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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 27/09/2026

Earlier, I looked into the widespread claims that Jules de Polignac believed himself to be receiving visions from the Virgin Mary during the July Revolution. I tracked down all the claims I could find and found most of them dubious at best. But today I found some new information on this mystery!

thesiecle.com

Fact Check 3: Polignac's Visions

French prime minister Jules de Polignac believed he was receiving visions of the Virgin Mary during France's 1830 July Revolution — or so many sources claim....

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 18/09/2026

My first livestreamed aftershow is wrapped! If you missed it, you can watch the full discussion here:

youtube.com

Episode 51 live aftershow

YouTube video by The Siècle

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 17/09/2026

I thought Balzac's Père Goriot was a *fascinating* book, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. I kind of had to force myself to keep going. But I'm 45 pages in to Raymond MacKenzie's recent translation of Lost Illusions and so far I'm loving it.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 17/09/2026

Join me tonight for my first-ever aftershow!

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 16/09/2026

The cumulative word count of The Siècle episode transcripts by category. The x-axis is the order of all episodes, not just main ones (hence why the numbers go past 70 when I just released Ep. 51). "Excerpts" are readings of period books. "Supplemental" includes Fact-Check episodes.

A line chart titled "Cumulative word count by primary category"

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 15/09/2026

Got burning questions about Episode 51: The House of Orleans? Come join me Thursday at 6 p.m. Central Time (7 ET / 11 UTC) for a live aftershow. I'll take questions about the episode, my research process, anecdotes that didn't make the script, and more. (No need to be a Patreon backer to join!)

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Episode 51 live aftershow this Thursday | The Siècle podcast

On Thursday, September 17, 2026, I'll be hosting a live aftershow to discuss Episode 51: The House of Orleans! Join me in the live chat with

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

🎵 There is a house they call Orleans They keep on raising sons And it's been the ruin of the elder line They're gone, the old Bourbons 🎵

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 15/09/2026

This little scamp is François. He's 12 years old in this picture, and in two months his father Louis-Philippe will become King of the French. An older François was also the artist of this painting. He was a watercolorist and painted many scenes from his life, including voyages & revolutions.

A 12-year-old François d'Orléans climbs on the balcony of the Palais-Royal in Paris during a May 1830 party. François d'Orléans, detail from "Bonjour, mon peuple!," after 1830. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

🎵 There is a house they call Orleans They keep on raising sons And it's been the ruin of the elder line They're gone, the old Bourbons 🎵

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

A young man attends plays with a playwright. Sounds educational! But these two — the new Duc d'Orléans & Alexandre Dumas — were among the most notorious horndogs of their day, & their post-play chats focused more on actresses than scripts. Find out more in Episode 51: thesiecle.com/episode51/

Ary Scheffer, Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orleans (1810-1842), in hussar's uniform, circa 1830.

Achille Devéria, drawing of Alexandre Dumas, 1829.

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David H. Montgomery @dhmontgomery.com · 14/09/2026

Marie-Amélie, wife of future French King Louis-Philippe, was pregnant almost exactly 50% of the time over a 14-year period from December 1809 through July 1824. A fun new episode of my history podcast:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

NEW EPISODE: A handsome prince with a never-ending parade of mistresses. A woman slyly subverting gender roles to influence policy behind the scenes. A deaf sea-captain, sailing the world and fighting slavery. A... thrifter? Meet the July Monarchy's massive royal family:

thesiecle.com

Episode 51: The House of Orleans

A handsome prince yearning to be his own man as he moves from lover to lover. A woman slyly subverting gender roles to influence France from behind the scene...

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

Merry Sièclemas to everyone who celebrates.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/09/2026

Merry Sièclemas! (To Patrons only — everyone else can celebrate in an hour.)

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Elyse Graham @elysegraham.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

(professor voice) Students, I submit to you that the mid-19th century was anything but mid

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 11/09/2026

Do any of my followers speak Hungarian? I'm looking for pronunciation help on the name "Apponyi" — one site said "a-PON-ee-eye" and I want to make sure before recording it.

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Pontifacts: Ranking the Popes @pontifactspod.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Where else will you have the opportunity to stay overnight in a monastery AND attend a papal audience?! Join the Pontifacts Tour of Italy now!! Jan 30-Feb 7, 2027 tinyurl.com/pontifactstour

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 10/09/2026

Printed a PDF of my upcoming episode's script for review. 10,000 words, 53 footnotes, and 29 pages including 27 different public domain works of art. Coming soon!

A promotional image for Episode 51 of The Siècle: The House of Orleans, featuring unknown artist, detail from portrait of King Louis-Philippe of France and his family, 19th Century. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 10/09/2026

I have a soft spot for the phrase, "The [X] of kings and the king of [X]." Jacques Laffitte was called the "banker of kings and the king of bankers." Artist François Gérard was the "painter of kings and the king of bankers." The antimetabole is delicious.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 28/08/2026

This is a lovely little town in western France, capital of the Vendée department. It's called... well, in the 19th Century, the name of this little town was a contentious issue. See, succeeding governments kept renaming it in their own honor. 1/

Aerial photo of the Place Napoléon in La Roche-sur-Yon, France.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 22/08/2026

Optimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty French historian: to understand the debate about the cup, we need to start in 1789

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 16/08/2026

“Some [1830s French newspapers] refused to print serials: The National and… Gazette, on opposing political sides, agreed that modern fiction was a source of corruption and that such frivolity besmirched a serious journal.”

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 15/08/2026

François Guizot, a leading figure of the center-right in France’s July Monarchy, described the regime’s centrists as a mix of “indecisive honest men and meticulous intriguers.”

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 01/08/2026

Thoughts on the best way to translate the phrase "Quel beau mouvement" into English? It's someone enthusiastically describing the July Revolution. Dictionaries I've consulted have suggested something like "beautiful/wonderful movement" but I wonder if that loses something in English.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 01/08/2026

@mikeduncan.bsky.social Is your show bibliography online anywhere? It used to be at thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_... but that's now offline.

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Jeremy Allen @jeres.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Enjoying FRENCH WEIRD, an excellent new podcast from my pal @rwilliamsparis.bsky.social, interrogating the lesser explored underside of French culture that you'll not get from watching Emily In Paris. There's a first full episode here on Michel Houellebecq which is unmissable frenchweird.com 👈

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 31/07/2026

No, John, I assure you, I'm very aware of what my podcast needs to grow, and it's more episodes on a consistent schedule. A me problem, not a you problem.

An email reading: David, from my experience, most teams with an existing podcast don't need more production work. They need more value from what is already recorded.

The gap is usually discoverability and conversion: episodes don't become YouTube visibility, LinkedIn trust, search traffic, or a path from listener to lead.

We've seen this show up as 3.5X higher revenue after fixing the podcast funnel.

Worth seeing a 15 minute breakdown of where The Siècle Podcast's podcast could be doing more of that? No call and nothing to pitch.

John

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 29/07/2026

Even more inescapable than barricades if you're going to have a French revolution? The Marquis de Lafayette.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 29/07/2025

Charles ends the debate, because it's 11 a.m., and 11 a.m. is when he goes to Mass — revolution or no revolution. In Paris, as Charles prays, his reign collapses. #julyrevlive

“But Sire, give orders, the blood is flowing and you can stop it,” a uiformed soldier says to King Charles X, kneeling in church. “After Mass,” the king replies. Caricature by H. Fournier, 1830. Public domain via Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 29/07/2026

My live-tweeting of France's July Revolution continues, and things aren't going too well for the French army...

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 29/07/2026

Marshal Marmont was dealt a pretty bad hand when he was ordered to suppress the July Revolution, with no advance notice and inadequate sources. But even given that, this is generally seen as a pretty bad plan on Marmont's part:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 28/07/2026

If this is a Parisian revolution, you gotta have some barricades. (But fun fact: the July Revolution of 1830 was when barricades became A THING.)

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 28/07/2026

On the morning of July 27, 1830, French prime minister Jules de Polignac had gone for a walk through central Paris and was pleased to see how quiet the streets were after disturbances the night before. “I *was* more fearful than I am now!” he declared. As they say, things escalated quickly.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 28/07/2026

On July 27, 1830, King Charles X of France's attempted coup led to street protests, which gradually escalated into rioting — and finally into open insurrection after soldiers opened fire on a crowd. My live-tweeting of France's July Revolution is below:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 28/07/2026

My take on "The Odyssey" is that I wish Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" had been a good enough movie that the discussion was about its accuracy.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 27/07/2026

On this day in 1830, things were about to pop off in Paris:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 26/07/2026

On this day in 1830, France's King Charles X launched a coup against the liberal opposition. Follow my live-tweets of how it went down from last year:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 25/07/2025

It is 11 a.m. on this day 195 years ago: Sunday, July 25, 1830. At the Château de Saint-Cloud, six miles west of central Paris, King Charles X of France is attending a private Mass, as he does every day. In an antechamber, his court waits nervously. Something is up. #julyrevlive

Portrait of King Charles X of France, by Thomas Lawrence, 1825. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 23/07/2026

Why Siècle episodes don't always come out on time:

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 14/07/2026

It's July 14, Bastille Day. But you wouldn't want to be caught waving a tricolor flag in France's Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830) — it was banned, and people went to jail after being caught with illicit tricolors. Find out more on The Siècle: thesiecle.com/supplemental8/

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 12/07/2026

"The two years immediately following the July Revolution – 1831 and 1832 – stand out as one of history’s most distinctive and striking moments. Between the years that precede them and those that follow, these two years are like two mountains." — Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables," 4.1.1

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David H. Montgomery @dhmontgomery.com · 04/07/2026

No background needed for the latest episode of my history podcast, which actually falls into the “three guys shooting the breeze on camera” definition that people now mean when they say “podcast.”

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The Siècle history podcast @thesiecle.com · 04/07/2026

NEW EPISODE: @ageofnapoleon.bsky.social, Will from Grey History and I sit down *on camera* to talk about connections between France and the early American Republic:

youtu.be

What France should have learned from the United States

YouTube video by The Siècle

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