The Battle of Stamford Bridge
On 25 September 1066 the ‘Viking Age’ came to a close when Harold Hardrada was slain at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
History Today
Saint Augustine: An African in the City of God
Saint Augustine was educated for a Roman world, but it was his time in North Africa that shaped his identity, his faith, and Christianity itself.
Doctor Chamberlen’s Forceps
Childbirth in the early modern period was a battleground between midwives and surgeons. The Chamberlen family of surgeons sought to reform the system with a revolutionary new tool: the forceps.
‘The Rage of Party’ by George Owers review
They go low, we go lower. The Rage of Party: How Whig Versus Tory Made Modern Britain by George Owers offers up the origins of Britain’s fractious political culture.
Written in the Stars: How Old is China?
Chinese astronomers and the European Jesuits who worked alongside them found evidence of China’s antiquity in the heavens. Others were sceptical: how old was China really?
On the Spot: Mary Beth Norton
‘What historical topic have I changed my mind on? That the Indian war then occurring to the north of Salem was crucial to the expansion and perpetuation of the witchcraft crisis.’
Slavery After Abolition: Revolt on the Amelia
The slave trade was an international criminal enterprise. In 1811 an uprising on the slaving ship Amelia off the coast of West Africa revealed a complex network spanning four continents.
‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman review
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom by David Woodman looks beyond the empty tomb to find perhaps the most consequential monarch of the Anglo-Saxon age.
Zoroastrians in the Great Game
In the early 1900s the small but influential Zoroastrian community in India contemplated establishing a colony in Iran. Could the Parsis rely on British support?
Get Out: Excommunicated in Medieval England
In 13th-century England excommunication was akin to spiritual leprosy. How did it work?