Crown & Spectre
Myths. Legends, & Ghost Stories from The British Royal Family (Strange Britain)
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Narrated by:
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Peter McGiffen
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By:
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Adrian Finney
About this listen
When an institution dates back for over a millennium, it feels inevitable that it's bound to have picked up a few ghosts along the way.
From the spectre of Queen Victoria, to Mary Queen of Scots’s picky ghost, and from Henry VIII and the restless phantoms of his many wives, to Oliver Cromwell, who claimed to have conversed with the ghosts of Kings long gone, we are going to be exploring the haunted history of the Royal Family.
We'll also be looking at a few other strange stories, including the story of a feral child, the story of lizards in the palace, the story of UFO investigations, and the story of the alleged lycanthropic King.
There will also be stories of paranormal encounters from various Royal Residences around the country, as well as a Punk Rock conspiracy and the tragic tale of a forgotten woman in the life of Henry VIII.
What better time, than during a Coronation year, to take a look at the spookier side of the Royal Family?
Featuring the following stories, along with many more, from across the history of the monarchy:
- Abdication, Americans, & The Ghost of Queen Victoria
- The King, The Car Park, & The Murders in the Tower
- The Sports Reporter, The Queen, & The Lizard People
- The King & The Foundling
- The Ghostmaker King
- The Queen & The Punk Rock Conspiracy
Your host for the evening is Adrian Finney. He’s the man behind the successful Strange Sheffield Ghost Walks and the author of Strange Britain book series.
©2023 Adrian Finney (P)2023 Strange BritainListeners also enjoyed...
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- Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins and the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a queen's lap - and later her bed.
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Clear and detailed
- By Tad Davis on 04-13-16
By: Leanda de Lisle
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The Conquering Family
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas B. Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenets begins with The Conquering Family and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, closing with the reign of John in 1216. The troubled period after the Norman Conquest, when the foundations of government were hammered out between monarch and people, comes to life through Costain's storytelling skill and historical imagination.
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An Entrancing History of the Early Plantegenets
- By Peter on 01-20-09
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The Women of the Cousins' War
- The Duchess, the Queen and the King's Mother
- By: Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.
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Great book
- By Stacey Wallace on 11-14-11
By: Philippa Gregory, and others
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Princesses Behaving Badly
- Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
- By: Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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You think you know her story. You've read the Brothers Grimm, you've watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn't be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders - but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets.
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Princesses Researched Well
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 04-14-14
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Castles, Customs, and Kings
- True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors
- By: Debra Brown, M.M. Bennetts
- Narrated by: Ruth Golding
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A compilation of essays from the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book provides a wealth of historical information from Roman Britain to early 20th-century England. Over 50 different authors share hundreds of real life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.
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Historical Tidbits
- By Troy on 08-03-15
By: Debra Brown, and others
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Dying Every Day
- Seneca at the Court of Nero
- By: James S. Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman.
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Outstanding
- By michael bobadilla on 05-04-23
By: James S. Romm
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Young and Damned and Fair
- The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII
- By: Mr. Gareth Russell
- Narrated by: Jenny Funnell
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this interpretation of the tragic life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, breaks new ground in our understanding of the very young woman who became queen at a time of unprecedented social and political tension and whose terrible errors in judgment quickly led her to the executioner's block.
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Magnifent scholarly work
- By Linda Erlich on 08-08-17
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Ivan the Terrible
- A Captivating Guide to the First Tsar of Russia and His Impact on Russian History
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jamie Peters
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Considering that he has gone down in history as Ivan the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia could hardly have been a boy scout. As his name suggests, Ivan had an utterly terrifying presence during his 37-year-long reign. Ivan's story is not only one of brutality, it is also a tale of great suffering.
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Fluffy
- By Anonymous User on 11-12-21
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Agrippina
- The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World
- By: Emma Southon
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Agrippina, at the center of imperial power for three generations, is the story of the Julio-Claudia dynasty - and of Rome itself, at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless, and political zenith. In her own time, she was recognized as a woman of unparalleled power.
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Fun!
- By Curatina on 02-27-20
By: Emma Southon
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Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Successors
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe - these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill.
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A real Masterpiece!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-30-21
By: Alison Weir
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The Wars of the Roses: A Captivating Guide to the English Civil Wars That Brought down the Plantagenet Dynasty and Put the Tudors on the Throne
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wars of the Roses were a complex set of battles, skirmishes, and kidnappings during the 15th century in England. They had their roots in the nearby Civil War of France, which greatly influenced English politics for years to come. Though there is no one universally-accepted start or end date for these wars, the major events throughout the wars occurred between 1455 and 1485.
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Atrocious narration, poor timing, not recommended
- By B. on 01-21-19
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The Borgias
- Power and Depravity in Renaissance Italy
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice, and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. And yet, paradoxically, this family lived when the Renaissance was coming into its full flowering in Italy. Examples of infamy flourished alongside some of the finest art produced in western history.
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Gossip
- By Amazon Customer on 10-02-19
By: Paul Strathern
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The Year of Lear
- Shakespeare in 1606
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age 42, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn - King Lear - then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.
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Detailed and satisfying
- By Tad Davis on 02-24-16
By: James Shapiro
What listeners say about Crown & Spectre
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Chris S
- 06-25-23
Very entertaining!
Crown and Spectre by Adrian Finney is a very interesting collection of ghost stories and other weird tales of the British monarchy. The book covers stories of the ghost sitings at various castles and royal residences throughout the centuries. It was a thoroughly enjoyable book. The narration by Peter McGiffen was excellent.
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