Napoleon: Saint, Sinner or Both?
Robert Gildea examines the enduring and divisive debate surrounding the reputation of the French emperor who anticipated the best and the worst of the 20th century.
History Today
The Texture of the Somme, 1916
Disastrous battle raged on the Somme from July until November, 1916; John Terraine describes how it marked the ‘ruddy grave’ of the German field army.
The Sultan’s Clock-Organ, 1599
Lansing Collins describes how, in honour of a previous gift sent in the other direction, Elizabeth I presented Sultan Mohammed III with an elaborate clock, surmounted by singing birds that shook their wings.
The Spanish Sickness
Geoffrey Treasure describes how the imperial policies of Charles V and Philip II declined in the seventeenth century and Spain entered an extended period of depression.
The Spanish Blue Division
For nearly three years, 45,000 Spanish soldiers served under German command on the Russian front. By Gerald R. Kleinfeld and Lewis A. Tambs.
The Seven Churches of Asia
James Marshall-Cornwall describes how Christianity was spread across modern Turkey during the first century AD.
The Rule of the Nine in Siena
Between 1285 and 1355, writes Judith Hook, the turbulent Sienese enjoyed a period of unaccustomed peace.
The Rise of Wessex
After the Romans left and the Anglo-Saxons arrived, the south-west of England became the predominant kingdom. William Seymour traces the growth of the Kingdom of Wessex from the early sixth century.
The Rise and Fall of Mr Nicks, East India Company Servant in Madras
Margaret Martyn documents the troubles of a seventeenth century British trader, after twenty years in India.
The Ridolfi Plot, 1571
The failure of the Plot, writes Cyril Hamshere, forms a complex story of espionage and counter-espionage; its events caused Elizabeth I to give up all ideas of restoring Mary Queen of Scots to the Scottish throne.