Queen Mary II & the Glorious Revolution
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it take to rule as an equal in a man's world? How did a quiet, devout queen help reshape Britain’s monarchy forever?
All this month, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is exploring the Restoration monarchs. In this episode, she focuses on Queen Mary II, England’s first and only joint sovereign, who ruled alongside her husband William of Orange. Far from being a passive partner, Mary was politically astute, deeply devout, and a formidable cultural influence, playing a pivotal role in forging Britain’s constitutional monarchy. Dr Holly Marsden joins Suzannah to examine Mary II’s reign and why her story still resonates in the histories of Britain, gender, and political revolution.
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Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home, or explore the castles that made up Henry the 8th's English stronghold. |
| 0:08.9 | With a subscription to History Hit, you can dive into our Tudor past alongside the world's leaving historians and archaeologists. |
| 0:16.6 | You also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release |
| 0:21.8 | every single week. Covering everything from the ancient world to World War II, just visit |
| 0:28.1 | historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:34.9 | Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, |
| 0:40.7 | the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, |
| 0:45.2 | from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise, |
| 0:49.8 | relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. |
| 0:54.0 | Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. |
| 1:03.1 | All this month on Not Just the Tudors, we've been delving into the stories of the monarchs of the Restoration, |
| 1:12.5 | the kings and queens who followed Charles II, after he returned from exile to reclaim the throne in 1660, |
| 1:18.8 | and transform a war-wary Puritan nation into a vibrant world of theatre, science, politics and pleasure. |
| 1:25.4 | So far, we've looked at why Oliver Cromwell's Republic failed, |
| 1:28.9 | King Charles II and King James II. Do go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't done so |
| 1:34.1 | already. Today it's the turn of the woman who deposed her own father, Queen Mary |
| 1:39.6 | II with her husband, William of Orange. When we think about the so-called glorious revolution, |
| 1:45.8 | we often picture a bloodless coup, |
| 1:48.4 | a Protestant prince sailing in from the Netherlands |
| 1:50.5 | and the quiet replacement of one monarch with another. |
| 1:53.8 | But it's a little more complicated than that, |
| 1:56.0 | and the story only really makes sense |
... |
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