Victoria's secret love affair

In the Middle Ages, the bearing and raising of children defined women’s lives. But, as this Long Read written by Elinor Cleghorn explains, there were women who had other ideas and boldly challenged attitudes towards motherhood. Today's feature originally appeared in the April 202 ...  Show more

From Romulus’s open-city policy to Claudius’s reforms, citizenship was used by Rome as both a reward and a weapon. As this Long Read written by Shushma Malik explains, it enabled the burgeoning empire to build power and define identity. Today's feature originally appeared in the ...  Show more

Ever since the 1870s, rumours have swirled around Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown. Were the pair in love? Could they have got married? And might they even have had a secret child? Historian Fern Riddell investigates these claims in her book Victoria's Secret, a ...  Show more

She wrote some of the most enduring romances in literature. But what did Jane Austen really know about love ... and sex?

From longing looks and flirtation, to seduction and elopement, in this episode we're investigating how much of Jane Austen's works was based on ex ...

Was Elizabeth I really a virgin? When we talk about queens being remembered for their sex lives, we absolutely have to mention the woman so often remembered for her lack of one.Kate is joined by Professor Anna Whitelock, author of ‘Elizabeth’s Bedfellows: An Intimate History of t ...  Show more

The word 'happiness' came into common usage in around the 17th century, but the concept has a much longer history. So how have people conceptualised happiness over time – and how have they sought to attain it? Historian Katie Barclay is one of the editors of The Routledge History ...  Show more