Theme: Empire and Trade

The voyage of discovery which transformed Tudor England

Historian James Evans explores the background to the great and daring English voyage of discovery launched in 1553, which set out to find a north-east passage to China.

York: The Making of a City 1068-1350

Join historian, Sarah Rees-Jones, as she considers how we may have underestimated the impact of the Norman Conquest on York's development as a city

Churchill, The Empire and the Sultan’s Jihad

Historian Lawrence James will explore the repurcussions of the Turkish Sultan’s declaration of a Holy War against Britain, France and Russia in 1914, and how Churchill’s response to this and the consequences, are still with us today

Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat

An original, compellingly told story of women's fight to represent their country abroad in the face of opposition from the men of the Foreign Office.

Myths and realities of the British Empire

Historian John Darwin will show how diverse, contradictory and in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was.

War and Gold

Eminent historian, Kwasi Kwarteng, takes a unique look at the financial world and its troubled history, from the disaster that befell Spain in the sixteenth century to the 2008 global financial crisis.

From the Duchy of Muscovy to the Capital of All Russia

Historian, Elena Kashina, will discuss the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin which emerged during the reign of Ivan III, the establishment of trade and diplomatic relations with Britain under Ivan IV, and look at the British Ambassadorial gifts in the collection of Kremlin’s Museums.