Entirely Unofficial Rest is History Catalogue and Interrogator

Early Modern & Renaissance

118 Episodes 20 Series 128 Figures 67 Events 299 Books 233 Authors

Covering roughly the 15th through 18th centuries, this collection examines religious, political, imperial, and cultural transformations of the Renaissance and early modern world. Series include American Crusades (Christianity’s influence on American foreign policy and warfare from the colonial era onward), Amsterdam (the city’s rise from a fishing village to a financial hub), Aztec Epic (Hernán Cortés’s expedition and the fall of the Aztecs), Charles I: Trial and Execution (causes and consequences of regicide), and Christopher Columbus (origins and Atlantic voyages). Episodes address public debate and coffee-house culture, Magna Carta, Elizabeth I’s early reign, Ireland and Cromwell, and oddities such as Hwang Jini. Figures and events discussed include Ignatius of Loyola, Anne Boleyn, Mehmed II, William III, Sack of Antwerp, Sack of Texcoco, encomienda, Great Trier witch trials, and works like The Embarrassment of Riches and Stations of the Sun.

Timeline Subway

Episodes Series Figures Events Books Authors

Episodes by year

Showing 10 of 118

2021

10 episodes

Aztecs

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview historian Camilla Townsend about her book The Fifth Sun: A New History of t…

Culture Wars

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the long historical roots and character of "culture wars," debating whe…

Elizabeth I

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview historian Tracy Boorman about Elizabeth I, exploring how the queen’s …

St Cuthbert’s Day

This special episode of The Rest Is History is devoted to St Cuthbert. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss Cuthbe…

The Echo of a Coffee House

This episode examines whether modern social media is genuinely novel by tracing historical precedents for rapid, divisi…

We’re All So 17th Century

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook explore parallels and contrasts between the tumultuous 17th century and the present. …

Magna Carta

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss Magna Carta with guest Ted Vallance, Professor of History at Roehampton and a…

Medieval Science

In this episode Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook host historian Seb Falk to discuss medieval science and to challenge …

Stonehenge, Ancient Ritual and the Origins of Paganism

Paganism · Part 2

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview Professor Ronald Hutton (University of Bristol) about paganism across…

The Gunpowder Plot

This episode is a Guy Fawkes / Bonfire Night special. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook narrate the background, plannin…

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Series in this era

20 series

Aztec epic

8 episodes Aired: 2023-11-06

Great World Cup Saga

8 episodes Aired: 2022-11-28 – 2022-12-17

Mary, Queen of Scots

7 episodes Aired: 2025-07-20 – 2025-07-30

Life and times of Martin Luther

6 episodes Aired: 2024-03-06 – 2024-03-25

Medici

5 episodes Aired: 2025-06-08 – 2025-06-17

Christopher Columbus

4 episodes Aired: 2023-02-20

Elizabeth I (November 2025)

4 episodes Aired: 2025-11-10

12 (or 13) Days of Christmas

3 episodes Aired: 2021-12-25

Amsterdam

2 episodes Aired: 2023-07-17

Charles I: Trial and Execution

2 episodes Aired: 2022-01-27

Historical figures

128 tagged

Elizabeth I of England

29 episodes

Henry VIII of England

25 episodes

Charles I of England

21 episodes

Charles II of England (Charles Stuart)

19 episodes

Oliver Cromwell

19 episodes

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

18 episodes

Hernán Cortés

17 episodes

Mary, Queen of Scots

17 episodes

James VI and I of Scotland and England

16 episodes

Mary I of England

16 episodes

Historical events

67 tagged

English Civil War (1642–1651)

22 episodes

Execution of Charles I (1649, England)

16 episodes

Restoration of the Stuart monarchy (1660)

14 episodes

Protestant Reformation (16th century)

13 episodes

English Reformation (16th century England)

11 episodes

Glorious Revolution

11 episodes

Christopher Columbus's first voyage / European landfall (1492)

8 episodes

Conquest of Granada (1492)

8 episodes

Counter-Reformation / Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)

8 episodes

Columbian Exchange (post-1492 transatlantic exchange)

7 episodes

Books

299 tagged

Dominion

Author: Tom Holland

10 episodes

Diary of a Nobody / Diary of Samuel Pepys consolidation (Pepys kept as separate canonical)

Author: Samuel Pepys

4 episodes

Adventure in Time, the Fall of the Aztecs

Author: Dominic Sandbrook

3 episodes

God's Englishman

Author: Christopher Hill

3 episodes

Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad

3 episodes

Paradise Lost

Author: John Milton

3 episodes

Rivers of Gold

Author: Hugh Thomas

3 episodes

The Canterbury Tales

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

3 episodes

95 Theses (Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences)

Author: Martin Luther

2 episodes

Acts of the Apostle s

Author: Traditional Attribution or Various

2 episodes

Authors

233 tagged

Tom Holland

14 episodes

Dominic Sandbrook

9 episodes

Hugh Thomas

6 episodes

Traditional Attribution or Various

6 episodes

Samuel Pepys

4 episodes

William Shakespeare

4 episodes

Christopher Hill

3 episodes

Geoffrey Chaucer

3 episodes

John Guy

3 episodes

John Knox

3 episodes