Sep 16, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min · 14 segments
Who was Lieutenant Napier, the man set out to rescue the European hostages held by Emperor Tewodros II? How did he plan to attack the emperor’s fortress, Magdala? And, did they manage to successfully…
Dominic SandbrookHost
Tom HollandHost
And Dominic, this is ultimately, it's a British imperial version of the Iranian hostage crisis, isn't it?
And if only Jimmy Carter had paid attention to the lesson that could have been learnt from, uh, from our glorious boys in 1868, the way that they solved the problem of, uh, uh, hostages in the hands of an unfriendly regime.
I'm not sure his knowledge of, uh, Victorian imperial history is as good as it should be.
I mean, one of the, one of the flaws, he spent too much time fighting rabbits.
The key, as far as I can tell, is to ha- is to, um, involve railways and elephants.
And he has taken a group of Europeans hostage, so most of the missionaries, but also to remind people, the British consul, uh, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron, and the Foreign Office's, uh, agent, Hormuzd Rassam, and he's holding them in his mountaintop lair, his citadel of Magdala.
And the hostages have been smuggling out these increasingly desperate messages, uh, reporting that Tewodros is descending into insanity and basically begging the Foreign Office to use force.
And Lord Derby is a proper Victorian grandee, formerly a Whig, now a Conservative, incredibly rich.
He's sort of Victorian politics bingo, and he runs the country in cahoots with his sort of ally in the Commons, Benjamin Disraeli.
He was the, um, the longest-serving conservative political leader ever, um, 22 years.
He was Prime Minister multiple times, but only for very short spells, yeah.
And Dominic, this is ultimately, it's a British imperial version of the Iranian hostage crisis, isn't it?
And if only Jimmy Carter had paid attention to the lesson that could have been learnt from, uh, from our glorious boys in 1868, the way that they solved the problem of, uh, uh, hostages in the hands of an unfriendly regime.
I'm not sure his knowledge of, uh, Victorian imperial history is as good as it should be.
I mean, one of the, one of the flaws, he spent too much time fighting rabbits.
The key, as far as I can tell, is to ha- is to, um, involve railways and elephants.
And he has taken a group of Europeans hostage, so most of the missionaries, but also to remind people, the British consul, uh, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron, and the Foreign Office's, uh, agent, Hormuzd Rassam, and he's holding them in his mountaintop lair, his citadel of Magdala.
And the hostages have been smuggling out these increasingly desperate messages, uh, reporting that Tewodros is descending into insanity and basically begging the Foreign Office to use force.
And Lord Derby is a proper Victorian grandee, formerly a Whig, now a Conservative, incredibly rich.
He's sort of Victorian politics bingo, and he runs the country in cahoots with his sort of ally in the Commons, Benjamin Disraeli.
He was the, um, the longest-serving conservative political leader ever, um, 22 years.
He was Prime Minister multiple times, but only for very short spells, yeah.
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