Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

As a major winter storm is hitting much of the United States, it’s hard not to think about how dependent we are on forecasts, alerts, and advance warnings. We know when snow will start, how bad it might get, and when it should be over.

The Tudors had none of that.

In this episode, we explore how people in Tudor England understood the weather, what “forecasting” meant in a world without instruments or data, and how households prepared for winter when storms arrived without warning. We’ll look at seasonal preparation, food storage, fuel shortages, and what happened when cold lasted longer than anyone expected.

We’ll also examine real historical examples of severe winters from the Tudor period and just beyond it, including prolonged frosts that froze rivers, stalled trade, and tested the limits of everyday life.

This isn’t a story about cozy snowfalls. It’s about uncertainty, preparation, and what winter meant in a world where no one could say how long the storm would last.
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What if Anne Boleyn had agreed to become Henry VIII’s mistress instead of his queen? This thought experiment explores how a single private decision might have altered the English Reformation, the fate of Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary, and the course of Tudor history itself without catastrophe.

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Breakfast feels ancient. It isn’t. In Tudor England, breakfast was optional, lightly eaten, and sometimes frowned upon. No bacon, no eggs, no fixed hour. Just bread, ale, leftovers, and a lot of flexibility depending on class and work.
This video explores when breakfast actually became “breakfast,” and why the Tudors didn’t believe in it the way we do.
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Speak at Tudorcon 2026: https://tudorcon.englandcast.com/speak-at-tudorcon/

The Tudors did not see history as distant or neutral. They believed they were living after a great age, measuring themselves constantly against Rome, ancient kings, and earlier empires that had already risen and fallen. History, for them, was a warning.
In this episode, we explore how the Tudors studied the past, the classical historians they read, and why history shaped their understanding of power, legitimacy, and decline. From Roman emperors to English chronicles, this is a look at how the Tudors read history.
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In early 1540, Thomas Cromwell was still powerful, but he knew something had shifted.
Today we look at the final year before Cromwell’s fall, not as a sudden collapse, but as a slow recognition that his influence was draining away. As the court reoriented itself, allies fell silent, old enemies returned, and the systems Cromwell built no longer protected him.

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