History Today

Four hundred years ago, writes Antonia Fraser, the young Queen of Scots, then struggling to hold her own against her factious nobles, saw a favourite servant butchered at her feet.

Cecil Parrott describes how the elderly monarch from a Christmas carol was based on the character of a young and vigorous sovereign, assassinated on his birthday by his own brother.

Geoffrey Keynes describes how the reception accorded to Harvey’s great book in 1628 proved him to have a creative genius that could leap ahead of his contemporaries.

Sarah Searight describes how the Levant Company, which had received its first charter from Elizabeth I, did not surrender its monopolistic hold over trade with the Middle East until the reign of George IV.

C.E. Hamshere describes how the famous Pirate-Governor of Jamaica helped to bring to an end Spanish control of the Caribbean Sea.

Judith Mason describes how, in February 1525, Francis I of France was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia by an Imperial army, led by his rebellious subject the Constable of Bourbon, who later launched an attack upon the Holy City.

Though the massacre of captives aboard the British slave ship Zong scandalised society, the pace of reform was slow.

Prudence Hannay introduces Lady Granville, the younger daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She bridges the gulf between two very different social periods. Brought up among the most dashing personalities of ‘the Devonshire House set’, she died in the great age of mid-Victorian respectability.

G.W.S. Barrow describes how, 260 years ago, the Scottish people made a difficult but necessary choice.

When David Garrick, the most distinguished actor of his day, organised a splendid festival in honour of our greatest dramatist, writes Carola Oman, everything favoured him except the weather.