The Rise and Fall of the Boleyns
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We trace the extraordinary rise and fall of the House of Boleyn. From humble Norfolk tenant farmers, the Boleyns used everything from wool trading to the diplomatic service to climb to the heights of Tudor power.
Novelist and historian Philippa Gregory joins us to explain this family's dizzying ascent, and how their path ultimately led to tragedy, betrayal and execution.
Philippa's book is 'Boleyn Traitor'.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges and Peta Stamper, and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? |
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| 0:32.1 | Hi folks, welcome Dan Snow's History Hit. |
| 0:35.2 | It's that Berlin Girl. |
| 0:37.4 | Her childhood home is a place of pilgrimage. |
| 0:41.1 | The site of her execution receives flowers every year on the anniversary of her death. Her fans |
| 0:47.1 | tattoo their bodies with a design of her creation. Blind, uncontrollable passion for Anne Berlin drove a king to upend the politics and the religion |
| 0:58.1 | of Western Europe. |
| 0:59.6 | And it seems that even after 500 years, many of us are still captivated. |
| 1:05.8 | And it's not just Anne Berlin. |
| 1:08.0 | Her sister was a lover of the king. |
| 1:10.0 | Her children possibly royal bastards. Their forebears also |
| 1:13.8 | are an intriguing story of social and economic advancement in the late Middle Ages. Proof that merit and |
| 1:19.9 | luck could take you from the village to the palace. And for all those reasons, that is why the House of Bolin has come to symbolise |
| 1:29.0 | a story, a Chuda story of ambition and talent and sex and intrigue and hubris. We got Anne Boleyn, |
| 1:36.5 | Queen of England, 1533 to 36. She helped to transform the religious settlement in Britain and |
... |
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