England

Heralds of the College of Arms

A.L. Rowse analyses heraldry as an essential element in the social history of England in the later middle ages and early modern period.

The Noble Lady and the Player

In the early eighteenth century, writes Robert Halsband, the marriage of an aristocratic young widow and a Drury Lane singer caused violent surprise among her friends.

The Art of the Tomb

Elizabeth Linscott describes how English churches and cathedrals, from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, abound in memorial effigies to the distinguished dead.

Roman Lincoln

J.B. Whitwell describes how a series of excavations since the Second World War has revealed much important detail about Lindum Colonia.

Ossington and the Denisons

Richard Wilson describes how, at Ossington, within a period of fifty years, a wealthy Yorkshire merchant family joined the ranks of the Georgian upper classes.

The Siege of Bourg, 1406

J.L. Kirby describes an episode in the long struggle of the English Kings to keep their fiefs as Dukes of Aquitaine.

Defoe’s Tour and the Historian

F. Bastian finds that in composing his lively Tour, Defoe drew upon memories of journeys he had actually made and also upon the writings of earlier observers.

Charles II and the Treaty of Dover, 1670

The secret treaty of Dover, which concluded with the diplomatic aid of the King’s sister, Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, has been much denounced by Whig historians. A.A. Mitchell asks, what is the truth about the King’s intentions?