Medieval Hospitals of England
In England, medieval hospitals flourished until the beginning of the 15th century, funded by taxes, tolls, and wealthy doners.
Feature
Cyrano de Bergerac: Poet, Philosopher and Swordsman
Mildred Allen Butler offers a profile of a renowned swordsman, student of philosophy, literary critic, social satirist and story-teller; Cyrano de Bergerac expressed his views of life in his ingenious account of expeditions to the Empires of the Sun and Moon.
Cycling Eighty Years Ago
David Rubinstein describes a change in social habits when the new bicycle replaced the old Penny Farthing.
A Royal Patrimony: The Prado Museum and Spanish History
Jan Read traces how Spain's people, their royals, and their most famous museum have developed together.
How Football was Born
The enduring legacy of the sport’s pioneers.
The Case of the Slave-Ship Zong
Robert Weisbord describes the shocking events that took place on an 18th-century British slaver.
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 Years Before the Stock Exchange
Nicholas Lane examines how, during the century before the London Stock Exchange acquired a building of its own in 1773, brokers met and transacted business in the coffee houses of Exchange Alley
The Foundation of the Bank of England
Nicholas Lane discusses the reasons of business and war that led to the establishment of a national bank in London in 1694.
The Politics of Wine in 18th-century England
After the upheavals of 1688, England’s shifting social order needed new ways to define itself. A taste for fine claret became one such marker of wealth and power, as Charles Ludington explains.