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 every crown. There are queens who ruled better than their husbands, and princes who partied harder than their people. We meet saints, sinners and those hovering somewhere in between – from the man formerly known as Prince Andrew to the less-vilified Richard III.
Sometimes we get reflective: how monarchy survives scandal, how image-making began long before Instagram, and why royal women have always been the best crisis managers in the room. Other times we’re just here for the gossip: who wore what, who slept where, and who accidentally started a war over breakfast.
Think of it as history with its crown slightly askew. If you like your royal stories with equal parts grandeur and chaos, step into the world of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things because behind every coronation lies a cover-up, behind every portrait a scandal, and behind every great monarch… a very patient servant wondering how to get the blood out of the carpet.
New episodes out every MONDAY, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 every crown. There are queens who ruled better than their husbands, and princes who partied harder than their people. We meet saints, sinners and those hovering somewhere in between – from the man formerly known as Prince Andrew to the less-vilified Richard III.
Sometimes we get reflective: how monarchy survives scandal, how image-making began long before Instagram, and why royal women have always been the best crisis managers in the room. Other times we’re just here for the gossip: who wore what, who slept where, and who accidentally started a war over breakfast.
Think of it as history with its crown slightly askew. If you like your royal stories with equal parts grandeur and chaos, step into the world of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things because behind every coronation lies a cover-up, behind every portrait a scandal, and behind every great monarch… a very patient servant wondering how to get the blood out of the carpet.
New episodes out every MONDAY, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Who was the most rotten king of all — treacherous John of England or Shakespeare’s wicked Richard III? Listen to find out!
This week on Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things, royal historian Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams drag two of England’s most notorious monarchs into the dock of history.
Armed with the seven deadly sins as their scorecard, they weigh up pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Richard III — the hunchbacked villain of Shakespeare, buried for centuries under a Leicester car park — is accused of dispatching nephews in the Tower and grasping for the throne at any cost. King John, youngest son of Henry II, nicknamed “Lackland” and “Softsword,” loses battles, loses crown jewels, and nearly loses his kingdom through arrogance, greed, and disastrous quarrels with the Pope.
The judges weigh sanctuary ignored at Tewkesbury, excommunications, ill-fated marriages, and even a death by peaches and cider. From Robin Hood cartoons to scoliosis scans, this is royal villainy at its most grotesque — and occasionally absurd.
It’s England v England, Plantagenet v Plantagenet, Shakespearean bogeyman v medieval tax-collector-in-chief. May the worst king win.
And the royal rumble continues: next week it’s Bloody Mary v Catherine de Medici — a deadly contest of queens.
Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams
Series Producer: Ben Devlin
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Bella Soames
Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams
Series Producer: Ben Devlin
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Bella Soames
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.
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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.