History Today

One of the most extraordinary impostors ever to appear in Europe, writes James R. Knowlson, afterwards became the devout and dignified old gentleman whose friendship Samuel Johnson valued.

David Mitchell describes the life of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. In the history of the Methodist revolution an important part was played by this rich and enthusiastic lady, who devoted fifty years and much of her great fortune to the conversion of the upper classes.

A.L. Rowse introduces the legendary spirit whom generations of Cornish people heard roaring in the storm-winds. Jan Tregagle proves to have originated as an unscrupulous seventeenth-century steward.

Charles Carrington studies some of the men of state who held high office in succession, back to the sealing of the Charter at Runnymede in 1215.

Some three hundred years ago, when the English Civil War was brewing, a gifted Bohemian artist settled in London; Joseph Bradac writes that we owe much to his talents.

Under the far-sighted rule of the Five Good Emperors, writes Anthony Birley, the Roman world enjoyed a period of unexampled prosperity and peace.

Alex Keller describes how the closing years of the sixteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth marked the first period in England of important technological advance.

An international merchant, Jacques Coeur became banker to the court of Charles VII of France. By 1450, writes A.R. Myers, Couer had reached a magnificent height of prosperity

Eighteenth-century ambassadors to the Sublime Porte found little to admire in Turkey, writes Lavender Cassels, and suffered many humiliations before they reached the Sultan’s presence.

In the Elizabethan Age feminine extravagance was often satirised by English dramatists and poets. During the seventeenth century, writes Brenda Gourgey, it rose to even more fantastic heights.