History Today

M. Foster Farley describes how, during his five years in the Vatican, Nicholas Breakspear had important dealings with the Holy Roman Empire, England and Ireland, and the Norman kingdom of Sicily.

C.R. Boxer describe show, three centuries ago, the great Dutch commander was mortally wounded in battle off the coast of Sicily.

A.L. Rowse pays tribute to the founding editors of History Today magazine.

Larry Gragg describes how Franklin wrote to Whitefield: ‘He used to pray for my conversion but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard’.

John Wroughton describes how the Prince of Wales and his Oxford tutor paid two agreeable visits to Germany in 1913, from which he returned with a warm affection for the German people.

Patrick Turnbull describes how, during the two months that preceded his abdication at Fontainebleau, Napoleon performed ‘prodigies of genius’.

Andrew Allen describes how the toad owes its relationship with witchcraft to the virulent poisons that its warty skin produces.

During the seventh century AD a Celestial Emperor’s concubine herself became Empress; in effect, she ruled China for 50 years.

John R. Guy introduces the soldier, churchman, and Royalist Fellow of New College who served Russia and Sweden during Cromwell’s years of power, and who returned to post-Restoration Britain to become a prominent parson in the Church of Wales.