Napoleonic Era

Harold Kurtz describes how, ordered by Louis XVIII to arrest Napoleon on his return from Elba in 1815, Marshal Ney went over to his former master.

Though originally seen as ‘monstrous excrescences of nature’, Ronald Rees writes, mountains came into their own during the eighteenth century and began to inspire poetic awe and reverence.

John Terraine observes how the British and French fleets crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic three months before Trafalgar.

John Terraine describes how, in the months before Trafalgar, the French Fleet from Toulon was ordered to the West Indies, but Nelson was convinced that their real aim was Egypt.

In 1871 Parisians watched the burning of one of their most ancient palaces; and, Philip Mansel writes, twelve years later, its ruins were sold and demolished.

Anthony Bonner traces the route taken by a Spaniard, from Barcelona, who set out on his long journey throughorth Africa to Mecca with the backing of Manuel Godoy.

John Villiers describes the rich exchange of artistic ideas between Europe and the Far East during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. 

‘There is a middle state’, Landor once said, ‘between love and friendship, more delightful than either, but more difficult to remain in.’ Such was the affectionate association that the Duke and Lady Shelley long enjoyed, writes Prudence Hannay

Both Don Carlos in 1568 and Don Ferdinand in 1807 were accused by their fathers of conspiracy to usurp the throne of Spain, as Douglas Hilt finds here.

Prompted by news of a French defeat in 1809, the British Government launched an offensive expedition against the Low Countries which ended in gallant failure. By Anthony Brett-James.