History Today

Before the British Empire and the Atlantic slave trade, Africans lived freely in Tudor England.

The pain of war had at least one positive side-effect: medical advances in haematology.

The grand funeral of Anne of Cleves, the neglected fourth queen of Henry VIII, took place during the reign of Mary Tudor, when English Catholicism was resurgent.

At the beginning of the 20th century the Great Powers competed for the right to extract the vast oil reserves around the Iraqi city of Mosul. The motivation – and prize – was energy security. 

The development of interior painting schemes has a colourful, if hazardous, history.

A monumental work provides an architectural and topographical survey of Rome from its foundation until the century after the fall of its Empire.

In the Industrial Revolution, state intervention, protectionism and immigration were all adopted by successive governments to promote British manufacturing.

Attempts to unify a diverse continent require subtlety and respect. 

While best known as the author of The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli played an important if unlikely role in the history of music.