Feature

Perfumes and sweet scents affect our sense of smell, but their true realm is that of the imagination.

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 offered an opportunity for the ambitions of a well-connected group of Puritan politicians and businessmen. The result was civil war.

The conflict that broke out between France and an ambitious new German state 150 years ago can lay claim to be the first modern war.

The French tradition of the royal mistress gave new opportunities for women at the court of Charles II.

The concept of terra nullius has long been at the heart of explanations of why the British did not treat with Aboriginal people following Cook’s arrival in Australia. But should it be?

Brutality, corruption and abuses of power in the Metropolitan Police at the turn of the 20th century led to an inquiry – but no reform.

A British public relations company in cahoots with sympathetic MPs was unable to whitewash the military regime that seized power in Greece in 1967.

When Henry VIII and Francis I met 12 years after the Field of Cloth of Gold – with Henry accompanied by Anne Boleyn – both sought to outdo one another with exquisite items of display.

Five hundred years ago, in a spirit of rivalry and cooperation, two young Renaissance monarchs asserted their power and authority at one of the last great demonstrations of the chivalric age.