Lucy Worsley travels across Britain and Europe visiting the incredible locations where Royal history was made. In beautiful palaces and castles and on dramatic battlefields she investigates how Royal history is a mixture of facts, exaggeration, manipulation and mythology.
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About the Show
Join Lucy Worsley on a journey across Europe to visit the incredible locations where royal history was made. From the Spanish Armada to the French Revolution, learn how royal history is a mixture of facts, exaggeration, manipulation and mythology.
Episode 1 | Elizabeth I: The Warrior Queen
Join Lucy Worsley for an exploration of how Elizabeth I’s image as a warrior queen, created by a series of myths and secrets about her victory over the Spanish Armada, shaped British national identity for centuries.
Episode 2 | Queen Anne: The Mother of Great Britain
Investigate why Queen Anne’s powerful role in the forging of Great Britain has often been forgotten. Lucy Worsley shares the inside story of the salacious gossip about Anne’s love life that helped destroy her image and legacy.
Episode 3 | Marie Antoinette: The Doomed Queen
Find out why Marie Antoinette is often blamed for causing the French Revolution by saying “let them eat cake” to her starving subjects. Lucy Worsley uncovers the myths and secrets that led the doomed queen to the guillotine.
Episode 4 | Henry VIII's Reformation
Lucy Worsley investigates the inside story of the English Reformation. Was Henry VIII's desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn the real reason for England's split from Catholic Europe? Or was a secret political agenda at work behind the scenes?
Episode 5 | Kings George III & IV and the Napoleonic War
Lucy Worsley reveals how mental health problems forced King George III to relinquish power to his debauched and extravagant son. Was this really an era of elegance and regal splendor or an age of radicalism and revolution? How were myths and secrets used to save the British monarchy?
Episode 6 | The Romanovs & The Russian Revolution
The October Revolution of 1917 has gone down in history as the only Russian Revolution that really mattered. But Lucy Worsley reveals that the earlier revolution in February that year was downplayed in Bolshevik history books and films despite the fact that it was the truly spontaneous popular uprising that swept the Czar from power.
Lucy Worsley on the drums at "SIX the Musical."
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Lorian Reed-Drake/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley dressed as a guard with Anne Boleyn in the background.
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Carlo D'Alessandro/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley at Anne Boleyn’s family home, Hever Castle.
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Lorian Reed-Drake/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley dressed as Anne Boleyn.
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Lorian Reed-Drake/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley dressed as a lady in waiting to Caroline of Brunswick with George IV.
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Carlo D'Alessandro/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley on a horse and carriage in Dublin.
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Steven Mochrie/Emma Burns/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley with British flags and a band.
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Steven Mochrie/Emma Burns/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley as a Russian telegraph officer announcing the death of Tsar Nicholas II.
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Carlo D'Alessandro/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley in a Tsarina costume.
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Tom Hayward/BBC Studios
Lucy Worsley with a flag on top of a Soviet tank.
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Tom Hayward/BBC Studios
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