Entirely Unofficial Rest is History Catalogue and Interrogator

Early Modern & Renaissance

138 Episodes 26 Series 150 Figures 83 Events 345 Books 267 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 12 of 138

2025

2 episodes

Death in the Amazon: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

This episode of The Rest Is History recounts the 1560–1561 Amazon expedition led initially by Pedro de Asura and domina…

Elizabeth I’s Sorcerer: Angels and Demons in Renaissance Europe

This episode examines the life and career of John Dee (b. 1527), an Elizabethan polymath whose activities straddled wha…

2024

10 episodes

RIHC: Murdered Martyrs, Norse Raids, and Mysterious Stone Circles

In this bonus episode Tom Holland interviews historian Peter Marshall about his book Storm's Edge: Life, Death and Magi…

RIHC: Cromwell & Britain's Revolutionary Decade

Dominic Sandbrook interviews Professor Alice Hunt about her book on the English Republic and the revolutionary decade 1…

The Food that Changed the World

In this episode Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview Professor John Dickey (UCL) about his book Delizia and the …

RIHC: England vs Holland (Livestream)

This live-stream episode of The Rest Is History (hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook) surveys key moments in Anglo–…

RIHC: The English Revolution, History's Top Funerals, and Ottoman Oil Fields

This bonus Rest Is History episode is a listener Q&A in which Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss a wide range of…

The Suit, Savile Row, and Smartly Dressed Men

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook trace the history of the modern suit from medieval and early modern shifts in fashion…

The Habsburgs: Secrets of a Dynasty

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview Archduke Eduard (Edward) Habsburg, Hungary's ambassador to the Holy See, ab…

RIHC: Medieval Martians, Samurai, and Mythical Mysteries

In this Rest Is History weekly bonus episode Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook chat informally about recent and upcomin…

Luther: The Revolution Begins (Part 2)

Life and times of Martin Luther · Part 2

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook trace Martin Luther's transformation from a troubled student to an Augustinian monk a…

Luther: The Man Who Changed the World (Part 1)

Life and times of Martin Luther · Part 1

This episode is an introductory survey of Martin Luther and the wider Reformation, led by hosts Tom Holland and Dominic…

Page 5 of 12 (page size 12)

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Series in this era

26 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

The Fall of the Incas

6 episodes Aired: 2026-02-16

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

Historical figures

150 tagged

Elizabeth I of England

30 episodes

Henry VIII of England

26 episodes

Charles I of England

22 episodes

Charles II of England (Charles Stuart)

19 episodes

Oliver Cromwell

19 episodes

Hernán Cortés

18 episodes

Mary, Queen of Scots

17 episodes

James VI and I of Scotland and England

16 episodes

Mary I of England

16 episodes

Edward VI of England

14 episodes

Historical events

83 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)

9 episodes

Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)

9 episodes

Conquest of Granada (1492)

8 episodes

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

8 episodes

Books

345 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

267 tagged

Tom Holland

14 episodes

Dominic Sandbrook

9 episodes

Hugh Thomas

6 episodes

Traditional Attribution or Various

6 episodes

Geoffrey Chaucer

4 episodes

John Hemming

4 episodes

Samuel Pepys

4 episodes

William Shakespeare

4 episodes

Christopher Hill

3 episodes

John Guy

3 episodes