The Rest Is History

The Rest Is History

Take a deep dive into History’s biggest moments with Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook. Explore the stories of History’s most brutal rulers, deadly battles, and world-changing events. From the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the Nazi conquest of Europe, and Hitler’s evil master plan for world domination, to the French Revolution, the sinking of the Titanic, or the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Tom and Dominic bring the past to life with gripping storytelling and expert analysis, as they unpack the high-drama moments that shaped our world. The Rest Is History Club: Become a member for exclusive bonus episodes, early access to full series and live show tickets, ad-free listening, our exclusive weekly newsletter, discount book prices on titles mentioned on the show, and our members’ chatroom on Discord. Just head to therestishistory.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestishistory. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.

Episodes

562. Peter the Great: The Rise of Russia (Part 1)

May 4, 2025 • 65 mins
Why was the early life of Peter the Great - Tsar and autocrat of all the Russias, who endures to this day as an iconic symbol of Russian might - drenched in blood and violence? What amalgamation of court politics and family feuding saw him catapulted to the role of Tsar against all the odds? What did he do during the course of his colourful life and tumultuous reign to earn the moniker ‘the Great’? And, why is he considered by many...
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561. The Golden Age of Japan: Secrets of the Imperial Court (Part 2)

April 30, 2025 • 68 mins
In the vibrant but vicious golden age of Imperial Japan, how did women use writing as a way to secure their status, and express their deepest desires? Who was Sei Shōnagon, the witty courtier whose account of life around the Japanese Empress during the iconic Heian period, provides a scintillating insight into this colourful world? And, behind the sophisticated melee of the Imperial court, with its elegance and decorum, what risks ...
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560. The Golden Age of Japan: Lady Murasaki and the Shining Prince (Part 1)

April 27, 2025 • 56 mins
At the height of Imperial Japan, during a golden age of court intrigue, obsessive hierarchy, and fabulous sophistication, who was the legendary lothario and emperor’s son, Genji? What can the Tale of Genji - a great masterpiece of Japanese literature - tell us about this remarkable and alien world, and the imperial family at the heart of it? Who was the woman who wrote it, at a time when in the West it would have been unthinkable? ...
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559. The Rolling Stones: Satanic Majesties of Sixties Rebellion (Part 2)

April 23, 2025 • 70 mins
"We're not worried about petty morals." What happened to the Rolling Stones in 1967 to see them on the brink of imprisonment and mass censure, while at the height of their success, with fame, fortune, mansions, world tours, and best selling albums to their names? Was Brian Jones, the band's founder, murdered, after being found floating in his swimming pool? Under what pressures and against the backdrop of what other controversies,...
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558. The Rolling Stones: Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll (Part 1)

April 20, 2025 • 70 mins
What are the origins of Britain’s original bad boys, The Rolling Stones? Where did they all come from and how did they meet? What was it about the 1960s, with its air of sexual liberation, newly elected Labour government, and rising youth culture that allowed them to burst onto the musical scene? Who was Brian Jones, the band's troubled founder? And, what made the Rolling Stones, even from the earliest stages, so much more controve...
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557. 1066: The Norman Conquest (Part 4)

April 16, 2025 • 65 mins
What happened in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings? What horrors did William the Conqueror have to inflict upon his Anglo Saxon subjects in order to consolidate his new realm? And, what role did castles, the Harrowing of the North, and the Doomsday Book play in the creation of a new England? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss William the Conquerer's new reign in the wake of the Battle of Hastings, and the true nature of th...
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556. 1066: The Battle of Hastings (Part 3)

April 13, 2025 • 59 mins
Following King Harold Godwinson’s climactic victory at the Battle of Stanford Bridge, and the death of Harald Hardrada, what did he do when news reached him that William of Normandy’s army had landed further south? How did the two armies finally come together for one of the most totemic clashes of all time, on the morning of the 14th of October 1066? What exactly unfolded during the infamous Battle of Hastings? And, how did Harold ...
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555. 1066: Slaughter at Stamford Bridge (Part 2)

April 9, 2025 • 70 mins
In the tumultuous climax of 1066, why was Harold’s very own brother Tostig the first of the mighty foes he had to face? How did Harald Hardrada then launch his invasion of England, and how much resistance did he initially receive? And, what unfolded at the bloody battle of Stamford Bridge, in which Harold Godwinson and Harald Hardrada, two terrible kings, faced off at long last? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the Battle of S...
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554. 1066: The Shadows of War (Part 1)

April 6, 2025 • 62 mins
Why is 1066 the most important year in English history? Who were the three main candidates vying for the English throne on the eve of Edward the Confessor’s death? And how did the coronation of one of them on the 14th of October 1066 trigger one of the most famous invasions of all time? Join Tom and Dominic as they launch into the dramatic series of events, at the dawn of 1066, that sparked the build up to the Battle of Hastings…...
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553. The Last Viking: Warrior of the New Rome (Part 2)

April 2, 2025 • 66 mins
Harald Hardrada; exiled prince of Norway and mercenary, has landed in the greatest city on Earth: Constantinople. There he joins one of the most prestigious military organisations in the world, the Varangian Guard, charged with protecting the Emperor. Almost the next ten years of Harald’s young life are spent at war protecting the city from enslaving raiders. But then, he becomes embroiled in the dark and complex political intrigue...
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552. The Last Viking: The Saga of Harald Hardrada (Part 1)

March 30, 2025 • 63 mins
“I swear I will not flee from this fight. I will triumph, or I will die!” In the 1066 game of thrones for the crown of England, the most extraordinary of the three contenders is arguably Harald Hardrada: viking warrior, daring explorer, emperor’s bodyguard, serpent slayer, alleged lover to an empress, King of Norway, and legend of Norse mythology. How did this titan of a man come to cross the North Sea with his army, and take on H...
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551. The Road to 1066: Countdown to Conquest (Part 4)

March 26, 2025 • 61 mins
In the triumvirate of 1066, William of Normandy, Harald Hardrada, and Harold Godwinson, the latter has above all endured as one of the great heroes of English history. But how did he become the short-lived King during that tumultuous year? The answer lies in his formidable family, the Godwins. Often symbolised as the last of the Anglo-Saxons, their stratospheric rise to power was engineered by Godwin, an obscure Thaine from Sussex,...
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550. The Road to 1066: Rise of the Normans (Part 3)

March 23, 2025 • 59 mins
Born into a world of treachery, violence and death, William of Normandy defied all expectations, forging a legacy that lasts to this day. Born out of wedlock and dismissed as an upstart, he was originally known as William the Bastard. Inheriting the Duchy of Normandy at just eight years old, William was faced with betrayal, bloodshed, and anarchy. From the restless Normans, who expanded across Europe as mercenaries and horsemen, to...
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549. The Road to 1066: Revenge of the Vikings (Part 2)

March 19, 2025 • 65 mins
Following the bloody St Brice’s Day Massacre, of the 13th of November 1002, which saw King Æthelred brutally exterminating the Danes from England, the Vikings were hungry for revenge. None more so than the terrifying Scandinavian King, Sweyn Forkbeard. Having capitalised on his famous father, Harold Bluetooth’s unification of Norway and Denmark, through his aggressive christianisation of the formerly pagan peoples there, Sweyn had ...
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548. The Road to 1066: Anglo-Saxon Apocalypse (Part 1)

March 16, 2025 • 60 mins
The Norman Conquest of 1066, culminating in the legendary Battle of Hastings, is perhaps the greatest turning point in the history of the English nation. It was a year that changed the fate of England forever, forging empires, and settling continents. And yet, despite its infamy and significance, the true nature of those totemic events are often forgotten. So what happened in the build up to the Battle of Hastings? The dramas of 10...
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547. The French Revolution: The Execution of the King (Part 4)

March 12, 2025 • 63 mins
The second revolution that engulfed France over the course of 1792 reached its climax in December, with an astonishing, world-changing spectacle, which held all the eyes of Europe spellbound: Louis Capet, formerly King Louis XVI of France, was on trial for his very life. A guilty verdict would undermine millennia of thought and tradition, ripping apart the longheld inviolability of the king, still held sacred in some quarters of Fr...
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546. The French Revolution: The Monarchy Falls (Part 3)

March 9, 2025 • 62 mins
“From this place and from this day forth commences a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say you were present at its birth!” By September 1792, the Prussians, under the leadership of the formidable Duke of Brunswick, were closing in on revolutionary Paris. There, the streets roiled with the clanging of church bells, thousands of volunteers, patriotic songs and slogans, and of course; the dead bodies of all those killed...
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545. The French Revolution: The First Feminist (Part 2)

March 5, 2025 • 61 mins
In the summer and Autumn of 1792 - with the Prussians bearing down on Paris, the streets thronged with the stirring swell of the Marseillaise, but also the rotting bodies of those brutally killed during the September Massacres - the French Revolution bore a new symbol of optimism and hope: Liberty. Embodied by a female figure, later known as Marianne, and famously enshrined in Eugène Delacroix’s iconic painting, she was an importan...
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544. The French Revolution: The September Massacres (Part 1)

March 2, 2025 • 62 mins
‘Still more traitors, still more treason…" It is 1792 and France has been at war since April; it is not going well. In Paris, the Tuileries Palace has been stormed, and the royal family imprisoned. Meanwhile, tensions are rising between the main political factions of the Revolution, the Girondins and the Montagnard, led by the icy Maximilien Robespierre. The streets of Paris teem with armed young men - the Federes and the Sans-Cul...
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543. Death in the Amazon: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

February 26, 2025 • 69 mins
“Anyone who even thinks of abandoning this mission will be cut up into a thousand pieces…I am the wrath of God!” At the height of the age of exploration, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, one story in particular gripped the imagination of European colonialists: El Dorado, a legendary city of gold, hidden in the very heart of the South American Rainforests. But no kingdom sought this prize more furiously than the mighty...
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