53. Barbary Corsairs: Raiding the British isl...

For weeks, William the Conqueror has been stuck on the Normandy coast, waiting. Then the wind changes. The Normans land in England, and the stage is set for the most famous battle in English history. The Bayeux Tapestry made these events immortal, but what really happened at Hast ...  Show more

Who was William the Conqueror? Who was Harold Godwinson? Who was Harald Hardrada? And how did these three rivals change the course of English history forever? In Episode 2 of this series, Anita Anand and William Dalrymple are joined by Marc Morris, author of The Norman Conquest a ...  Show more

As Rome rose to power, pirates seized the seas - wreaking havoc from Spain to Syria and challenging Roman dominance in the ancient Mediterranean.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Nick Rauh and Dr Adam Dawson to explore the expl ...

Pirates weren’t just a menace on the high seas - they were a direct threat to Spain’s empire-building ambitions in the Pacific. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Kristie Patricia Flannery to hear the untold story of how Spanish officials, Catholic missionaries, Indi ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the North African privateers who, until their demise in the nineteenth century, were a source of great pride and wealth in their home ports, where they sold the people and goods they’d seized from Christian European ships and coastal towns. Nominal ...  Show more

Did you know that millions of white Europeans were enslaved by Muslim powers? That slavery was a major driver of their economy? Ever heard of the Barbary Wars? Chrissie and Yannis are here to give you a history lesson you’ll never forget about America’s first foreign wars and the ...  Show more