Omens, Signs and False Prophets

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the autumn of 1621, hundreds of starlings were seen fighting in the sky above Cork. The following May, the city was ravaged by fire. The pleated folds of skin around the neck of a baby born in 1566 were interpreted as divine judgment on starched ruffs. And when not a single wren was seen in Cambridge in the 1620s, people expected a foreign invasion.

In this episode, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Alexandra Walsham, to explore the many signs, wonders, omens and portents she has discovered in the archives, which offer fascinating insights into the collective consciousness of the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods.

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, audio editor Ella Blaxill and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Peter Frankopen. And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history.
0:07.6	This season we're revisiting the life of Cecil Rhodes.
0:10.4	From Sickly Child to Diamond Tycoon, leading colonialist in South Africa, he was a bastion of British imperialism.
0:17.2	Over the past few years, campuses around the world have been met by students, chanting Rhodes must fall. His legacy has been completely transformed.
0:24.6	It's unbelievable how relevant roads still feels and how often his name is invoked by people
0:31.3	contesting really polarizing parts of our contemporary life.
0:35.6	But one of the questions about Rhodes is that he takes all the flag and therefore hides
0:39.7	away all the other people who were responsible for doing things that maybe not quite so bad.
0:43.7	That's why I think it's important to think not just about Rhodes and his own life, but about what that period
0:47.5	of British and colonial history meant.
0:49.2	And one of the things people often say is you have to judge these figures by the standards of their time
0:53.3	that's exactly what we're gonna do Peter isn't it so follow legacy now from
0:57.1	wherever you get your podcasts or binge entire seasons early and ad-free on
1:01.4	Wondery Plus.
1:11.6	Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscomb and welcome to not just the tutors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from
1:14.4	Anne Berlin to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenose, from Shakespeare to
1:19.6	Samurai's. Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft. Not in other words just
1:27.7	the Tudors but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:40.0	In the autumn of 1621, hundreds of Starlings fought in the sky above Cork.
1:44.0	When a fire ravaged the city the following May,
1:47.0	a few people failed to draw a direct connection between the Battle of the Birds
1:51.0	and fighting the flames.
	...

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