Forbidden Families

Episodes

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0120080806

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

In 842 AD, Dhuoda's two sons were kidnapped. This terrible loss spurred her to write a manual for her stolen boys, advising them on the skills they need to become men. We eavesdrop on a woman, bereft but unbroken, as she becomes a mother on paper, as she can no longer be one in the flesh.

In 842 AD, Dhuoda's two sons were kidnapped. The loss spurred her to write a manual.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history

012008080620090811 (R4)

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

In 842 AD, Dhuoda's two sons were kidnapped. This terrible loss spurred her to write a manual for her stolen boys, advising them on the skills they need to become men. We eavesdrop on a woman, bereft but unbroken, as she becomes a mother on paper, as she can no longer be one in the flesh.

In 842 AD, Dhuoda's two sons were kidnapped. The loss spurred her to write a manual.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history

02Anne Askew20080813

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

Destined to live the life of a rural housewife in Tudor England, Anne Askew married and had two children. But a new religious faith, Protestantism, came between her and her staunchly Catholic husband.

Her new-found faith tore her family apart, causing her to leave her children to follow her God and to enter the deadly games of the Tudor court. Bettany follows her transformation from mother to martyr.

Image: The Protestant martyrs Anne Askew, John Lascelles and others about to be burnt at the stake at Smithfield, with a large crowd surrounding them; illustration to John Foxe's, 'Acts and Monuments' ('Book of Martyrs'). Woodcut with letterpress. British, 16th century. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Tudor housewife Anne Askew's conversion to Protestantism tore her family apart.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history

02Anne Askew2008081320090818 (R4)

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

Destined to live the life of a rural housewife in Tudor England, Anne Askew married and had two children. But a new religious faith, Protestantism, came between her and her staunchly Catholic husband.

Her new-found faith tore her family apart, causing her to leave her children to follow her God and to enter the deadly games of the Tudor court. Bettany follows her transformation from mother to martyr.

Image: The Protestant martyrs Anne Askew, John Lascelles and others about to be burnt at the stake at Smithfield, with a large crowd surrounding them; illustration to John Foxe's, 'Acts and Monuments' ('Book of Martyrs'). Woodcut with letterpress. British, 16th century. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Tudor housewife Anne Askew's conversion to Protestantism tore her family apart.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history

0320080820

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

Brilliana Harley was an aristocrat whose husband's Parliamentarian sympathies led to her being besieged in her own castle home on the Shropshire borders during the English Civil War. She died emaciated and ill, but wrote 375 letters, smuggled out in vegetable boxes, describing her hopes, her frustrations and her faith in her absent husband and son. Throughout her ordeal, her faith in the power of love and the delight of having a family never wavered.

Brilliana Harley was besieged in her own castle home during the English Civil War.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history

032008082020090825 (R4)

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of remarkable women denied their families by the march of history.

Brilliana Harley was an aristocrat whose husband's Parliamentarian sympathies led to her being besieged in her own castle home on the Shropshire borders during the English Civil War. She died emaciated and ill, but wrote 375 letters, smuggled out in vegetable boxes, describing her hopes, her frustrations and her faith in her absent husband and son. Throughout her ordeal, her faith in the power of love and the delight of having a family never wavered.

Brilliana Harley was besieged in her own castle home during the English Civil War.

Bettany Hughes tells the stories of women denied their families by the march of history