28. The Battle of Lepanto

Is the current invasion of Lebanon a direct ancestor of the 1982 Israeli invasion? How did broken American promises lead to the tragedies of the Sabra and Shatila massacres? Who was Ariel Sharon and why did he spearhead attacks on Beirut? Anita and William are joined by Kim Ghatt ...  Show more

**Binge the entire series ad-free by joining the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com** In November 1977, Egyptian President Sadat shocked the entire Arab world by boarding a flight to Israel. After refusing to acknowledge its existence, Egypt was seeking to make peace with its neighbo ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, the last great sea battle between galleys, in which the Catholic fleet of the Holy League of principally Venice, Spain, the Papal States, Malta, Genoa, and Savoy defeated the Ottoman forces of Selim II. When much of Eur ...  Show more

In 972AD a princess of the Byzantine Empire was sent by her uncle, the Roman emperor in Constantinople, to marry the son of Otto the Great - Emperor of the Latin West. A tantalising and formidable figure, Theophanu became a major player in one of the most tumultuous and mysteriou ...  Show more

On the 19th of May, 1919, an Ottoman general stepped ashore at the Black Sea port city of Samsun. This marked the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence, and ultimately the end of the Ottoman Empire. The man's name was Mustafa Kemal, the soldier, statesman and reformer w ...

The Battle of the Somme was supposed to be the joint British-French offensive that would win the First World War. A string of battles spread over five months, it involved everything from cavalry charges, poison gas, and the debut of the tank. But the Somme was anything but victor ...  Show more