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PODCAST

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things

Expert history with a wicked twist: Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things is the podcast that goes behind palace doors and beyond the balcony smiles, to uncover the stories that the history books have politely skipped.Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things reveals the schemers, lovers, plotters and even the pets who’ve made the British monarchy the world’s longest-running reality show.Hosts, Royal biographers Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace how power, passion and paranoia have shaped

history

All Episodes

25:24

The Royal Vampire

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2026/02/02

Welcome to royal history with bite.In this episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams head east to Transylvania to unravel one of the strangest threads in modern royal history. King Charles III’s long-standing fascination with Romania turns out to involve more than rural preservation and beautiful churches — it also leads back, genealogically, to Vlad III, the ruler whose brutality helped inspire the Dracula legend.But Vlad is not the region’s only

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29:15

The Last King of America - Part 3

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2026/01/26

Royals, hot dogs, Hollywood, and the making of the “special relationship”Robert and Kate conclude their deep dive into Britain and America’s long and complicated partnership. Joined once again by historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they trace how glamour, war, royalty, and politics combined to create the modern Anglo-American world.From Edward VII’s fascination with wealthy, irreverent Americans, through the cultural explosion of Hollywood and jazz, to

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28:36

The Last King of America - Part 2

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2026/01/19

Revolution, the American divorce, and the true history of the sandwich! Robert and Kate return to the American War of Independence as the story moves beyond declarations and slogans, and into the long, uncertain struggle of what independence actually meant. Joined by a special guest, historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they explore the years after 1776, when the war dragged on, loyalties fractured, and victory was anything but assured.From Yorktown and

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27:21

The Last King of America - Part 1

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2026/01/12

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence - unfolding the momentous history.Robert and Kate kick off a three-part deep dive into one of history’s significant break-ups: how George III went from being “King of America” to the monarch who lost an entire continent. From the earliest English colonies - Jamestown’s swampy gamble, and the Puritans braving the Mayflower crossing - to the booming, self-confident 13 colonies of the 18th century, the stage is set for a spectacular

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25:01

Eleanor: England's Lost Queen

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2026/01/05

Love. Loss, and a queen who deserves to be famous again. Listen now.This week, Kate is joined by historian and broadcaster Alice Luxton, whose new book follows a wonderfully bonkers idea: walking 200 miles in December to retrace the funeral route of Eleanor of Castile, England’s “lost queen.”Eleanor was no mild medieval consort. She introduced carpets and forks, built dazzling Castilian-style gardens, amassed a property empire, travelled endlessly while almost constantly pregnant, and inspired her

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24:59

The Royal Pantomime

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/12/29

Behind every coronation, balcony wave and solemn procession lies a simple truth: royalty is theatre.In this sparkling, story-packed episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pull back the velvet curtain on the royals’ surprisingly long, and often hilarious, love affair with pantomime.From Henry VIII discovering Anne Boleyn through a masked performance, to the Restoration actresses who scandalised a queen, to Queen Victoria’s sentimental family

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26:03

What's So Royal about Christmas?

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/12/22

A seasonal cracker from the podcast that loves Royals and history - listen now.In this special edition of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unwrap the surprisingly rich, and frequently eccentric, festive legacy of the monarchy. From a 10th-century duke reinvented as a Victorian Christmas hero, to Henry VIII moonlighting as a carol writer, to the Tudor court’s rather questionable idea of “seasonal cheer,” it turns out the royals have been shaping our

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30:55

Wars of the Roses: Rise of the Tudors (Part 2)

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/12/15

The real-life Game of Thrones continues - listen now.In the second part of our deep dive into the Wars of the Roses, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story at England’s bloodiest moment: the Battle of Towton. From boy kings and warrior queens to vanishing princes and spectacular betrayals, this is the era when the crown changed hands with alarming regularity.We follow Edward IV’s meteoric rise, Warwick the Kingmaker’s dramatic change of sides, the astonishing comeback of Henry

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33:12

Wars of the Roses: The Fighting Begins (Part 1)

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/12/08

The Wars of the Roses is thereal-life Game of Thrones- the conflict that inspired George R. R. Martin’s world of rival houses, contested thrones, formidable queens, and sudden, shocking reversals of fortune. But long before fantasy claimed it, this struggle was one of thepivotal turning points in British history.In the first of a two-parter, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace the origins of a conflict that splintered a dynasty and set two branches of the same royal family on a

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29:48

The Execution of Anne Boleyn

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/12/01

A queen knelt, a sword flashed, a dynasty shifted.This episode looks at how and why the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife became one of the most iconic, mesmerising moments in British history.Professor Kate dives straight into the charged final minutes of the execution, peeling back the myths, the melodrama, and the emotions of that fatal walk to the scaffold.Anne hoped, right up to the last, that the King might intervene. She rehearsed her courage. She made jokes. She forgave people she

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34:48

Royals in Crisis: The Diana Years - Part Three

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/11/24

What is Princess Diana’s legacy?In our final episode on the Princess of Wales’s life, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story attheturning point: the Royal separation that launched the most consequential chapter of her life, her emergence as a global humanitarian supernova.Diana shakes hands with patients in AIDS wards, embraces children with leprosy, confronts the landmine crisis in a bulletproof vest, and rewrites the royal rulebook with empathy and emotional intelligence. We

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31:03

Royals in Crisis: The Diana Years - Part Two

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/11/17

The fairytale is starting to fall apart ... In the second part of our Diana deep dive, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman pick up the story just after that balcony kiss, and follow the new Princess of Wales through the most dazzling and difficult years of her royal life.From the Riviera honeymoon aboard Britannia to the birth of Prince William, from the Australian tour that electrified a nation to the famous dance with John Travolta at the White House, this episode charts the meteoric rise of a young

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30:09

Royals in Crisis: The Diana Years - Part One

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/11/10

The first episode in our deep-dive exploration of the most influential figures in modern royal history - Diana, Princess of Wales.It begins as the greatest love story of the age: a shy nursery assistant, a lonely prince, and a glittering wedding watched by nearly a billion people. But before the heartbreak, the revenge dresses and the headlines, there was the young Lady Diana Spencer - awkward, funny, occasionally lost, and totally unprepared for what came next.In this episode, Robert Hardman and

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22:23

The Royal Woof!

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/11/03

OMRG*, we’ve got a genuinely Royal corgi in the studio, a four-legged, waggy-tailed world exclusive on Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things. Listen NowJoining Kate and Robert is Lee, a champion pedigree Welsh corgi descended directly from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s own beloved dogs, alongside her breeder, Mary Davies, who once met the Queen herself to arrange an aristocratic “blind date” between their corgis.Yes, we’re going barking mad in the best possible way, as we talk royals and their

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24:43

Rotten Spares: The Prince Andrews & Harrys of History...

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/10/27

Are Princes Andrew and Harry the most troublesome ‘spares’ in royal history?You mightthinkso — but buckle up, because history is littered with spares who partied harder, plotted darker and pushed the Crown to breaking point.Welcome toQueens, Kings & Dastardly Things, where royal biographers Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams take you inside the palace doors to meet the heirs… and the headaches. Every monarchy needs a backup but what happens when the backup goes rogue? From regency

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25:48

Rotten Spares: The Prince Andrews & Harrys of History...

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/10/19

Prince Harry may have put the wordspareon the map, but he and his uncle Prince Andrew are not the first royal to grumble about being second in line. In this week’s episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams dig into centuries of royal runners-up — from Elizabeth I to George V — the siblings who weren’t meant to rule, yet somehow stole the show.From party-loving princes to quietly competent sisters, being “the spare” has always been a tricky business. Some plotted their way to the throne,

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28:32

Churchill & The Queen

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/10/12

Was Churchill her favourite PM — and who did the Queen secretly loathe?Find out in this week’s royally revealing episode ofQueens, Kings & Dastardly Things!Robert Hardman is joined by royal biographerAndrew Morton— yes, the man behindDiana: Her True Story— to spill the palace secrets behindQueen Elizabeth II’s fifteen Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.FromChurchill bursting into tears during audiencestoThatcher trudging through the Balmoral mud in high heels, fromJohn Major

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25:14

Spies & The Crown - Part 2

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/10/05

Royals in taxis, Groucho Marx glasses on ski slopes, and a Soviet mole hiding in the Queen’s drawing room — this episode has it all. Listen Now.In their second episode of Spies & The Crown, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman go full cloak-and-dagger as they unmask Anthony Blunt — the Queen’s own art adviser turned KGB spy — and dig into the bizarre world of undercover royals. From Princess Elizabeth sneaking into the VE Day crowds, to Prince Harry insisting he was just “Bob” in a nightclub,

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23:39

Spies & The Crown - Part 1

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/09/28

From the Tudors to King Charles III, the royals have always been close to spies. Listen to find out!Today’s monarchs get discreet MI5 briefings — but back in Elizabeth I’s day, her spymaster Francis Walsingham was inventing the modern secret service with beer-barrel dead drops, forged letters, and a plot that sent Mary Queen of Scots to the block.This episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things dives into the wildest tales of royal espionage: Christopher Marlowe, the playwright who may have been

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29:45

Can Royals Be Jailed?

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things ·

2025/09/21

“Off with his head!” may be the most famous royal sentence ever passed — but what happens before the axe falls? Can kings and queens actually be locked up like the rest of us? Listen to find out!On today’s episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman dig into the murky history of royal captivity — where velvet cushions meet iron bars, and sovereign immunity doesn’t always save the day.We’ve got Charles I, the would-be master of disguise who chopped off his beard,

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107 results

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