History Today

Michael Grant describes how, during the Roman and Byzantine ages, the co-existence of good and evil in the world led to a variety of dualist religious beliefs.

Ian Grey profiles General Patrick Gordon, Scotsman of such standing in Imperial Russia that he received a state funeral upon his death, in which the Tsar himself marched on foot.

George A. Rothrock describes how the age of Enlightenment was eager for secular, rational explanations of the world, and welcomed the scepticism of Diderot’s contributors.

Christopher Hollis asserts that few societies of the Roman Catholic Church have exercised a more powerful influence than the Jesuits, both in Europe and overseas. Founded in 1540, suppressed in 1773, they were officially restored in 1814.

C.R. Boxer describes how one of the Dutch Indiamen carrying pieces of eight to the East Indies was fatally wrecked off the western coast of Australia in 1656.

Richard Wilson describes how, at Ossington, within a period of fifty years, a wealthy Yorkshire merchant family joined the ranks of the Georgian upper classes.

Margaret Wade Labarge describes how, in 1247, having resolved to set out on a crusade, the pious King of France organized a new body of officials to help him put the affairs of his realm in order by investigating any complaints against himself or those who served him.

Towards the end of the fourth century, writes David Jones, a Spanish emperor from Britain and his Welsh empress held their spendid court in a city on the Moselle.

J.L. Kirby describes an episode in the long struggle of the English Kings to keep their fiefs as Dukes of Aquitaine.

F. Bastian finds that in composing his lively Tour, Defoe drew upon memories of journeys he had actually made and also upon the writings of earlier observers.