Trousers Down, and Present the S**t (Weddings week) - That Was Genius Episode 67

A happy marriage of history and 'comedy'*? It must be weddings week!        *in the loosest sense. 

Sam starts us off this week with a look at the bizarre and ridiculous marriage of Elisabeth Pallier and Pierre Houlbronne, two 16th Century lovebirds who were married once happily, married once by force (including a jail sentence), and after all that, divorced by Pierre's parents against the not-so-happy couples will.

Next, Tom takes a look at the equally unromantic and slightly barbarous marriage practices of ancient Sparta. It turns out they weren't just tough on their enemies; wives and bachelors got a rough deal too.

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Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.

Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history and used to live in New Zealand but is now in the UK as well), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.

From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.

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