Chalke Talk

The podcast from the Chalke Valley History Festival
Released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings

Chalke Talks for THEME: Rulers


  • 19. GAME OF QUEENS: THE WOMEN WHO MADE SIXTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE
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    Best-selling Tudor biographer Sarah Gristwood turns her expert eye to the Renaissance courts of Isabella of Castile, Margaret of Austria, Katherine of Aragon, Marguerite of Navarre, Anne Boleyn, Catherine de Medici, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Stuart and others. An extraordinary cast of women who held power throughout the Continent in the face of great […]

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  • 97. THE DARKENING AGE: THE CHRISTIAN DESTRUCTION OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD
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    The Roman Empire had been generous in embracing and absorbing new creeds. But with the coming of Christianity, everything changed. This new faith, despite preaching peace, was violent, ruthless and intolerant. Catherine Nixey paints a dark but riveting picture of life at the time of the ‘triumph’ of Christianity and gives a gripping account of […]

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  • 98. CABINET’S FINEST HOUR: THE HIDDEN AGENDA OF MAY 1940
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    Drawing on documents and minutes of the British War Cabinet meetings of May 1940, former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen reveals the passionate debates within the Cabinet that prevented Britain from seeking a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany. He explains how the post-war denial of the existence of these debates has had far-reaching consequences for Britain’s […]

  • 108. HENRY VIII AND THE MEN WHO MADE HIM
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    Henry VIII is well known for his tumultuous relationships with women, but his relationships with the men who surrounded him reveal much about his beliefs, behaviour and character. Tracy Borman provides a new perspective by analysing Henry through the men in his life. His cruelty and ruthlessness are infamous, but his fierce loyalty towards those […]

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  • 110. THIS ORIENT ISLE: ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD
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    Professor Jerry Brotton turns his expert eye to Elizabeth I’s little-known relationship with the Islamic world, following her excommunication by the Pope in 1570. He reveals that England’s relations with the Muslim world were far more extensive than has ever been appreciated and that their influence was felt across the political, commercial and domestic landscape […]

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  • 115. ELIZABETH I: A STUDY IN INSECURITY
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    In the popular imagination Elizabeth I is the symbol of monarchical power, the Virgin Queen who ruled over a Golden Age. But the image is as much armour against reality as it is a reflection of the truth. Dr Helen Castor shows England’s iconic queen in a revealing new light, shaped by profound insecurity that […]

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  • 117. EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI
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    Best-selling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang gives a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of the most important woman in Chinese history. One of the Emperor’s concubines, she launched a palace coup to become the Empress Dowager Cixi, the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population […]

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  • 121. WAS HITLER A POPULAR DICTATOR?
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    In this talk for junior schools, Chris Culpin shows how Hitler disdained democracy and thereby defeated his political opponents leaving “One people, one nation, one leader”. Was he popular? He was certainly successful as there was no opposition, nor opposition newspapers. This was partly through fear but also as a result of brilliant propaganda with […]

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  • 128. AMERICA TRUMPED: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
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    Who better than the charismatic broadcaster Matt Frei to explain the extraordinary phenomenon which was the then President of the United States of America? The award-winning journalist was Washington correspondent for the BBC and Channel 4 News for many years and recently made the documentary ‘Meet the Trumps: From Immigrant to President.’ So how did […]

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  • 145. ATHELSTAN
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    Athelstan is arguably England’s greatest monarch and here best-selling and award- winning author Tom Holland tells the truly amazing story of how Athelstan built on the foundations of his grandfather and mother to become the first King of a united England.

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  • 152. THE BLACK PRINCE
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    In 1346, at the age of 16, he helped defeat the French at Crécy; ten years later he captured the King of France at Poitiers. Michael Jones illuminates the dramatic story of ‘the Black Prince’, the eldest son and heir of Edward III of England. Using the Prince’s own letters, he paints a memorable portrait […]

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  • 172. THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE SULTAN SALADIN
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    Few of history’s heroes can rival Saladin in his enduring attraction. In the Muslim world he is revered for reclaiming Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. In the West he is famed for his chivalric virtue, despite fighting off the armies of the Third Crusade. Professor Jonathan Phillips brings alive this extraordinary man’s legacy, offering […]

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  • 178. VICTORIA: QUEEN, MATRIARCH, EMPRESS
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    Queen Victoria inherited the throne aged 18 and, in an unprecedented reign of 63 years, she oversaw intense industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military change within the United Kingdom, and great imperial expansion outside it. In the bicentenary of her birth, Professor Jane Ridley overturns the established picture of the dour old lady to create […]

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  • 180. THE QUEEN
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    Renowned biographer A. N. Wilson celebrates the life of the Queen in this vibrant examination of Britain’s most iconic figure. He paints a vivid portrait of “Lilibet” the woman, and of her unfaltering reign during the tumultuous twentieth century, while asking candidly whether Britain can remain a constitutional monarchy after her reign ends.

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  • 182. THE IMPERIAL TEA PARTY: FAMILY, POLITICS AND BETRAYAL
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    Before King George infamously denied his Romanov cousins asylum when the Bolsheviks were closing in, there were three extraordinary encounters between the British and Russian royal families. Although well intentioned and generally hailed as successes, Frances Welch shows that these meetings, beset by misunderstandings and misfortunes, were to have far-reaching consequences for twentieth century Europe […]

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