History Today

Robert Rhodes James analyses the controversy over Parliamentary procedure that helped to precipitate the General Election in which Gladstone went down to defeat.

In the autumn of 1792, as Lamartine wrote, the “national heart of France seemed to beat in Danton’s breast.” Eighteen months later, writes Maurice Hutt, Danton went to the scaffold, crying: “Show my head to the people; it is well worth it!”

 “I am a Jingo in the best acceptation of that sobriquet... To see England great is my highest aspiration, and to lead in contributing to that greatness is my only real ambition.” By Edgar Holt. 

An able and victorious commander in North America during the Seven Years War, Amherst three times refused to return to the scene of his triumphs. Rex Whitworth seeks the explanation of the Field Marshal's conduct.

For over 400 years, writes Oliver Warner, the Sovereigns of Denmark exacted dues from all ships using the Sounds at the entrance to the Baltic Sea.

David Mitchell introduces the Italian Romantic poet who played a brief part upon the European political stage.

At a low point in his fortunes, the Liberator sent an emissary to recruit troops in London. Philip Ziegler describes how their achievements were of various importance, but the flame of Simón Bolivar’s British Legion lives on.

A reformer of law and critic of society, writes Lionel Kochan, Radishchev emerges as a founding figure in the liberal tradition of the Russian intelligentsia.

A collateral relation of the famous diarist met with some alarming experiences in Dr. Johnson’s company during the 1780s, writes D. Pepys Whiteley.

Captain Boycott, whose name has added a word to the English language, was accepted as a symbol of the landlord class in troubled Ireland. By T.H. Corfe.