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History Cafe

History Cafe

Written by: Jon Rosebank Penelope Middelboe
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True history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History Café weekly on Wednesdays to give old stories a refreshing new brew. 90+ ever-green stand-alone episodes and building...

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Episodes
  • #124 Columbus was invented in 1777 - Ep 1 Columbus - legend and loser

    #124 Columbus was invented in 1777 - Ep 1 Columbus - legend and loser
    Jul 22 2026
    Columbus the romantic hero is a myth created in 1777 by the Scottish historian Revd William Robertson. It hit the big time with Washington Irving’s biography 50 years later. Tales of lone scientific geniuses were becoming popular and Columbus had been snapped up by rebellious American colonists waving their newly minted Declaration of Independence. But the historical research was hopelessly flawed. Columbus had been wrong about pretty much everything.

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    30 mins
  • # 40 Henry VIII: Pope Clement, Katherine, Anne and Florence

    # 40 Henry VIII: Pope Clement, Katherine, Anne and Florence
    Jul 15 2026
    After years of negotiation and confrontation, Pope Clement VII was heard swearing unpapally over Henry VIII’s divorce. And no wonder. The history of Henry’s pope is a murky tale of code-breaking and ruthless sieges that involves Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a great deal of double-dealing. Pope Clement was trapped between a rock and a hard place: the only way to save his Medici family’s city of Florence was to refuse Henry his divorce and split Christendom.

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    37 mins
  • # 52 Anne Boleyn - Henry VIII's MacGuffin

    # 52 Anne Boleyn - Henry VIII's MacGuffin
    Jul 8 2026
    Most of what we think we know about Anne Boleyn turns out to be later invention, with no historical basis. We argue that she was a MacGuffin: she was necessary to the way things turned out for Henry, but unimportant in herself. We’re not even sure he was in love with her.

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    45 mins
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