History Today

Leonard W. Cowie visits this splendid structure, which Inigo Jones began to raise for King James I in 1619, and which is still one of London’s most perfectly proportioned buildings.

William Gardener describes how, since the first century A.D. rhubarb was known to the Romans as a panacea for internal ailments, and imported from China.

Peter Partner describes how resentment against the exile of the Papacy in Avignon led to the ‘War of the Eight Saints’ in 1375 by the ‘Guelf’ cities of Italy.

Howard Shaw describes how, during the reign of the Virgin Queen, offices, wardships, pensions, leases, monopolies and titles of honour were distributed to the servants of the Crown.

B.G. Gokhale takes us on a visit to Surat, where the English adventure in India began.

Harold F. Hutchison describes how the tastes and affections of King Edward II were disgusting to the medieval orthodoxy of monks and barons.

In the year 30 BC one of the most remarkable women who have ever lived, Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt, perished by her own hand.

J.H.M. Salmon asserts that René Descartes and Blaise Pascal stand out from other men of letters of their era due to the enduring relevance of their lives and works.

S.G.F. Brandon traces development from the fourth century in Christian art to Holman Hunt and Graham Sutherland.

J.J. Saunders describes how a Persian servant of the Mongol Khans wrote the first truly global history.