15th century
22 episodes
Agincourt
Melvyn Bragg discusses the events leading up to the unlikely English defeat of the French at Agincourt in 1415, and explores the cultural legacy of this emblematic victory.
16 September 2004
Featuring: Anne Curry, Michael Jones, John Watts
Bohemia
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the ancient kingdom of Bohemia containing myriad religious, national and ethnic ideologies, and how it was divided up to form the states of modern Central Europe.
11 April 2002
Featuring: Norman Davies, Karin Friedrich, Robert Pynsent
Caxton and the Printing Press
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss printer William Caxton and the impact of the printing press in England.
18 October 2012
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Julia Boffey, David Rundle
Christine de Pizan
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Christine de Pizan (c1364-1430) who, according to Simone de Beauvoir, was the first woman to 'take up her pen in defence of her sex'.
8 June 2017
Featuring: Helen Swift, Miranda Griffin, Marilynn Desmond
Constantinople Siege and Fall
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1453 siege of Constantinople. A bitter and bloody 53 days that ended a thousand years of the Byzantine Empire.
28 December 2006
Featuring: Roger Crowley, Judith Herrin, Colin Imber
Julian of Norwich
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the anchoress, who is probably the earliest named woman writer in English, and her celebrated work on her visions of the suffering of Christ.
19 October 2023
Featuring: Katherine Lewis, Philip Sheldrake, Laura Kalas
Religion15th-century English writersWriters from Norwich14th-century Christian mystics, 14th-century English women writers, 15th-century English women writers, 15th-century deaths, English Catholic mystics, Middle English literatureWomen religious writersWomen mysticsMedieval English theologiansEnglish religious writers14th century15th centuryTheologyMachiavelli and the Italian City States
Melvyn Bragg discusses the political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli. Inspired by the model of Cesare Borgia, he wrote a notorious manual of power still read today.
9 December 2004
Featuring: Quentin Skinner, Evelyn Welch, Lisa Jardine
Margaret Beaufort
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the resilience of the child bride who made it her mission to protect her son during the Wars of the Roses and helped him become the first Tudor king
5 March 2026
Featuring: Joanna Laynesmith, Katherine Lewis, David Grummitt
History16th-century English womenAnnulmentHouse of Tudor16th-century English nobilityEnglish Roman Catholics15th-century English women, Founders of colleges of the University of Cambridge, Ladies of the Garter, People of the Wars of the RosesBurials at Westminster AbbeyMothers of English monarchs15th century16th centuryMargaret of Anjou
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the Queen of England fought to hold on to power for the sake of her son, when her husband's mental illness made him unable to rule.
24 May 2018
Featuring: Katherine Lewis, James Ross, Joanna Laynesmith
Margery Kempe and English Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe (1373-1438), the English mystic who went to Jerusalem and dictated her life story, said to be the first autobiography in English.
2 June 2016
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Katherine Lewis, Anthony Bale
HistoryAnglican saints15th-century English writersEnglish women non-fiction writersWriters from King's LynnRoman Catholic mystics14th-century Christian mystics, 14th-century English women writers, 15th-century English women writers, 15th-century deaths, English Catholic mystics, Middle English literaturePre-Reformation Anglican saintsEnglish Roman CatholicsWomen religious writersEnglish autobiographersWomen mysticsFemale saints of medieval EnglandEnglish religious writers14th century15th centuryMarguerite de Navarre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renaissance.
23 November 2023
Featuring: Sara Barker, Emily Butterworth, Emma Herdman
Owain Glyndŵr
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man behind a major revolt against England, from 1400-1412, taking control of large areas of Wales until defeated by the future Henry V
31 January 2019
Featuring: Huw Pryce, Helen Fulton, Chris Given-Wilson
Paganism in the Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg discusses paganism in the Renaissance and the return of classical pagan thought to Italy and then to the rest of Europe in the 15th century.
16 June 2005
Featuring: Thomas Healy, Charles Hope, Evelyn Welch
The Battle of Bosworth Field
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, the celebrated climactic encounter of the Wars of the Roses.
26 April 2012
Featuring: Anne Curry, Steven Gunn, David Grummitt
The Borgias
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Borgias, the most notorious family in Renaissance Italy, famed for their treachery and corruption under the papacy of Alexander VI.
22 November 2012
Featuring: Evelyn Welch, Catherine Fletcher, Christine Shaw
The Columbian Exchange
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the spread of plants, animals and diseases after Columbus reached the Americas in 1492 and the transformations and devastations that followed.
26 February 2026
Featuring: Rebecca Earle, John Lindo, Mark Maslin
The Hanseatic League
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League or Hansa which dominated North European and Baltic trade in the medieval period.
1 February 2024
Featuring: Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, Georg Christ, Sheilagh Ogilvie
The Ming Voyages
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages, the 15th-century naval expeditions led by the Chinese admiral Zheng He.
13 October 2011
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Julia Lovell, Craig Clunas
The Nibelungenlied
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic German poem of Siegfried and Kriemhild against Gunther and Brunhilda, two powerful couples whose friendship turns to rivalry and revenge.
1 December 2022
Featuring: Sarah Bowden, Mark Chinca, Bettina Bildhauer
The Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg explores the veracity of modern claims about the Renaissance and whether our current perceptions about its role in cultural history stem from a 19th century historian.
8 June 2000
Featuring: Francis Ames-Lewis, Peter Burke, Evelyn Welch
The Wars of the Roses
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 15th century wars between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. Do they represent the breakdown of the feudal system or has the political instability been overstated?
18 May 2000
Featuring: Helen Castor, Colin Richmond, Steven Gunn
Vitruvius and De Architectura
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Vitruvius's De Architectura, the first major treatise on architecture.
15 March 2012
Featuring: Serafina Cuomo, Robert Tavernor, Alice König
