Original release 25 février 2014
Previous episode S07E15 - Gayatri Devi, une princesse au pays des maharadjahs
Number S08E01
Episode runtime 116 minutes
Country France
Original language French
Genres Documentary, History
External links TheTVDB page
IMDB page
TheMovieDB page
Last update 23 octobre 2026 - 05:37
on 11 databases

Nicolas II, le dernier tsar de Russie

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Stéphane Bern fait découvrir les somptueux palais de Saint-Pétersbourg pour évoquer l'histoire de l'empereur Nicolas II, héritier de la dynastie des Romanov. Au début du XXe siècle, Nicolas II a beau être le monarque le plus puissant de la planète, il se croit né sous une mauvaise étoile. Ce grand ami de la France rêve de bien faire mais, d'attentats en fiascos militaires, son règne est jalonné de catastrophes. Une seule chose compte vraiment à ses yeux : réussir sa vie avec Alix, la femme fragile et angoissée dont il est très amoureux, et qui lui a donné cinq enfants charmants. Alexis, l'héritier du trône, est atteint d'une maladie incurable et l'impératrice s'entiche d'un étrange guérisseur aux allures de gourou, le tristement célèbre Raspoutine.

BetaSeries' opinion

Secrets d'histoire Season 20 Finale: Stéphane Bern's Messalina Episode Ends a Season About Reputations on Trial

Twenty seasons in, "Secrets d'histoire" can still surprise its audience. The Season 20 finale aired on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, and Stéphane Bern closed the season with one of the most notorious women of antiquity: Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. If you watched it, you already know it was more than a parade of Roman scandal. It was a careful re-examination of a woman whose name has been shorthand for depravity for almost two thousand years. If you haven't caught up yet, this debrief shows why the episode, and the whole season, deserves a place in your watchlist.

A finale that puts history's verdict on trial

The question at the centre of the finale was simple: does Messalina deserve the brutal nickname history gave her? Roman writers handed down a woman driven by insatiable desire and a hunger for power. Bern's team took that portrait apart piece by piece. They asked who wrote the story, why they wrote it, and what they gained from it. This is the series at its best. It doesn't simply retell a legend. It looks into how the legend was made. Messalina's world gave the episode plenty of drama: Caligula, Nero, Agrippina and the freedman Narcissus all appear, each with their own agenda in the deadly politics of the Julio-Claudian court. Without spoiling anything for latecomers, the finale's real emotional pull comes from the gap between the caricature and the young woman caught up in a machine much bigger than she was.

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