Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor in the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria. She was a prominent thinker, devoting herself to learning and teaching, leading the life of a respected academic at Alexandria's university. Ancient sources routinely depict Hypatia as a woman who was widely known for her generosity, love of learning, and expertise in teaching the subjects of Neoplatonism, mathematics, science, and philosophy. Little is known of her life, ...
Nov 15, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 63
Brunhild reigned as a Queen, Queen Mother and Queen Regent for a son, two grandsons and a great grandson for forty years. She attained a level of power in Medieval Frankia that few people—male or female—would ever achieve after her. In our epic conclusion of Brunhild’s story, we come to the end of the bloody rivalry between Brunhild and Fredegund. But that wasn’t the end of Brunhild yet! She had two unruly, and dare we say, petulant grandsons to deal with. But, as with many of the women in our e...
Nov 02, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 62
While most Medieval Queens were generally expected to step aside for their young sons and disappear into obscurity within convent walls, Brunhild would prove to be the exception to the rule. Even after her son came of age to rule on his own, Brunhild still held an iron grip over the throne of Austrasia—much to the chagrin of the men around her. In this episode, Brunhild faces off against threats both within and outside of her kingdom even as her rivalry with Fredegund escalates and assassins are...
Oct 18, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 61
You’ve heard the story from the murderess, Fredegund’s side. Now it’s time to here the cunning of a woman raised to be queen from birth. When Brunhild’s sister was murdered in the Kingdom of Neustria, it sparked one of the bloodiest rivalries to ever plague Europe. The early years of Brunhild were filled with tragedy, with the deaths of two husbands, scheming in convents, fighting the patriarchy—late 6th century style—and maybe incest for the purposes of rebellion. From victory to tragedy, Brunh...
Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 60
When we last left off, Fredegund’s husband had just been murdered and she’s fled to Paris with an unnamed baby at her breast and an uncertain fate ahead of her. But this is Fredegund, and she’s not about to let that stop her from clawing, poisoning, stabbing, and climbing her way back to the top. In this episode, the rivalry between Fredegund and Brunhild escalates and we also learn what happens when you challenge Fredegund. Hint: it involves dramatic assassination in the middle of a church, sna...
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 59
It’s a choose your own adventure episode and Kat chose murder! Queen Fredegund is quite possibly one of the most ruthless, vicious and downright villainous queens you have never heard of! From kitchen slave to concubine to queen, Fredegund’s rise to power earned her the enmity of another powerful queen in Frankia and stoke a rivalry that eventually devastated Western Europe for 40 years. In one of the most unhinged stories we have ever told on this podcast, we follow Fredegund as she gives birth...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr 50 min•Season 3Ep. 58
We’re back! And we’re taking a trip in the Rewind Time Machine to talk about two of the oldest goddesses in recorded history. Astarte and Ishtar both emerged out of Mesopotamia as goddesses of war, love, sex and fertility. Their influence would spread from the ancient Middle East to the Mediterranean and into Egypt, serving as the blueprint for several Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods. These ancient goddesses explore the duality of the divine feminine, as ferocious as they were sensual. Also in th...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 57
Idolator. Sorceress. Harlot. As far as wicked women go, Jezebel set the standard for which all women would be judged for thousands of years following her death. Her story is immortalized in the Bible, serving as a cautionary tale for those who would turn their back on God. In this episode, we examine the historical figure behind the tale. Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, married to King Ahab of Israel and (probably) his Queen Consort. When she came to Israel, she brought her Gods and her polit...
May 17, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 56
To become Queen of Jérusalem, Sibylla had to endure the deaths of her father, brother and nine year old son. When she inherited the throne, her Kingdom was on the brink of civil war, slowly being chipped away by the unstoppable and ruthless Saladin. No pressure or anything. Sibylla’s first act of true autonomy would also be her last. By crowning her obnoxious husband (some guy named Guy), Sibylla upheld the sanctity of her marriage under God, but doomed her Kingdom to fall. Also in this episode,...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 55
Sibylla was never supposed to be queen. Hers is a story of tragedy. To take power, she had to step over the bodies of several important men in her life. From the day her brother was diagnosed with leprosy, her Queenship was no longer a question of “if” but “when.” In the ten years Sibylla’s brother, Baldwin IV, reigned, the Kingdom of Jérusalem was faced with two challenges: find Sibylla a suitable husband and defend itself against the arrival of Saladin. Sibylla’s brother would devote his short...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Season 3Ep. 54
Ruthless and calculating, Zumurrud Khatan was another unique woman of the Crusader era that rose to power in the city of Damascus as the men around her perished. Amidst a chaotic environment where assassination attempts were just another Tuesday and bad blood led to intrigue and infighting, Zumurrud brought stability to Medieval Damascus with her own cutthroat method of dealing with her sadistic, unhinged eldest son. Special note: you’ll have to forgive the awkward microphone feedback in this ep...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 53
Younger sister to the formidable and dominating Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, Alice is often overlooked in the pages of history. Alice was everything the Medieval chroniclers vilified in a woman: ambitious, hotheaded and rebellious in spirit. Obviously we love her for it! Married to the prince of Antioch at sixteen and widowed by twenty, Alice was determined to capitalize on the unique opportunity that presented itself to her: she would rule Antioch independently in her young daughter’s name. To...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 52
You may be thinking we’ve already heard this story before, but not like this. Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most notorious women in history, and her story was so insane that we decided we had to tell it twice. Join us for Eleanor of Aquitaine: the early years. Duchess by the age of thirteen, Queen by fifteen and Crusader by twenty-five, Eleanor was a woman that defied all convention and determined to have her name etched in the history books right from the start. In this episode we revisit...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 48 min•Season 3Ep. 51
Following the untimely death of her husband, Melisende found herself in a unique position of power independent of any man’s influence. But of course it didn’t last for long. When Melisende’s son, Baldwin III, came of age, he decided he was not content to Co-Rule Jerusalem with his formidable and overbearing mother. Turns out the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree and her son attempted to set her aside just as his father had, this time by force. Melisende was not a woman easily sidelined tho...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Melisende would go on to become one of the most powerful and formidable Queens of the Medieval era. The eldest of four daughters with no brothers in sight, Melisende’s father did the unthinkable: he named her as heir and then actually trained her to rule. Melisende’s rise to power has some familiar tropes: a husband that schemed to exclude her from power (he failed miserably), a potential lover that schemed to usurp the throne in her name (he failed miserably) and way too many men named Baldwin....
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 49
Aries chaos faces off against Virgo scrupulousness in this “relaxed” episode. WE HAVE THE NOTES! Rachel and Kat discuss their favorite goddesses and the nuance of light and darkness and why we love these nocturnal/darker goddesses. Stay tuned for an original goddess story from Rachel and what to expect if Kat ever ascends into godhood.
Dec 14, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 48
They say that behind every great man is an even greater woman, and Alexander the Great’s mother was no exception. Like all fun historical characters from Ancient Greece, Olympias claimed descent from the Gods and was determined to forge a legacy for her son worthy of his heritage. But her story is a worthy tale completely on its own. From bewitching the King of Macedonia in a mysterious cult initiation ceremony, to bedding snakes and poisoning rivals to her son’s position in the line of successi...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 47
"There were once women in Denmark who dressed themselves to look like men and spent almost every minute cultivating soldiers' skills; they did not want the sinews of their valour to lose tautness and be infected by self-indulgence . . . As if they were forgetful of their true selves they put toughness before allure, aimed at conflicts instead of kisses, tasted blood, not lips, sought the clash of arms rather than the arm's embrace, fitted to weapons hands which should have been weaving, desired ...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 47 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Strange things were said to happen around Darya Saltykova’s estate. Tales of torture and abuse slowly trickled out of the Russian noblewoman’s lands where screams were said to be heard long into the night and young girls were said to disappear. In a tale reminiscent of the Hungarian Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory some 200 years earlier, comes a tale of a woman with ties to the highest echelon of Russian nobility, even as high as the Imperial Court. Darya Saltykova’s is a tale of a scorned wom...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 45
When Elizabeth first came to the English throne, no one believed a woman could rule on her own without a husband to guide her. Queen Elizabeth proved time and again that she would always be the exception to the preposterous rule, much to the chagrin of those who wished to see her fail. The final years of her long reign saw an end to the Mary, Queen of Scots debacle, the defeat of the Spanish Armada (thank you Protestant Winds!), and more conspiracies from scheming nobles. In the conclusion to ou...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Season 2Ep. 44
As Elizabeth settled into her reign as queen, she quickly learned to master the art of traversing the treacherous world of courtly politics at home in England as well as France and Spain. Despite this carefully crafted persona, her throne was never completely safe. As religious strife escalated across Europe between Catholics and Protestants, the conflict hit closer to home when a certain Scottish Queen stumbled onto English shores amidst scandal and rebellion. And now it’s up to Elizabeth to st...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Upon ascending the throne of England, Elizabeth was faced with two very pressing issues: reverting England back to Protestantism and getting herself a husband. Finding herself in the very unique position of having her pick of suitors, Elizabeth frustrated her counselors by refusing to marry or name an heir. Thus, the Virgin Queen is born – though we learn the moniker is a bit deceptive. As it turns out, Elizabeth had many suitors, none more prevalent in her life than the roughish and just out of...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Elizabeth Tudor was never supposed to be Queen. The daughter of Henry VIII and his second and most notorious wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was born amidst religious and political turmoil in England. Join us for the origin story of Elizabeth I. Before she was the Virgin Queen and Gloriana, she’d been an illegitimate princess used as a pawn to prop up the ambitions of the unscrupulous men around her. This story has it all: lecherous old men, terrible fathers, annoying brothers, formidable sisters a...
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 50 min•Season 2Ep. 41
It is said that whenever a Targaryen is born the gods flip a coin and the world waits to see how it will land: the side of greatness or the side of madness. In this episode, we discuss the upcoming show, House of the Dragon, and the many new difficult damsels we are looking forward to meeting. At the center of the drama is Rhaenyra Targaryen – a woman whose coin teeters on the edge of greatness and madness. We also delve into the real life parallels between Rhaenyra and Empress Matilda, who was ...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Mary is one of the more notorious monarchs on record, due in large part to her relentless persecution of Protestants earning her the moniker of “Bloody Mary.” But was this reputation earned? Mary’s brutality was not unique to the 16th century, but the lens of history loves to vilify women for doing the same things their male counterparts do. Mary’s reign is chalk full of religious upheaval and reform in England. Following the death of Henry VIII (good riddance!), England had two religions conten...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 38 min•Season 2Ep. 39
In the conclusion of Mary’s story, we discuss one of history’s most exaggerated rivalries between the Queen of Scots and the Queen of England. After the Scottish noble families turn on their queen, Mary flees Scotland for England where she hopes to find sanctuary from her cousin, Elizabeth. We discover that Mary was in fact much more difficult than we originally gave her credit for . . . much to her own detriment. In the end, all roads have led Mary to her infamous fate, a block that awaits her ...
Jun 01, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Following the death of her first husband, Mary returns home and finds a less than warm reception in Scotland. Considered a foreigner in her own native country and, worse yet, a Catholic Queen in a recently converted Protestant country, Mary had an uphill battle to fight. Fortunately for our Mary, Queen of Scots, Europe is full of eligible bachelors and she gets her pick of the lot! Unfortunately for Mary, she chose Lord Darnley, who we can all agree was the literal worst. Join us for a tale of l...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Mary, Queen of Scots might be one of the most popular and well-known monarchs in Scottish history, but who was she really? Orphaned and the new Scottish Queen by the absurdly young age of six days old, Mary was marked by tragedy right from the start. From Henry VIII’s “Rough Wooing” of Scotland to Mary’s early years in France under the watchful eyes of her powerful Guise uncles and her headstrong mother-in-law, Catherine de’ Medici, Mary outshines her perpetually sickly and sniveling French husb...
May 04, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Dear Listener, we present you with a special episode about a tale of morality, power and petty letters to old lovers who have vexed us. In this relaxed episode Rachel and Kat discuss one of their favorite fantasy series and the nuanced women (and men) that make up the world of The Witcher.
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 44 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Jeanne refused . . . that is all. We’ve discussed the French Wars of religion through Catherine de Medici’s own story and that of the Catholics. Now let’s flip it and reverse it, taking a look at the conflict through Jeanne d’Albret Queen of Navarre’s eyes and the side of the Protestants. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed! From an 11-year-old bride kicking and screaming down the aisle to the obstinate Queen of Navarre with an alliance and marriage offer for her son that sounds a little too goo...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 39 min•Season 2Ep. 5
