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In the summer of 1788, a monstrous storm swept across France, wiping out the crucial wheat harvest. With the nation already in the throes of political and financial calamity, this meteorological disas...
· 1 hr 10 min 10 sec
With seismic antecedents such as the Glorious Revolution in England and the American War of Independence, what was it about the French Revolution that saw it become arguably the most important episode...
· 1 hr 2 min 21 sec
In August 1785 a shocking affair came to light which would prove so detrimental to the reputation and standing of the French King Louis XVI, and more especially his already unpopular wife, Queen Marie...
· 53 min 58 sec
The French Revolution is one of the great seismic events of global history. A devouring conflagration of bloodshed, violence and utopianism, it changed France and then latterly the whole of Europe for...
· 57 min 51 sec
“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”In the early days of August 1914, the British press has become increasingly vocal about the prospect of war br...
· 1 hr 9 min 52 sec
“We have been forced to draw the sword”.Following the expiry of Austria’s Ultimatum on Saturday 25th July 1914, the Kaiser and the Tsar - friends and cousins, long desirous of peace between their two...
· 57 min 29 sec
On the 24th of July 1914, in London, the Liberal British Cabinet met to hear the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, read them the Ultimatum handed to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire the day bef...
· 55 min 45 sec
On the 20th of July 1914 the heads of state of two great European powers - France and Russia - met in St Petersburg. Little did they know, though they may have suspected, that the Austrians were simul...
· 54 min 40 sec
In the wake of the cataclysmic assassination of Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June 1914, in Austria, the long percolating question of what to do about Serbia, reached a climax. At last, they had been...
· 47 min 8 sec
By the end of July 1914, the world hovered on the edge of a cataclysmic world war; Austria was at war with Serbia, Russia with Germany, and an ultimatum had been handed to Belgium. The July crisis had...
· 50 min 40 sec
Archduke Franz Ferdinand has arrived in Sarajevo for a military inspection, alongside his wife, Sophie, on the 28th of June 1914. Unbeknownst to them, six assassins, including Gavrilo Princip, line th...
· 1 hr 2 min 34 sec
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was one of the most important men in the world. But he was a lonely man, not helped by the fact that, in spite of custom and tradition...
· 1 hr 2 sec
Gavrilo Princip, having been sent to school in Sarajevo, has become mixed up with the wrong crowd, and is now entangled in a secret Serbian nationalist organisation, the Black Hand. Hoping to be more...
· 57 min 1 sec
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to one of the world’s greatest empires, in June 1914, set in motion a series of events that would culminate in the First World War, where more than...
· 1 hr 6 min 45 sec
To coincide with the re-release of Dynasty in audiobook, now with Tom Holland himself narrating, we have the book’s introduction for you to enjoy. Dynasty, the sequel to Rubicon, is a dazzling portrai...
· 33 min 58 sec
From the turn of the 20th century, election campaigns - though still replete with politicians behaving badly - have evolved. They have become less mass-participation events or festivals, and receded,...
· 56 min 0 sec
"Good God I am shot! I shall die!"The colourful kaleidoscope of British elections from 1265 to their early 20th century incarnation, has seen some of the most critical, shocking, and downright farcica...
· 54 min 44 sec
The image of Saint George astride his horse, sword and spear in hand, slaying a dragon, is one of the most iconic iconographical spectacles of all time. But what was the historical truth of this deepl...
· 52 min 7 sec
"When dragons flew to war… everything burned. I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone."Dragons - the most compelling of mythical beasts - are one of the most vivid creations of all human...
· 54 min 16 sec
To coincide with the re-release of Rubicon in audiobook, now with Tom Holland himself narrating it, we have the book’s introduction for you to enjoy.Rubicon is a story of incomparable drama. This was...
· 25 min 31 sec