The Rest Is History
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714 episodes
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"I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.…Here I stand, I can do no other”The Diet of Worms in April 1521 was one of history’s most dramatic confrontations, a clash of the old world and the new. It saw the celebrity professor Martin Luther summoned to the imperial free city of Worms by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to defend his radical beliefs. And though his life was guaranteed by the Emperor, Luther had never been in greater danger. He arrived in the city to huge, ecstatic crowds, like Jesus returning to Jerusalem from the desert. But would his rhetorical brilliance and passionate defence save him and the future of protestantism, or would he doom himself to a fiery fate?Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss one of the most groundbreaking moments of western history: Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, and the extraordinary twist of fate which saw the most famous man in Europe inexplicably vanish from the face of the earth. Defenestrated dogs, malevolent poltergeists and scatological furores abound... *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.comTwitter:@TheRestHistory@holland_tom@dcsandbrookProducer: Theo Young-SmithAssistant Producer: Tabby SyrettExecutive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
714 episodes
445. The Habsburgs: Secrets of a Dynasty
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the Habsburg dynasty's mightiest ruler, was at once King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy. With a lineage supposedly stretching back to Noah’s Ark, and a name bor…
444. The First Emperor of China
"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided….”The First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, left behind him a monumental legacy: an Empire which would last millennia, the foundations of the Great Wall of China, and an eerie Terra…
443. Lord Byron: Death of a Vampire (Part 4)
Rumours surrounding Lord Byron’s scandalous divorce rippled throughout the world. Finally, he had no choice but to abandon England in disgrace and flee to Italy, an exile but still the most famous man in Europe. Then, in the summer of 1816…
442. Lord Byron: Dangerous Liaisons (Part 3)
Good God I am surely in hell!Upon Lord Byron’s return to England and the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he became one of the most notorious men in Europe and the world's first celebrity. The next period of his life would be roc…
441. Lord Byron: Scandal, Sex and Celebrity (Part 2)
By 1809, Lord Byron found himself untethered and debt-ridden. Disenchanted with politics, frustrated by his literary career and haunted by his illicit homosexuality, he abandoned an oppressive England and set out upon his legendary Eastern…
440. Lord Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know (Part 1)
Few lives from history can have contained as many strange and exciting strands as that of Lord Byron's, whose story reflects the great dramas of the Napoleonic era. A vampiric hero of devilish charisma; a martyr for liberty, a licentious l…
439. Disco: Sex and Race in Seventies America
Music for sex, dancing, and watching the straight world go by… The explosion of Disco provides an extraordinary window into the tumultuous world of the 1970s, with its themes of sex, drugs, race and sexuality. By the start of the 1970s, Am…
438. The Moonwalkers, with Tom Hanks
“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”In his speech at Rice University, Texas, in September 1962, President John F. Kennedy r…
437. Luther: A World Torn Apart (Part 5)
“I think there is not a devil left in hell, they have all gone into the peasants… smite, stab and slay all”. Following on from Martin Luther’s dramatic abduction by his powerful protector, Frederick III, he had been secretly kept safe at W…
436. Luther: Showdown with the Emperor (Part 4)
"I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.…Here I stand, I can do no other”The Diet of Worms in April 1521 was one of history’s most dramatic confrontations, a clash of the old world and …