Early Modern (16th-18thC)

Shakespeare was born into an England rejoicing in the peace and prospects of a new reign, but anxious about the future, writes Joel Hurstfield.

Long a diplomatic agent for Louis XV, D’Eon spent the last thirty-three years of an ambiguous life in woman's dress. Edna Nixon investigates this bizarre case of early modern espionage.

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?

George Woodcock describes how, in opposition to Portuguese, Dutch and British intruders, the highland kingdom of Kandy in Ceylon flourished under a succession of Buddhist rulers almost until the year of Waterloo.

E.G. Dunning finds that traditional football was a game with few rules, played riotously through the streets and across country. The nineteenth century saw its evolution on the playing fields of the public schools into the two main forms we know today.

I.F. Clarke describes how the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of popular predictive fiction that attempted, in terms of politics or science, to forecast the life of later centuries.

Stephanie Plowman examines the letters exchanged between Pitt the Younger and his radical brother-in-law, Lord Stanhope.

Elizabeth Wiskemann finds that the German students’ societies have played an unusual and a characteristic part in the history of modern Germany, and yet one which their mysterious rites and code of honour have obscured, even among their compatriots.

Michael Roberts examines the end of the reign of a Swedish monarch of "natural genius".

John Carswell introduces George Bubb Dodington; a man of pleasure; an indefatigable careerist; and an industrious and successful politician.

For 444 years Goa has been ruled by the Portuguese; today their rule is challenged by the Republic of India. By C.R. Boxer.

John Carswell analyses some of the foremost political actors in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Sir Lewis Namier examines the British Parliamentary groupings of the country gentlemen and their reactions to the movements of public opinion during the years 1750-1783.