The Best Podcasts and YouTube Channels for Tudor History Fans in 2026

I love a good podcast, and so does my ironing basket because it’s the only way I can be bothered to actually do any ironing. Somehow, I don’t seem to notice the time when I’m listening to a good one.

Over the years, I’ve worked my way through most of what the Tudor corner of the internet has to offer, the brilliant and the bland, so you don’t have to. Here’s the quick version.

For serious history done properly, start with Not Just the Tudors, for historian interviews, Talking Tudors. Below, I’ve laid out more than a dozen shows worth your time, what each one actually does well, and the standout episode I’d point you to first.

The Best Tudor History Podcasts

These are the audio shows I keep coming back to, ranked roughly by how often they end up helping me tackle the ironing pile.

Not Just the Tudors

Hosted by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb for History Hit, this is the one I’d hand a serious newcomer without hesitation. It publishes twice a week, every Wednesday and Sunday, and each episode pairs Lipscomb with a working historian on a single subject. 

It roams well beyond the Tudors too, into witches, the Aztecs, and Shakespeare, but the Tudor episodes are its beating heart.

Start with her episode “Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I” with Tracy Borman, which traces how much of the mother ended up in the daughter. Then work through the six-part “Six Wives” series, which gives each of Henry’s queens a real chance to be heard. 

Talking Tudors

Natalie Grueninger’s Talking Tudors is the interview show to beat. Running since 2018 and downloaded more than 4 million times, it’s the place to hear the authors and historians themselves talk through the research behind their latest book. 

If you like your history straight from the people digging in the archives, this is your show.

A lovely place to begin is Grueninger’s conversation with Tracy Borman about the rise and fall of the Boleyns, recorded at Hever Castle, the family’s home. 

Her episode on the dramatic final days of Elizabeth I, and how the official account was quietly tidied up to flatter her successor, is another cracker.

Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

Claire Ridgway, the author behind the Anne Boleyn Files, runs a lovely short-form show. Episodes are bite-sized, often around 16 minutes, and many follow an “on this day in Tudor history” format that drops you into a single event on its anniversary. 

It’s perfect for a school run or a coffee break when you don’t have an hour to give.

Ridgway knows her Anne Boleyn better than almost anyone writing for a general audience, so her episodes on Anne’s final days and execution are the ones I’d cue up first. 

The Renaissance English History Podcast

Heather Teysko’s show, also known as Englandcast, is the elder statesman of the genre. It’s been running since 2009 with close to 300 episodes, and it leans into the social history the bigger shows skip: what people ate, wore, believed, and feared. 

If you already know your six wives and want the texture of daily Tudor life, this is where to go deeper.

Her “On This Day” mini-episodes are perfect for when you’re on the run, and the longer thematic shows on things like Tudor medicine or the dissolution of the monasteries go into much more detail.

Tudors Dynasty & Beyond

Rebecca Larson’s Tudors Dynasty & Beyond mixes Sunday storytelling with interviews and, on Thursdays, a popular running series called “Dr. Emma & Me” with Dr. Emma Cahill Marron that digs into a theme across several episodes. It’s friendly and story-led without cutting corners on the research.

Try her episode “The Dudleys: The Family That Shook Tudor Court,” which follows that ambitious clan from Edmund to John, or her two-parter with Sylvia Barbara Soberton picking apart the myths that have grown up around Henry’s six wives.

Rex Factor

Now for something with a grin on its face. Graham Duke and Ali Hood work their way through every single monarch of England, and then Scotland, rating each one on Battleyness, Scandal, Subjectivity, and whether they’ve got that certain star quality they call the Rex Factor. 

It’s funny, and I love it as it’s so different, and a clever way to compare rulers you’d otherwise never line up side by side.

The Henry VIII episode is a riot, weighing the man and his six wives on the scales, and their Elizabeth I verdict is just as good. Not academic like the other shows, but then it doesn’t pretend to be. Great company on a long drive.

The Tudor History & Travel Show

Sarah Morris, better known as the Tudor Travel Guide, does something none of the others do. She records on location, walking and talking her way through the actual Tudor houses, palaces, and ruins, with the guides and curators who know them. A new episode lands on the first Friday of the month.

If, like me, you can’t visit a historic house without wanting to know which room somebody was born or beheaded in, her on-site episodes at places like Hampton Court are a treat. It’s the closest thing to a private tour without leaving the ironing board.

The Best Tudor History YouTube Channels

If you learn better with your eyes, YouTube is where the Tudors come alive in portraits, maps, and castle walk-throughs. It’s also, as it happens, now the single most-used way people listen to podcasts, with about 42% of monthly listeners naming it their platform of choice, so plenty of the audio shows above live here in video form too.

The Anne Boleyn Files & Tudor Society

Claire Ridgway’s YouTube channel is the warm, welcoming front door to Tudor YouTube. She posts regular short videos, many tied to the day’s Tudor anniversary, delivered with the ease of someone who truly loves her subject. Ideal if you want a friendly daily dose rather than a two-hour documentary.

History Calling

If you want rigor, this is the channel. Made by a former university lecturer from Northern Ireland, History Calling puts out meticulously researched documentaries built on original sources, and takes real pleasure in dismantling the myths the TV dramas have planted in all our heads.

Her video asking whether Mary Boleyn was actually older than her sister Anne is a perfect example: a small question, answered properly, with the evidence laid out so you can weigh it yourself.

Reading the Past with Dr. Kat

Dr. Kat, a lecturer in early modern literature and culture, brings the bookish, cultural side of the Tudor world to life, uploading every Friday. She’s brilliant on the strange stuff, the beliefs and bodies and passions that drove people, not just the politics.

Her “Tudor History in Ten” explainer on the four humors in Tudor medicine is a great starting point, and her episode on a real Tudor pirate named Alice is exactly the sort of forgotten story she does best.

History Hit

History Hit’s YouTube presence is the glossy, documentary end of things, full production values, sitting alongside Not Just the Tudors and Gone Medieval. If you want something that feels like proper television, with the budget to match, this is it.

For the Wars of the Roses and Plantagenet Crowd

Fall for the Tudors, and you’ll soon want to know what came before, because the whole dynasty was forged in the chaos that put the first Tudor on the throne. Follow the thread back, and you’ll meet Margaret Beaufort, the woman who arguably built the Tudors. These are the shows for that run-up.

Gone Medieval

History Hit’s medieval sister show, hosted by Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega, is essential for the pre-Tudor story. Lewis, in particular, is a Wars of the Roses and Richard III specialist, and it shows. The research is sharp, and the two hosts are a joy together.

Cue up their episode on the Battle of Bosworth, the fight that ended the Plantagenets, and “What Happened to the Princes in the Tower?”, which takes on the great unsolved mystery with real care. Their multi-part “Wars of the Roses” series is the best audio primer going.

The Tudor Chest Podcast

Adam Pennington’s show ranges across the Plantagenets and royal news, as well as straight Tudor topics, making it a natural bridge between the two eras. Pennington also co-runs Tudor tours with Sarah Morris, so there’s a real depth of place behind the history.

History Extra

The podcast from BBC History Magazine isn’t Tudor-only, but with around six episodes a week spanning the whole medieval and early modern world, it’s a reliable well of one-off deep dives. When a new Tudor or Wars of the Roses book comes out, this is often where you’ll catch the author first.

Frequently Asked Questions