's five-toed chickens, its sandstone caves, and the Mayflower passenger who came from this very town. I also did a little Dickens myth-busting and had a very meta Lucy Worsley moment.

Next up: the Royal Forest in Epping Forest, right next to Elizabeth I's hunting lodge, and the best room of the whole trip. Book your rooms with the White Horse here: https://whitehorsedorking.com/

🎟 TudorCon 2026, October 23 to 25, Richmond VA (plus TudorCon From Home): https://tudorcon.englandcast.com

📬 Newsletter: https://www.englandcast.com/newsletter-sign-up/

🏨 The White Horse: https://whitehorsedorking.com/

🎲 Game N Play: https://game-n-play.co.uk/
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Henry VIII didn't dismantle the Church in England. He took it over, one step at a time, and the plan looks an awful lot like a hostile corporate takeover. Squeeze the leadership, take the board, cut off Rome, audit everything, find some dirt, close the small houses first, and then come for the big ones.

In this episode I walk through the whole playbook, from the 1531 fine on the clergy to the abbot of Glastonbury being dragged up the Tor in 1539. And I make the case for the people it was run on, the monks, nuns and friars who lost their homes, and the towns that lost their hospital, almshouse and biggest employer. (Full disclosure, I'm an Episcopalian, so this is me looking hard at the other side.)

TudorCon is October 23 to 25, and you can join from anywhere with TudorCon From Home. The main room is livestreamed and every talk is recorded: https://tudorcon.englandcast.com/tudorcon-from-home/

Get my weekly newsletter, with Tudor news, a vocab word and the stuff that doesn't fit in videos: https://www.englandcast.com/newsletter-sign-up/

What happened to the monks and nuns afterwards: https://www.englandcast.com/2025/04/dissolution-of-the-monasteries-2/

#HenryVIII #Tudors #DissolutionOfTheMonasteries #TudorHistory #ThomasCromwell
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