Mary, Queen of Scots

He was one of medieval England’s most formidable warriors. Today we hear how Edward of Woodstock - the Black Prince - earned that reputation, tracing his rise during the Hundred Years’ War and exploring the nature of his command. We also confront the harsher realities of his camp ...  Show more

This is the true story of the plot to kill Stalin's greatest enemy. It involves ice axe, a bloody study in Mexico City, and a betrayal years in the making.At its centre is Ramón Mercader, a Soviet-trained agent who infiltrated Leon Trotsky’s inner circle and killed him. But this ...  Show more

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable. In France, when she was the teenage bride to their future k ...  Show more

The oldest daughter of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, is commonly known today as "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of Protestants in England during her reign as queen. But as a young woman, she was a girl whose life was ripped out from under her when her father declared that she was ...

On 17 November 1558, Queen Mary I died. But how would history have turned out differently if Mary had lived another 30 years? Where would her Roman-Catholicism taken England? Would Mary have patched up relations between England and the rest of Europe? 

As the daughter of England’s most famous king, Mary Tudor spent much of her life in Henry VIII’s shadow, forced to navigate his capricious moods and murderous whims. But she played the long game, outlasting nearly everyone around her to assume the throne in 1553 as Britain’s firs ...  Show more