Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths & Secrets

History Series / 1 Season

Lucy Worsley travels across Britain and Europe visiting the incredible locations where Royal history was made. In beautiful palaces and castles and on dramatic battlefields she investigates how Royal history is a mixture of facts, exaggeration, manipulation and mythology.

Get Cascade PBS Passport to watch

Donate to watch

Elizabeth I: The Warrior Queen

S1 E1 / 54m 4s / TV-PG

Join Lucy Worsley for an exploration of how Elizabeth I’s image as a warrior queen, created by a series of myths and secrets about her victory over the Spanish Armada, shaped British national identity for centuries.

Donate to watch

Queen Anne: The Mother of Great Britain

S1 E2 / 54m 31s / TV-14

Investigate why Queen Anne’s powerful role in the forging of Great Britain has often been forgotten. Lucy Worsley shares the inside story of the salacious gossip about Anne’s love life that helped destroy her image and legacy.

Donate to watch

Marie Antoinette: The Doomed Queen

S1 E3 / 54m 35s / TV-14

Find out why Marie Antoinette is often blamed for causing the French Revolution by saying “let them eat cake” to her starving subjects. Lucy Worsley uncovers the myths and secrets that led the doomed queen to the guillotine.

Donate to watch

Henry VIII's Reformation

S1 E4 / 54m 20s / TV-PG

Lucy Worsley investigates the inside story of the English Reformation. Was Henry VIII's desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn the real reason for England's split from Catholic Europe? Or was a secret political agenda at work behind the scenes?

Donate to watch

Kings George III & IV and the Napoleonic War

S1 E5 / 54m 55s / TV-PG

Lucy Worsley reveals how mental health problems forced King George III to relinquish power to his debauched and extravagant son. Was this really an era of elegance and regal splendor or an age of radicalism and revolution? How were myths and secrets used to save the British monarchy?

Donate to watch

The Romanovs & The Russian Revolution

S1 E6 / 54m / TV-PG

The October Revolution of 1917 has gone down in history as the only Russian Revolution that really mattered. But Lucy Worsley reveals that the earlier revolution in February that year was downplayed in Bolshevik history books and films despite the fact that it was the truly spontaneous popular uprising that swept the Czar from power.

Supported by