Michael Srigley

Frost Fair on the Thames, with Old London Bridge in the distance, unknown artist, c. 1684. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

The Great Frost Fair of 1683-4

For nearly 400 years, London's citizens poured down from the streets to hold a frost fair upon the solid ice of the Thames.

The Death of Charles XII of Sweden

Michael Srigley describes how, on November 30th, 1718, one of the foremost soldiers of the age was shot while besieging a fortress in Norway. Did he succumb to a stray bullet, or was he assassinated?