History Today

The Social Decline of Bath

David J. Jeremy writes that from the moment of Beau Nash’s quitting the scene of his power and pride, corruptions and relaxations crept, insensibly, into his formal and elaborate system of public punctilio.

Persia and Persepolis, Part I

George Woodcock describes how, towards the end of the seventh century BC, the Persians first began to establish themselves as a rising power in the Middle East.

The Origin of Religion in Theory and Archaeology

S.G.F. Brandon describes how the earliest representatives of mankind were concerned with three fundamental problems— birth, death and the supply of food—which they attempted to solve by magico-religious means.

Sixteenth-Century Travellers

J.B. James describes how travelling was an occupation that, although they believed it had a good effect on the character, most sixteenth-century Englishmen found singularly unenjoyable.

The Enterprise of Ulster

In the mid 1570s, writes R.C. Morton, the plantation and settlement of Ulster were undertaken by the Elizabethan Government.

The Emperor Henry IV, 1056-1106

Peter Munz describes how the reign of Henry IV was marked by the famous struggle with the Papacy, wars with his German nobles and family tension with his sons.

Malaria and the Six Cinchona Trees

Malaria was one of the scourges of the British Indian Empire. William Gardener writes how a remedy was at last provided by the introduction of a South-American tree.

The Emperor Henry III

Peter Munz finds that the eleventh-century Holy Roman Emperor was one of those rare rulers who took the ethics of their calling literally.

The Murder of Darnley

Antonia Fraser describes how no murder in the course of history has aroused more argument than the assassination of the Queen of Scots’ husband at Kirk o’Field on the night of February 9th, 1567.