The Cult of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor, the last truly Anglo-Saxon king of England, became an embodiment of pacific and idealistic medieval kingship under Henry III. Why?
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The Battle of St Albans, 1455
The Battle of St Albans is now seen to mark the start of the Wars of the Roses. Was it the violent conclusion of one political crisis, rather than the beginning of another?
How the Miners’ Strike Was Lost
Was Margaret Thatcher’s government close to defeat during the dark days of the miners’ strike of 1984-85?
Why the Light Brigade Charged
The fatalist view of the Light Brigade’s charge towards the Russian guns at Balaclava is being challenged. They had their reasons why.
Coming to Terms with the Past: Northern Ireland
Richard English argues that historians have a practical and constructive role to play in today’s Ulster.
History With the Boring Bits Put Back
Terry Jones, former Python, describes how a perverse fascination with the boring bits of Chaucer converted him from being a clown into a historian of the 14th century.
Felice Orsini: Striking a Blow for Freedom?
The consequences of Felice Orsini’s assassination attempt on Napoleon III were momentous and paradoxical.
Wallis Simpson and the Divorce Law
Did the British government suppress evidence that might have prevented Wallis Simpson’s divorce? Edward VIII’s marriage prompted changes to the law, but did it also break it?
The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215
Ralph V. Turner considers how and why Magna Carta became a beacon of liberty in Britain and, increasingly, in the United States.
Britons in the Great Fire of Moscow
Some British and Irish-born Muscovites waited out Napoleon’s invasion of 1812, surviving both the French army and the five-day inferno.