Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is one of the celebrated adventurers of all time. But was he really a paragon of chivalry and bravery – or a traitor, tyrant, and failure?

2022 marks the five hundredth anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe – and in the twenty-first century he is still lauded as one of the greatest heroes of the age of discovery, his name immortalised in the Straits that bear his name.

Now, renowned historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto joins us to offer a stranger and darker account that this romantic myth, revealing the truth about Magellan’s life, character and ill-fated voyage.

Drawing on extensive, meticulous research, Felipe will show that Magellan did not attempt – much less accomplish – a journey around the globe, and that in his own lifetime, the explorer was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant and dismissed as a failure.

Felipe will explore the passions and tensions that drove Magellan to adventure and drew him to disaster: the pride that became arrogance, daring that became recklessness, and determination that became ruthlessness. As the real Magellan emerges, so will his real ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold.