History Today

J.L. Kirby examines how the 15th-century records of Thomas Hoccleve, Robert Fry and Thomas Broket illustrate the workings of modern civil service in its infancy.

G.R. Batho introduces Henry Percy, the “Wizard Earl”, a man of great gifts and eccentric character who proved a quarrelsome husband and a difficult and unaccommodating parent.

George Woodcock describes how the destruction of the Inca economy brought untold suffering to their former subjects; and there were many Indian revolts, brutally crushed by the Spaniard, during the course of the next two centuries.

Christopher Hill introduces Roger Crab, former Cromwellian soldier and hatter of Chesham, who took literally the text: “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” Vegetarian, teetotal, celibate, he led the life of a hermit. This is the first of two studies in 17th-century eccentricity.

Despite its isolation from the mainstream of human development, Basil Davidson writes, African society before the coming of the Europeans was neither savage nor stagnant.

Both before and after the fall of the Republic, Roman satirists give us an extraordinarily vivid picture of the society in which they lived, with its materialism, its opportunism, its unceasing pursuit of power and wealth.

Deryck Abel reflects on a crucial figure in the dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III, which in turn led to the issuing of Magna Carta in 1215.

A.H. Burne analyses the key factors that led to what would be a major victory in the Hundred Years' War.

In the second part of his series, Charles Seltman focuses on the life of Pythagoras in Italy and how he became one of the greatest thinkers and most remarkable men in history.