Netherlands

Diamonds and the Holocaust

As Jewish lapidaries were held in Nazi concentration camps, diamond sales soared in the US. Both sides saw gemstones as integral to the war effort. 

The Siege of Haarlem

Elka Schrijver describes the dramatic and bloody events of a sixteenth century siege of the Dutch city by a Habsburg army of Philip II.

The Coast of Lost Treasure

W. Charnley describes how, on their route to the East Indies in the seventeenth century, the Dutch first came into dramatic contact with the mysterious Great South Land that is now Australia.

Shipwrecks of Dutch East Indiamen

Off the Shetlands and along the English Channel, writes C.R. Boxer, Dutch East-Indiamen, wrecked by storm, are now being carefully salvaged.

The Walcheren Failure, Part II

Widespread fever followed military sloth, writes Antony Brett-James, and the fiasco on Walcheren brought down the tottering British Government.

The First War Artist

Julia Jones examines The career of Willem van de Velde the Elder, the first official war artist.

The London Austin Friars

The Friars Hermits of St Augustine founded their London house in 1253. L.W. Cowie describes how, after the Reformation, it became the Dutch Protestant Church.