Lucy Worsley Investigates

Lucy Worsley investigates the tensions and turning points that led to America's declaration of independence from Britain in 1776. With access to expert insights and original evidence, Lucy asks whether this explosive split could have been avoided.

Lucy Worsley investigates the tensions and turning points that led to America's declaration of independence from Britain in 1776. With access to expert insights and original evidence, Lucy asks whether this explosive split could have been avoided.

True crime is often thought of as a recent obsession, but here, Lucy Worsley investigates the phenomenon through one of the world's most infamous serial killers: Jack the Ripper.She uncovers a story which goes beyond a single murderer and his five victims – Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane - to a burgeoning newspaper industry desperate for readers and a Victorian society that wasn't designed to support the most vulnerable.With access to rare original evidence, archival newspapers, and expert contributors, Lucy explores how this still-unsolved case fuelled a new sensationalist journalism, which set a template for many of the true crime stories that followed.

On the 5th of November 1605, a small group of radical Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, came within hours of blowing up the Houses of Parliament. In a cellar deep below London's Parliament, Guy Fawkes prepared to light the fuse on the deadly attack. They aimed to assassinate the Protestant King James I and destroy his government in an attempt to restore England to the Catholic faith. Had it not been stopped, this one moment of violence could have changed the history of Britain entirely.The Gunpowder Plot was foiled, but its remembrance was written into law, and Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated on the 5th of November. Lucy Worsley investigates what drove this group of men to attempt such an audacious act.She revisits key moments and locations in the plotter's lives: the city of York, home to Fawkes and other plotters, and Ashby Manor, Northamptonshire, home of mastermind Robert Catesby. She delves into the motivations and mindsets of the Catholic plotters, searching for evidence in their childhoods, the rooms where they secretly met, and where Guy Fawkes finally faced his interrogators. She then consults experts who help contribute to the uncovering of this extraordinary moment in history. 

On 14 October 1066, the two vast armies of King Harold of England and William, Duke of Normandy, met on a battlefield near Hastings in southern England to fight for the English crown.Harold was killed in battle, and William emerged victorious, forever to be known as William the Conqueror. The Battle of Hastings was a pivotal moment in English history, the last time this island nation would be successfully invaded - but one battle did not win the war.Lucy investigates how William the Conqueror won not just the Battle of Hastings but the battle for England, examining extraordinary firsthand evidence and meeting historians and curators who illuminate this tumultuous period in English history. See what William the Conqueror did after the Battle of Hastings to bend England to his will.

Mary Tudor, King Henry VIII's eldest daughter, came to the throne in 1553 and became infamous as one of the bloodiest queens in history. Allegedly executing her subjects at will for their religious beliefs, Mary's reign became defined by her staunch Catholicism.Lucy Worsley investigates whether England's first ruling female monarch, Mary I, was truly as "bloody" as history suggests, or whether this reputation arose from being a strong woman in a predominantly male world. With access to unique firsthand evidence and expert contributors, Lucy reveals how Mary's reputation was shaped and asks whether our understanding of her life and legacy should be reconsidered. 

Lucy begins her investigation in North Berwick, a seaside town near Edinburgh where the first witch hunts began. The story goes that in 1590 a coven of witches gathered here to cast a spell to try to kill the King of Scotland, James VI. Viewing an account from the time, called Newes From Scotland, and other first-hand sources, Lucy uncovers a web of political intrigue that led to a woman called Agnes Sampson, a faith healer and midwife, being investigated. Agnes is accused of witchcraft and interrogated at Holyrood Castle by King James himself, before being tortured and executed.Agnes was caught in a perfect storm - hard-line Protestant reformers intent on making Scotland devout, a King keen to prove himself a righteous leader, and a new ideology which claimed the Devil was actively recruiting women as witches. Under torture Agnes gave the names of her supposed accomplices, some 59 other innocent people, making hers the first successful large-scale witch hunt in Scotland. Its brutal success became the model for witch trials rolled out across Scotland and England for the next 100 years.

For centuries it was uncertain what caused the pestilence of 1348, until a vast plague pit was uncovered in Smithfield, London in the 1980s. The find revealed the bones of hundreds of victims of the 14th century pandemic.Now stored in the basement of the Museum of London, Lucy learns how DNA extracted from the skeletons enabled scientists to finally identify a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis - a pathogen to which the mediaeval population had no immunity.In little more than a year, almost half the population had been wiped out by the Black Death. Lucy investigates what this sudden loss of life meant for the church, landowners and for the those who survived.Exploring the social structure of mediaeval England, made up largely of rural peasants indentured to landowners, Lucy discovers a rare and remarkable set of documents: the Court Rolls of the Suffolk village of Walsham the Willows, providing a perfect microcosm of life across the country before, during and after the pandemic.Lucy discovers how, despite the unfolding apocalypse, rather than shaking people's belief in God, it entrenched their faith. Many went on devotional pilgrimages to sacred sites like Canterbury Cathedral.Despite the devastation, the plague propagated a shake-up of the status quo. Workers were in short supply and could demand higher wages, shifting the balance of power. Women occupied professions and roles that were previously closed to them and acquired an independence and status that would previously have been impossible.

What really happened to the Princes in the Tower? Lucy Worsley uncovers the story of the two boys whose disappearance in 1483 has led to centuries of mystery and speculation. The story of the princes in the tower is as familiar as a fairy tale – two innocent boys murdered in their beds at the behest of their evil uncle Richard so he could seize the throne for himself and be crowned King Richard III. But there is very little evidence about what happened in 1483, and no real proof that the boys were murdered. They simply disappeared from sight – and from known historical record.The two princes, Edward and Richard, lived during the Wars of the Roses, a decades-long fight over the English throne between the house of Lancaster and the house of York. Edward IV, the boy's father, was the first Yorkist King. His eldest son, Edward, was destined to inherit the throne – and this fact entirely shaped his young life.Edward was just 12 when his father died and he succeeded him as King – but his age meant he wasn't considered quite ready to rule. Edward IV had appointed his brother Richard to be the young Kings protector - but not everyone was happy with this arrangement. What followed was a tussle for control between Richard and the Queen's family, the Woodvilles, revealing fascinating ideas about childhood, and the nature of politics and power in medieval England.Uncle Richard had young Edward and Richard installed at the Tower of London 'for their own protection', but when a priest declared that the boys were actually illegitimate, Richard was next in line to the throne, and it was he who was crowned King Richard III.As far as we know, the boys were not seen again. The gaps in the historical record have fuelled 500 years of speculation. Lucy speaks to historian Prof Tim Thornton, who has found evidence that may back up one account of what really happened to them, written by Thomas More a generation after the events.In the light of all the evidence she's had access to, Lucy makes up her own mind about Richard's guilt. But importantly, this story has also revealed much about the lot of a royal child in medieval England. And one thing Lucy is certain about is that the story of the Princes in the Tower shows how interpretations are never fixed, there's always the possibility that new evidence will come to light, and that this story will continue to fascinate us.

How did George III's mental illness change Britain? Lucy Worsley uncovers Royal papers and explores how the assassination attempt on his life by a mentally ill subject changed psychiatry forever.Lucy delves into the madness of King George to ask what we can learn about how attitudes toward mental health were affected by Britain having a so-called "mad" monarch. Lucy examines recently released royal papers and explores the King's profoundly tragic personal trauma: the death of two of his young children. She also explores the enormous political pressures George was under as ruler at a time of political upheaval. Revolution was brewing in France; an emperor had been murdered in Russia, and Britain was facing the imminent loss of the American colonies after nearly two centuries of British rule. Speaking with leading experts in psychiatry, it becomes clear to Lucy that all of these enormous stresses led to his bouts of mental illness, which would now have been diagnosed as bipolar disorder. She also investigates how the attempt on his life by a mentally ill woman named Margaret Nicholson affected the King and eventually led to a change in the understanding and treatment of mental illness.