Historical Dramas of real people

The story of a group of very different men fighting in the American Colonies for freedom, and how they will shape the future for the United States of America. Based on true stories.

Follows the famed queen Marie Antoinette, who was the last queen of France before the French Revolution.

A political, family drama set in Florence in the early 15th century. Cosimo de' Medici finds himself at the helm of his supremely wealthy, banking dynasty family, when his father, Giovanni dies suddenly. However Cosimo is concealing a dangerous secret - Giovanni was murdered. Now Cosimo and his brother must unearth his killer in order to protect the wealth and power of the family.

The Virgin Queen explores the full sweep of Elizabeth's life: from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister's terror; through her great love affair with Robert Dudley; into her years of triumph over the Armada; and finally her old age and her last, enigmatic relationship with her young protégé, the Earl of Essex.

When Elizabeth Tudor comes to the throne, her (male) advisers know she has to marry. Doesn't she? Thus starts a decades-long political/ matrimonial game, during an age of high passions and high achievement.

The life stories of history's greatest minds. From their days as young adults to their final years we see their discoveries, loves, relationships, causes, flaws and genius.

Mini-series about the the public and private lives of the later years of Queen Elizabeth I.

This costume drama features England's splendid Renaissance dynasty under King Henry VIII. Beginning in Season 1 when Henry VIII was growing desperate for an heir and growing distant from his first wife, the series moves quickly to the period when Anne Boleyn became his obsession. During this time Cardinal Wolsey rose to become the power behind his throne, ruling ruthlessly and nearly absolutely while Henry (played by Johnathon Rhys Meyers) for the most part followed the Cardinal's advice, maneuvering through a series of betrayals and plots against him. When Anne Boleyn plays much harder to get than any woman ever has, Henry begins to search for a way out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, so that he can make Anne his wife. Needing a divorce, Henry turns to Wolsey, who promises to help him create waves of backlash from the church, as well as the Spanish Habsburg dynasty and its overseas empire. Against this background gyrate the private lives and political intrigues of several members of the royal court and chancery. This includes Henry's friend and his sister Margaret's true love Charles Brandon, the Habsburg ambassadors, greedy and power-hungry schemers, their incidental victims and composer Thomas Tallis...

Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon navigates the royal lineage of England with an eye on the throne.

The rise to power, and start of a dynasty, of the Borgia family. Rodrigo Borgia ascends within the Catholic Church, becoming Pope Alexander VI. The position brings with it many enemies, internal and state-based, and he has to use all of his abilities of diplomacy, ruthlessness, charm, and the power of the church to stay in power, and alive. Luckily, his children are equally ambitious.

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

Born the illegitimate son of a notary in the rural town of Vinci, Leonardo's lonely childhood leaves him with a relentless, near-superhuman drive to understand everything. Under questioning by a Milanese investigator who holds Leonardo's life in his hands, we come to see the terrible personal sacrifice that led him to create masterpieces that changed the way we see the world forever.

In the Golden Age of Piracy, at the dawn of the 18th century, Blackbeard stood out among the lawless rogues as the most fearsome and notorious seafarer of them all. He killed for the reputation, and his reputation has become legend. Now, for the first time, comes the true story of pirate Edward Teach, the man who terrorized the seas.

Based on the life of Jack Parsons, a brilliant real-life rocket engineer hired by the US government in 1940s to help with the rocket program, which he saw as the starting point for future space exploration. In 1938, curious by nature, Parsons meets and quickly befriends his new next door neighbor Ernest Donovan, a follower of the infamous English occultist Aleister Crowley, who proceeds to seduce him into his way of thinking which includes the motto "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" as the only principle in life as well as other tenets and practices of Crowley and his Thelema religious movement that include secret orgies which produce 'sexual magic' and occult rituals meant to establish contact with 'the other side.' As Parsons slowly becomes part of this strange secret world, his newfound beliefs and lifestyle jeopardize both his marriage and his job.

Elizabeth Tudor, an orphaned teenager who becomes embroiled in the political and sexual politics of the English court on her journey to secure the crown.

In 43 AD, the Roman Army - determined and terrified in equal measure - returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia - a mysterious land ruled by warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the powerful forces of the underworld. Or so they say.

It was the age of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, of enlightened creativity and unparalleled intellectual achievement. But it was also the age of Machiavelli, of rampant lawlessness, incessant war, and unspeakable depravity. At the heart of the world order was the Vatican, the arbiter of conflicts between kingdoms and empires. And at the center of the Vatican was a man whose quest for power would propel him to seek the ultimate prize: the Holy See of Rome. He was a man whose name would become synonymous with ruthlessness, and whose reign as Pope would be remembered as the most infamous chapter of the history of the Catholic church: Rodrigo Borgia. His four children--Juan, the oldest, a prideful, lazy, unscrupulous sexual predator; Cesare, a young man torn between a faith that was not his calling and his dark violent nature; Lucretia, a young girl discovering the secret power that a woman's sexuality holds; and Goffredo, an innocent child who would come of age in a family riven by conflict--would provide Rodrigo with a challenge as great as the political maneuvering of his political and religious rivals. This show was a one-hour dramatic series that chronicled the rise to power of this Spanish Cardinal and his clan, who sought to establish a dynasty that held sway over the entire world. Though a man of faith, Rodrigo was also in thrall to the pleasures of the flesh. Not only did he deal with the plotting and conspiracies of his fellow cardinals and the representatives of the great powers, but he was locked in a struggle to contain the bitter sibling rivalries that threatened to tear his family apart. This show was a cauldron of intrigue, violence, murder, lust, politics, faith, incest, betrayal, and redemption--a story as compelling and enlightening as the age in which it took place.

A royal woman living in rural Russia during the 18th century is forced to choose between her own personal happiness and the future of Russia, when she marries an Emperor.