History Today

‘Of all the arts, the art of medicine is the most distinguished,’ declared Hippocrates, who first released it from the shackles of magic and religion. 

Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson describes the failure of the unfortunate Pretender’s first attempt to invade Scotland.

The English seventeenth century was an Age of Anxiety; Iris Macfarlane describes how Oliver Heywood and other devout spirits sought refuge in religious faith.

Harold Kurtz analyses Spanish predominance in the sixteenth-century West Indies.

During the second half of the seventeenth century, writes Robert Bruce, France hoped to dominate Siam and convert its sovereign to the Christian faith.

Stephen Usher describes how Athens might have kept her empire, had she been able to harness the talents of her splendid citizen Alcibiades.

Despite his shortcomings, writes Colin Davies, the great orator served his city with unselfish zeal; sensitiveness, determination and humanity characterized both Cicero's public and private life.

J. LaVerne Anderson describes how the post of British Ambassador to the rulers of France has been a difficult assignment, and not only in the eighteenth century.

S.J. Ingram & G.A. Rothrock investigate the King’s delight in his many children, legitimate or otherwise.

Anthony Bryer takes a visit to Nicaea; The seat of early Church Councils and, for a while, of the Byzantine Emperors, it has a history stretching from the reign of Alexander the Great to the present day.