France

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.

In 1453 the Duke of Burgundy and his knights dramatically pledged themselves to crusade against the Turkhut with many face-saving qualifications. By Dorothy Margaret Stuart.

F.M.H. Markham profiles Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, the French political theorist and early advocate for a centralised, technocratic society.

The French chanteur was born on May 18th, 1913.

Roger Hudson explains a moment of panic on the streets of the newly liberated French capital.

The civil war between Roman Catholics and Huguenots reached a brief peace on March 19th, 1563.

A discussion between Napoleon, exiled in St. Helena, and Henry Ellis, returning with Lord Amherst’s embassy to China, about England's international standing.

Following his disastrous Russian campaign, the emperor of France needed money quickly. The desperate measures he took are revealed by Noelle Plack.

'The War Song for the Army of the Rhine' was composed and first sung at Strasbourg some months before it was adopted by the citizens of Marseilles.

No monument of Christian architecture is more celebrated than the Cathedral of Chartres. Peter Quennell here traces both the origins of the great church and the effect it has exercised on succeeding generations.

An acute commentator on the French Revolution and on the development of the United States, Tocqueville foresaw a century ago many of the political and social problems that face democracy today. Gordon Philo introduces his life and career.

James Kinross tells the story of the French Foreign Legion, a force famous for fighting in Africa, Russia, Mexico, Indo-China and France itself, as well as across the world.

R.V. Sampson charts the philosophical battles that the philosophes fought to publish their Enlightenment masterwork of human knowledge.