Aspects of History

On 31 August 1422 Henry V, England’s finest king, died aged 35. His successor, Henry VI was only 9 months old and so his uncle, and Henry V’s brother, John, Duke of Talbot, became regent and continued the war in France. The young Henry was a gentle child, and most worrying for England he lacked a monarch as mentor, and

During Nazi rule it is estimated that 8 million Germans were members of the party, that’s around 10% of the population. The ideology they believed in was responsible for the deaths of 6 million jews, as well as gypsies, homosexuals and the infirm. Millions more were murdered via slave labour and in the invasions east a

On 9th November 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the German crown and retired to Holland where he learnt Dutch and began a passion for archaeology. But during the rise of the Nazis hope was raised that he could once more stride the imperial stage arm in arm with Adolf Hitler. These hopes were taken on by his son the Cr

In a continuation of Saturday’s discussion with Paul Rahe, we delve into the Peloponnesian War after the Sicilian Expedition, as the Spartans take Persian gold to subdue their democratic rivals Athens. The war continues for a further nine years as the Athenians rise again after their Sicilian disaster, before ending in

In 415BC, the Athenian Empire, during a lull in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans, voted to embark on a massive campaign to capture Syracuse. So began the Sicilian Expedition, which soon became a proxy war between Sparta and Athens, as the Spartans despatched just one man, the great general Gylippus, to assist

On the 22nd November 1963 President John F Kennedy was assassinated…..by Lee Harvey Oswald right? Well wrong, because today’s guest has a suspect, the boss of the New Orleans mafia, Carlos Marcello who, along with other family bosses Sam Giancana and Santo Traficante, conspired to have the President whacked. Louis Ferr