Category: Episodes

The Restoration court of Charles II is known not for governing, but for the seemingly endless bed-hopping antics of the Merry Monarch. Today, in this Trashy Divorces crossover, we meet the last mistress to join that odd club, Hortense Mancini. Born to a big brood in Rome – Hortense was the eighth of ten –…

A century and a half before the “Golden Age of Piracy,” an Irish woman of noble birth was conquering the inland seas and coastlines on the western edge of the island. Gráinne Ó Máille, anglicized to Grace O’Malley, hailed from the Umhaill line, a seafaring clan of Connacht, and while the family did conduct legitimate…

Born into a noble French family in Brittany, Louise de Kerouaille’s road to the English Court, and to Charles II’s bed, passed through Charles’s sister, Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orleans. Her family, focusing on a well-worn path to prominence, originally tried to have Louise noticed by Louis XIV of France and become a royal…

One of the big changes Charles II made upon his return to his kingdom was to reopen the theaters that Cromwell and his zealots had shuttered 18 years earlier, at the start of the English Civil War. He also encouraged theaters to hire women, creating England’s first class of actresses. And Charles being Charles, he…

It feels safe to say that when Russians recall a leader’s reign as a “dark era,” we’re into some deeply, deeply dark events. Empress Anna, a niece of Peter the (Not So) Great, had survived many humiliations before Russia’s Supreme Privy Council elevated her to Empress; they thought she would be easy to control, but…

The Court of Charles II wasn’t merely a playhouse for the King’s sexcapades. There was art, too! But as with everything Chuckie II related, the art was provocative as well. It all started with Anne, Duchess of York and Albany, wife of the future James II, whose standing at court was not immediately awesome upon…

Though their romance had cooled by the 1670s, Barbara Villiers and King Charles II remained close for the rest of his life. He gifted her Nonsuch Palace, originally built by Henry VIII and used often by Elizabeth I. Barbara, who fell on hard times after four years living in Paris, had Nonsuch Palace demolished so…

In this special trashy crossover episode, Vulgar History’s Ann Foster joins Alicia to talk about her new book, Rebel of the Regency: The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain’s Queen Without a Crown. Caroline’s life was pretty incredible and she should be remembered much more in history. This one has everything – a plucky…

This week, we follow Charles II across Europe with 3 more ladies and 3 more babies – all before he finds himself back on the throne of his kingdom! Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com.

In this wild Trashy Divorces crossover episode, Stacie takes us back to the court of King James I of England, where a young noblewoman, Frances Howard, was desperate to escape her arranged marriage to marry another – and found her paramour’s best friend to be a highly problematic obstacle. What to do, what to do?…