History Today

The Call of the Crusades

An idea promoted by Pope Urban II at the end of the 11th century continues to resonate in modern politics. Jonathan Phillips traces the 800-year history of ‘Crusade’ and its power as a concept that shows no sign of diminishing.

What the Regicides Did For Us

Far from being the bogeymen of history, Geoffrey Robertson QC says that the English regicides were men of principle who established our modern freedoms.

The French Conquest of Algiers

How France became caught up in an unexpectedly complicated imperial adventure in 1830, eventually adding almost all of what is now Algeria to its empire.

George IV: A Sketch

Kenneth Baker looks at the foibles and achievements of one of Britain’s most controversial monarchs through the eyes of his caricaturists.

Pootering About

Peter Morton reminds us that, a century before Adrian Mole, there was Charles Pooter.

The Morrill Majority

In the twenty-eighth and final essay in this series, Daniel Snowman meets John Morrill, historian of the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell and the recurrent political instability of the ‘Atlantic Archipelago’.