Travels Through Time

Veronica Buckley: The Hapsburgs and the French Revolution (1790)

The late eighteenth century history was a time in Europe when a brilliant old world collapsed and raucous new one rose to replace it. In this episode the biographer Veronica Buckley explains how the Hapsburgs, one of the great European families, responded to this revolutionary change.
It was a stern challenge but inspired by one of the great matriarchs in European history, Empress Maria Theresia, her son Emperor Joseph II, his successor Leopold and their sister, Marie Antoinette, reacted as best they could in that perilous year, 1790.
Veronica Buckley is the author of Seven Sisters: Captives and Rebels in Revolutionary Europe's First Family
Read an in-depth article about this story on Unseen Histories.
Show notes
Scene One: 20 February 1790, Emperor Joseph II dies in Vienna
Scene Two: October 1790, The French revolutionary Comte de Mirabeau meets with Emperor Leopold II in Frankfurt to discuss a possible intervention in France.
Scene Three: November 1790, The Habsburg imperial family arrives in Pressburg for Leopold’s coronation as King of Hungary.
Memento: A piece of elegant jewellery belonging to Marie Christine.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Veronica Buckley
Production: Maria Nolan
Theme music: Firelight by Minka / Mozart - Piano Sonata in B-flat major, III. Allegretto Grazioso performed by Brendan Kinsella

Marc Mierowsky: Daniel Defoe the English Spy (1706)

Most people know Daniel Defoe as one of the great writers in the history of English literature. But the author of Robinson Crusoe was much more than that. A rabble rousing pamphleteer and erratic entrepreneur, in the early years of the eighteenth century Defoe also became an undercover political operative.
Defoe's career as a spy intersected with a huge moment in British history when the Act of Union between England and Scotland was being planned in 1706. Today's guest, the historian Marc Mierowsky, revisits this time in today's episode – analysing a series of events that were crucial to the genesis of Great Britain 
Marc Mierowsky is the author of A Spy Amongst Us. 
Show notes
Scene One: July 1706. The Cockpit in Whitehall. The Scottish and the English commissioners finally settle on the terms of the treaty for the Act of Union.
Scene Two: 23 October 1706. Edinburgh. The treaty has been sent north - it is being debated in the Scottish parliament -- and a riot breaks out. Defoe is a witness to the disorder.
Scene Three: December 1706. The west of Scotland. Defoe deploys agent John Pierce to infiltrate the Hebronites.
Memento: Daniel Defoe's familiar letters.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Marc Mierowsky
Production: Maria Nolan
Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Sean Cunningham: King Henry VII and a Year of Peril (1497)

Today’s guest, Sean Cunningham, takes us back to a particularly perilous year in the eventful reign of King Henry VII. He explains that 1497 was a year of brinkmanship, battles, plots and disasters that very nearly resulted in the fall of the House of Tudor.
Sean Cunningham is Head of Collections, Medieval, Early Modern and Legal, at the National Archives in Kew. He is one of the leading authorities on the life and times of Henry VII – the first of the Tudor monarchs.
Often overshadowed by his attention-hogging son (he of the six wives), Henry VII was a formidable operator: wily, quicksilver, determined, restless. He needed all these qualities to survive the multiple threats to his rule.
Sean Cunningham is the author of Henry VII: Treason and Trust. 
Read an accompanying article about Henry VII at Unseen Histories.
Show notes
Scene One: August 1497. King James IV of Scotland challenges the Earl of Surrey to single combat.
Scene Two: October 1497. Henry VII interviews Perkin Warbeck in Taunton Castle.
Scene Three: December 1497. The fire at Sheen Palace.
Memento: The original manuscript of Perkin Warbeck's confession.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Sean Cunningham
Production: Maria Nolan
Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Peter Moore: The Duke of York Scandal (1809)

Given the scandal surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, we thought we'd examine an eerily familiar moment in British history. In January 1809 the Duke of York became the subject of a huge and embarrassing news story. It was a story of sex, power, money and corruption right at the heart of British politics. One of the stars of the affair was a woman of no rank, title or fortune. Her name was Mary Anne Clarke.
Show notes
Scene One: 27 January 1809. Colonel Wardle stands up in the House of Commons.
Scene Two: 1 February 1809, Mary Anne Clarke gives evidence before the House of Commons.
Scene Three: 20 March 1809, Spencer Percival announces the Duke of York's resignation as Commander in Chief to the House of Commons.
Memento: Mrs Clarke's coat.
People/Social
Presenters: Peter Moore
Production: Maria Nolan

Charles King: The Premiere of Handel's Messiah (1742)

Our guest today is the New York Times bestselling historian Charles King, the author of Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel's Messiah.
The Messiah is one of the best known pieces of all classical music and, as King suggests at the beginning of this conversation, it 'may be the world's greatest monument to the possibility of hope'.
To tell us more about how such an extraordinary piece was written, as well as to take us along to its premiere in Dublin in April 1742, King sat down with us for a travel back through time just the other day.
Charles King is the author of Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel's Messiah
Show notes
Scene One: 13 April, 1742. The words 'Comfort ye/Every Valley' at the premiere of the Messiah in Dublin.
Scene Two: 13 April, 1742. The words 'He Was Despised' at the premiere of the Messiah in Dublin.
Scene Three: 13 April, 1742. The Hallelujah chorus at the premiere of the Messiah in Dublin.
Memento: The original manuscript of Handel's Messiah.
People/Social
Presenters: Peter Moore and Min Kym
Guest: Charles King
Production: Maria Nolan

Tharik Hussain: Córdoba in the Islamic Golden Age (929)

Our guest today is Tharik Hussain, a travel writer turned historian who has recently produced  an enchanting study of Europe's Islamic history. To investigate this at close quarters, in this episode he takes us back to Córdoba in the year 929 – the greatest city in Europe at the time, a place of wealth and splendour with a population of around 100,000.
By 929 Córdoba was emerging as a rival power base to Baghdad. At a Friday prayers, early in the year, its ruler Abdul Rahman III declared himself Caliph of the Caliphate of Cordoba, Al Andalus. This was a decisive political move.
Tharik takes us into the Grand Mosque to see this happen and he then guides us on a tour of two more equally intriguing sites.
Tharik Hussain is the author Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History
Show notes
Scene One: Friday Prayers in the Great Mosque of Córdoba. 17 January 929.
Scene Two: Inside a Córdoban hospital, or 'maristan'.
Scene Three: One of the great synagogues of Cordoba in search of a young Jewish boy called Hasdai Ibn Shaprut.
Memento: The plans that were drawn up for AR III’s Caliphate City – Madinah az Zahra. 
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Tharik Hussain
Production: Maria Nolan
Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Sarah Wise: The Undesirables (1947)

Our guest today is Sarah Wise, an author known for her incisive social studies of nineteenth century history. In this episode Wise takes us back to a more recent year, 1947, so she can investigate the moment when the British public began to turn against the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913.
The Mental Deficiency Act was a terrifying piece of legislation that resulted in the imprisonment of tens of thousands of vulnerable people. As Wise explains, many of its victims were young, working class women who were deemed incurable 'moral imbeciles'. As such they were locked away with no hope of release. In 1947 this began to change.
Sarah Wise is the author The Undesirables: The Law that Locked Away a Generation.
Show notes
Scene One: George Scott Rimmington's bungalow in Newton Abbot (September 1947)
Scene Two: Publication of The News of the World's expose of Margery X (1947)
Scene Three: Cambridgeshire MP stands up in the Commons and asks Aneurin "Nye" Bevan a question (30 January 1947)
Memento: A pencil written letter from 'Christine' to her mother. 
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Sarah Wise
Production: Maria Nolan
Theme music: Firelight by Minka

[From the archive] Neil Oliver: Skara Brae (2,500 BC)

In this episode from our archive we spoke to the archeologist and broadcaster Neil Oliver, a figure familiar to millions in the UK. While Oliver's television work has taken him around the world, he retains a special connection to his Scottish homeland. One historical site, in particular, continues to enchant him: Skara Brae.
Skara Brae on the wind scoured Orkney Islands is the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in all of western Europe. Embedded inside its stone houses and in the surviving monuments are tantalising clues to how our ancient ancestors lived and how they died.
In this episode Oliver takes us back four and a half millennia to around 2,500BC to see Skara Brae as a dynamic, living community. He then explains the mysteries that surround its abandoment and considers the significance of the settlement to us today.
Show notes
Scene One: A day in the life of Skara Brae
Scene Two: The great mystery of the settlement's abandonment
Scene Three: Where did the people go?
Memento: A sharp stone knife
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Neil Oliver
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories

Vivaldi Special. Hannah French on The Four Seasons

There's no more familiar piece of classical music than Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. But for all the recordings and broadcasts and interpretations of it that there has been over the past three centuries, there is still some mystery about the music. Why did Vivaldi write it? What were his inspirations? Where and when did The Four Seasons burst into life.
The broadcaster and author Dr Hannah French has written a wonderful, incisive book called The Rolling Year that examines questions like this. In this special episode Peter and the violinist Min Kym sat down with Hannah to find out more about Vivaldi, his music, Mantua and Manchester.
Enjoy the music. We'll be returning to the Travels Through Time format very soon!
Show notes
People/Social
Interviewers: Peter Moore and Min Kym
Guest: Dr Hannah French
Production: Maria Nolan
Music: John Harrison, The Four Seasons

Nikolai Tolstoy on Patrick O'Brian

After some time away, we've decided that now's the moment for some new forays into the past. Keep an eye on this feed – new episodes on the way!
In the meantime we thought we'd post one of our favourite ever interviews here. It's with the author Nikolai Tolstoy on his stepfather, the novelist Patrick O'Brian.
O'Brian was a writer of great gifts. His depiction of the late Georgian world is regarded as being very nearly as vivid as Jane Austen's. But who was he really? Where did he get his inspiration from? How did he treat those closest to him? Tolstoy, who knew Patrick as well as anyone alive, answers these questions.
We hope you enjoy this episode. Happy 2026 and more soon!