Travels Through Time

James Clark: The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1540)

Long into the sixteenth century monasteries remained a familiar and vital part of English society. Wherever you were in the kingdom – Yorkshire, Cornwall, London, the Lakes – it was almost certain that there was a monastery just a short walk away. 
And yet within a few short years in the 1530s, 850 of these institutions vanished for good. The dissolution of the monasteries really was, today's guest, James Clark argues, ‘the great drama of Henry VIII’s Reformation’. It was the process that had 'the most immediate impact on the largest number of people.'
In this episode Clark takes us back to 1540, a year at the very heart of this dramatic, contentious, violent story.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
James Clark is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of the recently published book, The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History.
Click here to order Clark’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: Just before Easter. Canterbury Cathedral
Scene Two: 7 May, 1540 Clerkenwell Priory.
Scene Three: 4 August, 1540. Newgate Gaol, London
Memento: Epsam’s habit
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: James Clark
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Malcolm Gaskill: An Execution and a Witch (1649)

On a cold midwinter’s day in 1649, King Charles I stepped onto a platform in Whitehall. He knelt down and said a prayer. Then he stretched his arms forward to signal that he was ready to die. As the axe swung down, the crowd that had gathered emitted a sound that was later recalled as a ‘collective groan.’
The killing of a king, an unheard of act, brought a shocking end to a destructive decade of civil war in England. In this episode of the historian Malcolm Gaskill explains how that act was seen in its own time and what fears it generated for the future.
London might have been the centre of people’s interest in 1649, but elsewhere other tantalising events were taking place. Gaskill takes us from Whitehall to Surrey, where we see the founding of a radical new movement called The Diggers. Then we travel across the Atlantic Ocean to see the frontier community of Springfield in Massachusetts. This is the setting, as Gaskill explains, for a curious case of witchcraft.
Malcolm Gaskill is Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia. He is one of Britain’s leading experts in the history of witchcraft, and he is the author of the captivating new micro-history, The Ruin of all Witches: life and death in the New World.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Malcolm’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: Tuesday 30 January: Whitehall, London. The execution of King Charles I.
Scene Two: Sunday 1 April: St George’s Hill, Walton, Surrey. The Start of the Diggers
Scene Three: Wednesday 30 May: Springfield, Massachusetts. The Slander Trial of Mary Parsons
Memento: The top of King Charles I’s silver cane
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Malcolm Gaskill
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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Justine Picardie: Miss Dior (1947)

Writer and journalist Justine Picardie takes us back to 1947 to meet resistance fighter Catherine Dior. The youngest sister of the renowned French designer, Catherine’s story of survival during World War 2 is one of great courage and it is being told at last.
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In 1947, Christian Dior launched his debut collection in Paris and became a sensation. His designs were characterised by enormous, fairy-tale-like skirts and hyper-feminine silhouettes. It was christened the ‘New Look’ by the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Carmel Snow, because it stood in such stark contrast to the sober women’s fashion of recent years.
Yet what makes the glamour of Dior’s collection even more compelling to us today is the dark backdrop it was set against. Few knew then that just eighteen months before, Dior’s youngest sister, Catherine, had been liberated from the German concentration camp at Ravensbrück.
Justine Picardie explores Catherine’s story in 1947 – the year that her brother made his break in a Paris still haunted by the war.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Justine’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: 3 February, 1947, the War Crimes Court in Hamburg, Germany: the last day of the trial of 16 defendants (nine men and seven women) accused of crimes committed at Ravensbrück concentration camp. 
Scene Two: 12 February, 1947, 30 Avenue Montaigne, Paris: in his newly established couture house, Christian Dior is making his debut, with a collection that will revolutionise the world of fashion.
Scene Three: Late May, Provence, 1947: at the family farm that Catherine Dior inherited from her father, she is undertaking the annual harvest of rose de Mai, that will be used as a vital ingredient in her brother’s perfumes.
Memento: A very small bottle of the original Miss Dior.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Justine Picardie
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Garry J Shaw: Ancient Egypt and Tutankhamun (c.1335 BC)

Tutankhamun. That one word is enough to conjure up enticing images of Ancient Egypt: dashing chariots, mighty temples, little skiffs sailing on the Nile and, most of all, the king's own transfixing Golden Mask.
But who really was Tutankhamun, this figure who has come to represent so much?
In this episode we are joined by the Egyptologist Garry J. Shaw who takes us back to the age of Tutankhamun in the second millennium BC. This was, Shaw explains, an exhilarating time to be alive. Great temples were being built. Money was flowing into the kingdom in tribute. Egypt was recognised as a strong regional power.
This was the world that Tutankhamun was born into. He became king, Shaw explains, at about the age of nine. His short reign was significant and the manner of his death was mysterious. Did he die in a chariot accident? Was he bludgeoned about the head?
And did this king really, Shaw ponders, really use a walking stick?
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Garry J Shaw is the author of Egyptian Mythology: A Traveller’s Guide.
Show Notes
Scene One: c. 1343 BC. Tutankhamun is in Memphis, in the old palace of Tuthmosis I.
Scene Two: c. 1333 BC. Tutankhamun dies and is buried in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes.
Scene Three: c. 1328 BC. The coronation of Horemheb in Thebes
Memento: Tutankhamun’s walking stick
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Garry J Shaw
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Neil Oliver: Skara Brae (2,500 BC)

Today we speak 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.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Neil Oliver's new book, A History of the World in 100 Moments is available now.
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
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Michael Pye: The City at the Hub of the World (1549)

In the sixteenth-century there was nowhere quite like Antwerp. Tolerant, energetic, independent, vibrant; Antwerp sat at the heart of a busy and growing trading network. After the Portuguese moved the spice trade to Antwerp it became a fierce rival to Venice.
It was a place that many came to call. 'the city at the hub of the world.'
Today’s guest is the historian, columnist and broadcaster Michael Pye. For many years Pye has been investigating Antwerp’s distinctive culture and unique place in European history. In this episode he guides us back into the rowdy streets of Europe’s busiest port.
Antwerp was, he points out, a haven for Jews and hard-line Protestants, and a playground for just about everyone else.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Michael Pye’s book from our friends at John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: September, Charles V’s ceremonial entry into Antwerp with his son Philip.
Scene Two: The King of Sweden sends Jacob Binck to Antwerp to check on the progress of a tomb he had commissioned.
Scene Three: Italian merchant and conman Simone Turchi’s luck begins to run out as his past catches up with him, ending with his public execution.
Memento: A baboon
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Michael Pye
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Susan Denham Wade: The Gutenberg Press (1454)

Today’s exhilarating episode takes us on a trip to the fifteenth-century, to see one of the greatest of all technological inventions at the moment of its creation: the Gutenberg Press.
Until the mid-fifteenth century European society had had a predominantly oral culture. The books that did exist were expensive manuscripts, produced by scribes in scriptoriums, each of them taking weeks or months to complete.
At the Frankfurt Trade Fair in 1454 something appeared that would change this. Among the English wool and French wine, one tradesman was selling a new kind of regularly printed manuscript, produced by a mysterious machine in the nearby town of Mainz.
The flutter of interest these pages generated was more than warranted. In fact, fair-goers were the first people to get a glimpse of Johannes Gutenberg’s magnificent Bible.
This was a book that would catalyse the shift from script to print, changing the world as it went.
Guiding us through this enchanting historical story is the author Susan Denham Wade. The author of A History of Seeing in Eleven Inventions, Denham Wade explains the brilliance of Gutenberg’s invention and why it appeared at the time it did.
This episode of Travels Through Time is supported by The History Press. To read a beautifully illustrated, exclusive extract from A History of Seeing, head over to the newly launched Unseen Histories.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our own website tttpodcast.com.
Show notes
Scene One: Mainz, Spring 1454. A middle-aged man delivers a parcel to an office in the Church of St Martin, wrapped in cloth. Inside are 200 printed indulgences. The man making the delivery is Johann Gutenberg.
Scene Two: Summer 1454.  A workshop near a riverbank in Mainz, Germany.  Gutenberg’s printing presses are working frantically on producing the monumental Bible project.
Scene Three: October 1454. Frankfurt’s famous trade fair. The Italian cardinal Piccolomini – future Pope Pius II, but at this point Bishop of Siena – catches a first glimpse of Gutenberg’s Bible. He is amazed at the beauty, accuracy and clarity.
Memento: A handful of original Gutenberg type.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Susan Denham Wade
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Bernard Cornwell: The Battle of Waterloo (1815)

One of the world’s great historical novelists takes us back to one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in European history. Bernard Cornwell is our guide to the Battle of Waterloo.
Waterloo. That single word is enough to conjure up images of Napoleon with his great bicorn hat and the daring emperor’s nemesis, the Duke of Wellington. Over the course of twelve or so hours on a Sunday at the start of summer, these two commanders met on a battle in modern-day Belgium, to settle the future of Europe.
For a battle so vast is size and significance, it still has some elusive elements. Historians cannot agree on when it started. The movement of the troops is still subject to debate. Wellington, who might have been best qualified to answer these riddles, preferred not to speak of Waterloo. His famously laconic verdict was simply that it was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.’
Few people are as qualified to analyse this tangled history as Bernard Cornwall. For forty years he has been writing about this period of history through his ‘Sharpe’ series of books.
As Cornwall publishes his first new Sharpe novel for fifteen years, we take the opportunity to ask him about the battle that was central to all. Over a brilliantly analytical hour, he walks us through the battlefield, in three telling scenes.
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Click here to order Bernard Cornwell’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show Notes
Scene One: Sunday June 18th, 11.10 am.  Napoleon orders his grand battery to start firing
Scene Two: Sunday June 18th, 8.00 pm. Napoleon sends the Imperial Guard to save the battle.
Scene Three: Sunday June 18th, 10.00 pm.  Wellington weeps over the casualties.
Memento: A heavy cavalry sword, carried in an attack at Waterloo
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Bernard Cornwell
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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Stephen Greenblatt: The Death of Christopher Marlowe (1593)

Welcome to Season Five! In this first episode we sit down with one of the world’s finest historians. Stephen Greenblatt takes us back to the late sixteenth century to witness the death of the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.
In 1593 Marlowe was the toast of London. Thousands flocked to the theatres that lined the River Thames to see his hit plays, The Jew of Malta, Dr Faustus and Tamberlaine. Then, one spring afternoon, Marlowe was killed in an altercation at the home of Dame Eleanor Bull house in Deptford.
The facts of what happened that day have been contested ever since. Today Marlowe’s death is considered one of the great mysteries in literary history. In this episode of Travels Through Time, Greenblatt takes us back to a time of religious fervour, spies and suspicion, to weigh the evidence.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Show notes
Scene One: 30 May 1593. Marlowe meets three others at a house belonging to Eleanor Bull in Deptford, a busy port to the east of the city of London.
Scene Two: 5 May 1593. A placard is found pinned to a church used by Dutch immigrants threatening them with death if they did not leave the country and signed ‘Tamburlaine’.
Scene Three: New Year 1593/4. The Earl of Essex accuses the Queen’s personal physician, Rodrigo Lopez, of plotting to poison her, resulting in his trial and death.
Memento: The political climate of 1593 as a warning today.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Professor Stephen Greenblatt
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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Season Five Trailer!

Hello to one and all! Almost two months has whizzed by since we rounded off our fourth season with Maximilien Robespierre’s execution in Revolutionary Paris. In that time we’ve had a good rest, spent lots of time reading and now we’re back to start all over again.
Our new season of recordings will begin this coming Tuesday with a fascinating conversation between Violet Moller and one of the world’s greatest living scholars: the Pulitzer Prize winning historian Professor Stephen Greenblatt.
Thereafter we’ll be off to the Battle of Waterloo, to Sicily and Australia, Ancient Egypt and Modern London, and many other places besides.
New episodes will be released on Tuesdays and to get the first news of them make sure you subscribe to our feeds on Apple Podcasts (UK, US, AU), Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.
We hope you enjoy this little trailer. See you soon!