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You thought Henry the 8th was the worst. Welcome to his contemporary, Ivan the Terrible. Terrible might be too kind of a word. With eight wives and hundreds of thousands dead in his wake, Ivan was a master of cruelty and just might be the King of Trash for the 16th Century. Listen ad-free at…

If you worried that royal houses had gotten a little too genteel by the 19th century, the story of Ranavalona I of Madagascar will disabuse you of that pretty quickly. Seizing the throne in 1828 after the death of her husband, King Radama – despite not being the rightful heir to it – she immediately…

It wasn’t just Barbara Villiers (or his wife, Catherine of Braganza) who was sharing Charles II’s bed. This week, we go deep on the Merry Monarch’s relationships with Winifred Wells, Frances Stewart, Mary Bagot, and actress Moll Davis. Winifred Wells came to the King’s attention as a Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine, and unlike…

 Welcome to the Restoration! Charles has officially made it to his King Era, coming on back to England to claim his crown, with his latest mistress at his side. Her name is Barbara Villiers Palmer, and the court is about to get very steamy indeed. Barbara, a married lady, will create quite a stir at…

Stacie has the gobsmacking escape of Princess Haya of Jordan, whose decade and a half of marriage to Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was heading south by the time he became embroiled in yet another scandal for kidnapping one of his 26 children. Again. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this…

Between the years 235 and 280 AD, the Roman Empire was a basket case. Emperors were dropping like flies, succession fights were common, pretenders routinely declared themselves Emperor, and whole regions broke away. It was not the most prestigious period for Rome. In Roman-controlled Syria, a fully Romanized city-state called Palmyra had become a wealthy…

From the Louvre heist in Paris to a bank vault in Quebec, lost and found royal jewels are having a moment! Alicia takes us through the audacious daylight robbery – with some cybersecurity tips – and the rediscovery of the Florentine Diamond after a century in seclusion on this side of the pond. Listen ad-free…

We’ve often marveled at the incestuous nature of royal marriages in Europe, but the inbreeding really came to a head in 16th century Spain, when King Philip II married and had a son with his double first cousin, Maria Manuela of Portugal. Carlos, their baby boy, came into the world with significant disadvantages; his legs…