This is History: History’s Greatest Fails

What would you do if your life was omitted, reduced to an overlooked footnote, or filed away as an anomaly?

In this episode, Dan and Elizabeth turn a lens on the practice of history itself, interrogating the choices and power structures that have traditionally left women out of the history books.

They retrace the lives of three women who once stood firmly in their moment: Hatshepsut, a pharaoh who consolidated power in Ancient Egypt; Joanna Ferrour, a peasant whose voice briefly direct the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; and Ada Lovelace, a Victorian thinker whose ideas arrived well before the world was ready for them.

Each was successful in their time. And yet each of their world-changing contributions were quietly edited out, only to be rediscovered generations — or even millennia later.

So what does it mean when the practice of history fails to record the world as it was? And what happens when history’s failures reveal themselves, much later, as triumphs to a new generation?

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As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. In this episode, they discuss Catherine Parr’s failed arrest, and what the Crusades reveal about success and failure.

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A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

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Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day

Producer - Alan Weedon

Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Researcher - Phoebe Joyce

Executive Producer - Simon Poole

Executive Producer - Dan Jones

Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day

Production Manager - Jen Mistri

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan

Head of content - Chris Skinner

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To love is to risk heartbreak.

And while for some, breakups result in renewal, maybe some therapy (or a few months’ spent wallowing), for the historical figures of this episode… a relationship’s end has broken many more things than hearts.

In this episode, Dan and Elizabeth discover the lessons of history’s epic failed romances through three world-changing unions: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; Mark Antony and Cleopatra; and Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.

Each couple burned bright and fast, and with their downfall came the end to the worlds from which they came: Catholic England, the Roman Republic, and (in the case of Edward) a grand near-miss.

So what can epic historical breakups teach us about our world today? And why are we compelled to come back to grand romantic epics?

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As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. In this episode, they discuss the failures of royals over various centuries to deliver the one thing they need - heirs.

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A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices.

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

––

Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day

Producer - Alan Weedon

Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Researcher - Phoebe Joyce

Executive Producer - Simon Poole

Executive Producer - Dan Jones

Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day

Production Manager - Jen Mistri

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. And we haven’t been able to stop talking about him since.

Yes, it’s time to consider the story of England’s last Plantagenet king, Richard III — a centuries-old tangle involving alleged murder, Shakespeare, vanquish and one mighty rediscovery.

In this debut episode of History’s Greatest Fails, Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day argue that the story of Richard’s rise and fall (and rise again) is much more modern that you’d first believe. Not least because of the reality-TV-style discovery of his remains under a Leicester council car park in 2022.

In many ways, Richard’s alleged ‘failures’ — which include allegedly killing the Princes in the Tower and overseeing the demise of Plantagenet rule — overshadow Richard III as the reformer that also existed. He introduced trial by jury and translated many laws into English. But those facts are not often what’s associated with him. He’s more likely to be seen as the villainous caricature of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

So in this episode, we’ll discover:

What Richard's story tells us about failure in the present.

How Tudor propaganda codified his ‘failure’, and how

How those failures have been revised over over the centuries

And the chain of events that propelled the search for his bones

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As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. This episode, they discuss Wat Tyler’s failed Peasants Rebellion, Tulip Mania, and the South Sea Bubble of 1720.

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A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices.

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

––

Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day

Producer - Alan Weedon

Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Researcher - Phoebe Joyce 

Executive Producer - Simon Poole

Executive Producer - Dan Jones

Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day  

Production Manager - Jen Mistri

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Special thanks to Alex Lawless, Hannah Talbot, and Selina Ream

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We’re often taught that history’s written by the winners. But we’d like to argue that, in fact, it’s the losers who end up making history. 

In this brand new miniseries from Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day, History’s Greatest Fails aims to answer the simple, but complex, question: Why do losers make history? 

From Richard III, to Vincent Van Gough, to the purposefully forgotten female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, this series is going to help you better understand how the idea of failure changes over time, and what lessons failure has for all of us.  

Dan and Elizabeth are old friends, fellow history graduates, and fellow authors and podcasters. 

Dan Jones is host of This Is History — A Dynasty to Die For, a narrative podcast that charts the bloody and complex drama of England’s Plantagenet dynasty, now up to its 10th season. 

Elizabeth is host of How To Fail, a podcast that has brought together hundreds of luminaries and thinkers including Kate Winslet, Yuval Noah Hariri, and Malala Yousafzai, to reflect on failure in the present. 

Over six episodes, History’s Greatest Fails will dissect failure of all kinds, from troubled historical rulers, to the failures of remembrance, to the failures that have created the happy accidents that last for generations.

As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And for the bonus episodes of this miniseries, Dan and Producer Al are hearing from the favourites directly — join us as they discuss the royal favourites’ special fail mentions. 

So, join us for the debut episode of History’s Greatest Fails, premiering on Tuesday April 7. 

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A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

–

Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day  

Producer - Alan Weedon 

Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Executive Producer - Dan Jones

Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day  

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To learn more about the last time an English king was usurped, listen to Season 7, Bonus Episode 12, where Dan tells the story of Henry VI’s grandfather, Henry Bolingbroke. In 1399, he toppled Richard II to become King Henry IV. 

By 1460, England has emerged into a polycrisis. 

King Henry VI has been relegated to a pawn. His son and wife have been disinherited, with Richard, Duke of York, now heir presumptive. Violence pulses through the countryside. 

In this pivotal chapter of the Wars of the Roses, it appears that Yorkist forces have finally overwhelmed the Lancastrians in the battle for the crown.  

But then, Richard, Duke of York is killed in an ambush. It throws everything into disarray, and Queen Margaret of Anjou makes one last attempt at violent restoration. 

It appears the clock has run out for the Yorkists. That is, until the eleventh hour, when Richard's son, Edward Earl of March, is propelled into the decisive moment. 

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A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

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Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

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