Tom Holland has just shared the news that The Rest Is History is turning its attention to The Tudor Cold War, the announcement was met with genuine delight here at Soulton Hall.
Starting next week on @TheRestHistory, spies, spy chiefs, Jesuits, sea dogs & rival queens: THE TUDOR COLD WAR.
Featuring:
– The Virgin Queen!
– Sir Francis Drake!
– Sir Francis Walsingham!
– Mary, Queen of Scots!All the episodes will be here: https://t.co/NNgwZQX0q7 pic.twitter.com/66xW4DW7RV
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) July 25, 2026
We have long been respectful admirers of the podcast, following Tom and Dominic Sandbrook’s work with great appreciation. Beyond that, Soulton has enjoyed a long-standing friendship with Tom over the years. To see the show bring its characteristic energy and deep narrative drive to this pivotal historical era is wonderful news.
As Tom and Dominic explore the statecraft, secret networks, and covert operations of the period, we are reminded that the Elizabethan “Golden Age” did not simply materialise out of thin air. Its true wellsprings lie further back, in the deeply fraught decade of the 1550s.
During the mid-sixteenth century, England was a realm under severe pressure.
Religious upheavals, economic instability, and the shadow of continental powers created an environment where every move had profound consequences.
It was a period when survival required exceptional care, discretion, and forward planning.
At Soulton, this fraught era is in the foundations of the house.
Built in the 1550s by Sir Rowland Hill—the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London—the hall is a physical witness to how thinkers, statesmen, and scholars navigated those dangerous years before the Elizabethan Golden Age.
The quiet resistance, intellectual preservation, and subtle design choices embedded into Soulton reflect a time when people learned to protect ideas while the political winds shifted around them.
When Elizabeth I took the throne, the lessons of those turbulent 1550s bore immediate fruit.
The statecraft that defined her reign—most famously embodied by Sir Francis Walsingham—was forged in the crucible of mid-century anxieties.
Walsingham did not merely react to threats; he established a modern intelligence infrastructure:
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Ciphers and Cryptography: Building sophisticated networks of codebreakers and linguists to decipher intercepted correspondence across Europe.
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Covert Informers: Placing agents inside foreign courts, exile communities, and secret courier routes.
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Counter-Espionage: Uncovering assassination plots and neutralising covert threats before they could destabilise the realm.
This international web of spies and cryptographers became the engine of the Elizabethan state.
It allowed a small island nation to navigate a shadowy conflict against vast continental empires.
As The Rest Is History dives into this world of spy chiefs, Jesuits, sea dogs, and rival queens, we will be listening with immense interest.
The story of how England navigated its cold war with Spain is thrilling, and understanding its roots in the fraught years of the 1550s makes the narrative all the richer.
We raise a glass to Tom, Dominic, and the whole team at The Rest Is History (which you can join here) as they bring this remarkable chapter to life.
