The Roma: Resistance & Survival

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb welcomes Dr. Madeline Potter to unravel the rich yet tumultuous history of the Roma people. From Tudor England, where the Egyptians Act sought to expel Roma under stereotypes of robbery and deceit through to the dark corridors of Eastern Europe to understand the centuries of enslavement in Romania, to how the Ottoman Empire treated the Roma with suspicion despite their shared Islamic faith.

They discuss the allure and practicality of gold among Roma people, their cultural intersections with Irish travellers, and the survival techniques of Romani communities under oppressive regimes. A history packed with tales of adversity, culture, and survival that define the Roma legacy.

How Tudor England Treated Outsiders

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gzDwUohe2A4rAOKEeyZUR

The Tragic Travels of Fynes Moryson

https://open.spotify.com/episode/350PZX7AALbMNL4Qc2aS60

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	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, The Dissolution of the Monasteries, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:25.2	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:32.3	Welcome to the Eastern City. The walkie-talkie, the Gkyn, Ledenhall Market. It's where the old meets
0:39.3	the new, where pioneers have made things happen for 2,000 years. It's where diverse minds
0:45.0	help our society today and enable a sustainable tomorrow, where Michelin Star Food meets
0:50.4	London's most iconic viewing galleries. Here, life blends seamlessly with work. This is the
0:57.0	community that drives change. Search Eastern City.
1:05.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit,
1:12.5	the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,
1:17.0	from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise,
1:21.5	relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
1:25.7	Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:34.8	In 1630, Miguel de Cervantes published a curious short story titled La Gittania or The Little Gypsy Girl.
1:48.4	Coming just eight years after Don Cahote, it tells the story of a beautiful, wise and virtuous
1:54.8	Roma dancer named Preciosa, and it marks one of the first literary attempts to grapple with
1:59.7	the mystique and prejudice surrounding
2:01.9	the Romani people. Cervantes' story is steeped in both admiration and misunderstanding,
2:08.0	fiction reflecting a world in which Roma identity had already been distorted by fantasy and fear.
2:14.5	But Savantes was writing in a time when Roma people were being persecuted across Europe.
	...

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