The Daring Prison Break of the Emperor in Exi...

History has often reduced the brilliant mathematician and physicist Émilie du Châtelet to her relationship with a famous man (Voltaire). But she was a fascinating figure in her own right, an 18th century polymath at the forefront of conversations about how the world worked. Suppo ...  Show more

When the future Queen Elizabeth I was just 13 years old, she was living with Catherine Parr, who remarried after the death of Henry VIII. Catherine's new husband was handsome and charming, but he was also someone who would threaten scandal. A scandal that could cost Elizabeth's f ...  Show more

Napoleon has become more than a man. His name is a concept, a way of being, a psychological term- the 'Napoleon' complex. Napoleon began working on his legacy during his exile on St Helena in the last years of his life, his journal- memoir 'The Memorial of Saint Helena' was Na ...

After seizing power in 1799 Napoleon's legend would only continue grow. In the years after the coup d'etat that brought him to power Napoleon would redraw the map of Europe and refashion himself as an emperor. Myths lurk around every corner of the great general's career, exaggera ...  Show more

Napoléon Bonaparte est une figure marquante de l'histoire de France. L’homme à la tête d’un des plus grands empires d’Europe achève pourtant son existence confiné à Sainte-Hélène, minuscule îlot escarpé, perdu dans l’océan Atlantique Sud. Retour sur les six dernières années de sa ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrived with fewer than a thousand men, yet three weeks later he had displaced Louis XVIII and taken charge of an army as large as any th ...  Show more