The Rest Is History
The world’s most popular history podcast, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook.
Join The Rest Is History Club (www.therestishistory.com) for ad-free listening to the full archive, weekly bonus episodes, live streamed shows and access to an exclusive chatroom community.
Here are some of our favourite episodes to get you started:
WATERGATE/NIXON apple.co/3JrVl5h
ALEXANDER THE GREAT apple.co/3Q4FaNk
HARDCORE HISTORY'S DAN CARLIN apple.co/3vqkGa3
PUTIN & RUSSIA apple.co/3zMtLfX
Episodes (51)
553. The Last Viking: Warrior of the New Rome (Part 2)
Harald Hardrada; exiled prince of Norway and mercenary, has landed in the greatest city on Earth: Constantinople. There he joins one of the most prestigious military organisations in the world, the...
552. The Last Viking: The Saga of Harald Hardrada (Part 1)
“I swear I will not flee from this fight. I will triumph, or I will die!”
In the 1066 game of thrones for the crown of England, the most extraordinary of the three contenders is arguably Harald...
551. The Road to 1066: Countdown to Conquest (Part 4)
In the triumvirate of 1066, William of Normandy, Harald Hardrada, and Harold Godwinson, the latter has above all endured as one of the great heroes of English history. But how did he become the...
550. The Road to 1066: Rise of the Normans (Part 3)
Born into a world of treachery, violence and death, William of Normandy defied all expectations, forging a legacy that lasts to this day. Born out of wedlock and dismissed as an upstart, he was...
549. The Road to 1066: Revenge of the Vikings (Part 2)
Following the bloody St Brice’s Day Massacre, of the 13th of November 1002, which saw King Æthelred brutally exterminating the Danes from England, the Vikings were hungry for revenge. None more so...
548. The Road to 1066: Anglo-Saxon Apocalypse (Part 1)
The Norman Conquest of 1066, culminating in the legendary Battle of Hastings, is perhaps the greatest turning point in the history of the English nation. It was a year that changed the fate of...
547. The French Revolution: The Execution of the King (Part 4)
The second revolution that engulfed France over the course of 1792 reached its climax in December, with an astonishing, world-changing spectacle, which held all the eyes of Europe spellbound: Louis...
546. The French Revolution: The Monarchy Falls (Part 3)
“From this place and from this day forth commences a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say you were present at its birth!”
By September 1792, the Prussians, under the leadership of the...
545. The French Revolution: The First Feminist (Part 2)
In the summer and Autumn of 1792 - with the Prussians bearing down on Paris, the streets thronged with the stirring swell of the Marseillaise, but also the rotting bodies of those brutally killed...
544. The French Revolution: The September Massacres (Part 1)
‘Still more traitors, still more treason…"
It is 1792 and France has been at war since April; it is not going well. In Paris, the Tuileries Palace has been stormed, and the royal family imprisoned....
543. Death in the Amazon: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
“Anyone who even thinks of abandoning this mission will be cut up into a thousand pieces…I am the wrath of God!”
At the height of the age of exploration, during the fifteenth and sixteenth...
542. Elizabeth I’s Sorcerer: Angels and Demons in Renaissance Europe
In Tudor England, during the reign of Elizabeth I, there lived in the very heart of her court a magician, alchemist and polymath, bent upon conversing with the angels of heaven and other supernatural...
541. Heart of Darkness: Fear and Loathing in the Congo
“The horror! The horror!”
Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ - the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's ‘Apocalypse Now’ - is one of the most celebrated literary works of all time, though now...
540. Horror in the Congo: A Conspiracy Unmasked (Part 3)
Exposing the dark pit of human suffering, cruelty and corruption that had long been secretly festering in King Leopold’s Congo, would reveal one of the greatest abuses of human rights in all history,...
539. Horror in the Congo: The Crimes of Empire (Part 2)
“A secret society of murderers with a king for a ringleader”.
In 1885 King Leopold of Belgium; an awkward, ruthless, selfish man, was recognised as the sovereign of the Congo. Long determined to...
538. Horror in the Congo: The Nightmare Begins (Part 1)
The story of King Leopold of Belgium’s brutal regime in the Congo Free State, during the late 19th century, is one of the darkest and most important in global history. It is a story of horror - the...
537. Emperors of Rome: Claudius, Paranoia and Poison (Part 4)
Following the bloody assassination of the twenty-eight year old Emperor Caligula, Rome found herself without a leader. Who then should fill the enormous power vacuum left by the death of an emperor?...
536. Emperors of Rome: Caligula, Incest and Insanity (Part 3)
"Enough of the Princeps, what remains to be described, is the monster..."
The Roman emperor Caligula endures as one of the most notorious figures in not only Roman history, but the history of the...
535. Emperors of Rome: Tiberius, Slaughter and Scandal (Part 2)
The Roman historian Suetonius’ biography of the controversial Emperor Tiberius is one of his most shocking and salacious, condemning Tiberius to infamy. But was Tiberius really the perverted monster...
534. Emperors of Rome: Sex Secrets of the Caesars (Part 1)
The Roman historian Suetonius’ The Lives of the Caesars, written during the early imperial period of the Roman Empire, is a seminal biography covering the biographies of the early emperors of Rome,...
Russian Spies, Pigeons, and The Rest Is Classified…
How did a Russian spy manage to infiltrate the upper echelons of London and New York society? Was Anna Chapman really an old fashioned Russian honeytrap or was she underestimated by the world's press?...
533. Wojtek: The Bear Who Beat the Nazis
The story of Wojtek - the bear who took on the Nazis - amidst the death and devastation of the Second World War, and more specifically Poland's heroic resistance, is a flicker of redemption amidst an...
532. Hitler's War on Poland: The Fall of Warsaw (Part 3)
The Nazi invasion of Poland is one of the most harrowing episodes of the Second World War, which saw terrible scenes of abuse take place. Though long threatened, Poland was in no way prepared to face...
531. Hitler's War on Poland: The Pact with Stalin (Part 2)
By the 11th of April 1939, Adolf Hitler and his Nazis were in the process of drawing up a plan of attack for Poland, the Poles having resisted Germany’s attempts to make them hand over Danzig and turn...
530. Hitler’s War on Poland: Countdown to Armageddon (Part 1)
Following the Munich agreement of September 1938, Nazi troops marched into Czechoslovakia and ruthlessly claimed it as a German protectorate. Still, even following his annexation of Czechoslovakia,...
529. The Nazis' Road to War: Showdown in Munich (Part 2)
On 17th September 1938, in Munich, one of the most extraordinary meetings in history took place. Neville Chamberlain launched an extraordinary and unprecedented diplomatic coup. Boarding a plane, he...
528. The Nazis' Road to War: Hitler Prepares to Strike (Part 1)
Throughout the course of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party has overwhelmingly, terrifyingly seized power in Germany. Now, Hitler’s vile ambitions have turned to Czechoslovakia. On the 12th of...
527. Beethoven: Napoleon and the Music of War LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall
Ludwig Van Beethoven, like his precursor and possible acquaintance Mozart, is one of the most famous figures in Western musical history. With his wild hair and furrowed brow, his was a genius marked...
526. Mozart: History's Greatest Prodigy LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall
In 1756 a musical prodigy was born in Salzburg, Austria: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Thanks to the efforts of his exacting father, Mozart's genius was exhibited and celebrated in some of the greatest...
525. Charlemagne: Emperor of the West (Part 3)
“And from that moment on, he was addressed as emperor and Augustus!”
The coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day 800 AD, is one of the landmark moments in all world history. More than three...
524. Charlemagne: Pagan Killer (Part 2)
“Here was a program to wet the ambitions of warlords as well as scholars, and to send men into battle beneath the fluttering of banners, the hiss of arrows, and the shadow of carrion crows…”
The year...
523. Charlemagne: Return of the Kings (Part 1)
The Frankish king, Charlemagne the Great, is one of the titanic figures of European history, simultaneously renowned and shadowy. His rise to supreme power is a staggering story of warring religious...
522. Warlords of the West: A Clash of Ice and Fire (Part 3)
By 711 Europe and the Frankish warlords were facing a graver threat than ever before. Bands of Northern African, nominally Muslim raiders had begun a steady incursion throughout the West, loosely...
521. Warlords of the West: Killer Queens (Part 2)
Following the death of the legendary Frankish King Clovis, his son Clothar I divided the mighty realm his father had hacked out from the warring warlords of Europe between his four sons. But peace was...
520. Warlords of the West: Barbarian Heirs of Rome (Part 1)
The Rise of the Franks - a mighty host of warlords; forefathers of the western world and forgers of medieval civilisation, under the totemic leadership of history’s most glorious King: Charlemagne. It...
519. The World's First City
In as early as 5000 BC the vast and spectacular city of Uruk - replete with towering walls, glistening temples and complex irrigation systems - lay sprawled across the face of Southern Mesopotamia....
518. Nelson: The Battle of the Nile (Part 5)
The 1st of August 1798 saw the British fleet sailing towards Alexandria into a land of classical history and mythology, the sun setting like blood over the River Nile and French flags flying over the...
517. Nelson: The Hunt for Napoleon (Part 4)
In the wake of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, Horatio Nelson, though a much acclaimed public hero for his bravery during the battle, is in the doldrums. Having led a harebrained attack on...
516. Nelson: God of War (Part 3)
Valentine’s day, 1797: the British Royal Navy are hoping for a decisive clash with the Spanish enemy, off the coast of Portugal, at Cape St. Vincent. Nelson has already narrowly avoided capture at the...
515. Nelson: Attack the French! (Part 2)
It is 1793 and France has declared war on Britain, meaning that the British navy must serve as both sword and shield to Europe. Horatio Nelson is at this time a slim and sickly 34 year old captain who...
514. Nelson: Hero of the Seas (Part 1)
It’s 1758 and Britain’s greatest naval commander has just been born. The young Horatio Nelson has inherited his father’s love of god and his mother’s hatred of the French. At age 12, he leaves Norfolk...
513. America in '68: Nixon's Great Comeback (Part 6)
“Nixon now! Nixon now! More than ever we need Nixon now!”
It's the 5th of November 1968, and Richard M. Nixon is on tenterhooks, alone in his dark hotel room. He watches as the final states are called...
512. America in '68: The Chicago Riots (Part 5)
The Democratic National Convention is in Chicago, and the incumbent president, Lyndon B. Johnson, has pulled out of the race. Anti-war protestors are flooding the streets of the city, and Johnson...
511. America in '68: George Wallace, The First Donald Trump (Part 4)
“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, was one of the most successful third-party presidential candidates in American history. In 1968, he...
510. America in '68: The Killing of Robert Kennedy (Part 3)
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and...
509. America in '68: The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (Part 2)
The peaceful figurehead of the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s, Dr Martin Luther King had inspired hundreds of thousands to demand equal rights for African Americans. But by 1968, the once...
508. America in '68: Nightmare in Vietnam (Part 1)
"Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.”
On the night of Sunday, 31st of March 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson, after announcing an end to the bombing of North...
507. The French Revolution: The Marseillaise, Song of War (Part 5)
“Let us march! Let us march! May impure blood water our fields!”
Written after the declaration of war against Austria in 1792, “La Marseillaise” was born in the provinces of France, away from the...
506. The French Revolution: Massacre at the Palace (Part 4)
The war between revolutionary France and the allied powers of Prussia and Austria has reached fever pitch, and in early August 1792, the latter party threaten a terrible vengeance on Paris should...
505. The French Revolution: The Shadow of the Guillotine (Part 3)
During the "Ancien Regime", royal executioners held an unholy status, and would strike up fear in the crowds as they walked the streets of Paris. But with the Revolution, the role of executioners in...
504. The French Revolution: War to the Death (Part 2)
“You have shaken off the yoke of your despots, but surely this was not to bend the knee before a foreign tyrant…”
It’s January 1792, and one of the largest factions in revolutionary France, the...
About this Podcast
Copyright
Goalhanger Podcasts
Language
en