England

Libraries for All

Early modern parish libraries, frequently established for the benefit of the general public, were often deliberately inaccessible.

The French Connection

The aim of Charles I’s foreign policy was to restore his nephew’s lands in the Rhineland. France, he thought, was the key to success. 

Take me to the Church

The medieval parish church was the meeting point of many different things, both sacred and secular.

This Is Not a Love Story

The correspondence between Mary Hamilton and the future George IV is often seen as evidence of a harmless crush in the Georgian court. It was nothing of the sort. 

Lords in the Light

The House of Lords, often in the shadow of the Commons, asserted its power during the reigns of James I and his son, Charles I. But it would be eclipsed by civil war. 

Stop Press

It is often claimed that press censorship came to an end in England at the close of the 17th century. But it persisted, thanks to an unsavoury network of government spies.

Springs Eternal

The image of Roman Bath was the creation of 18th- and 19th-century archaeologists. Only now are new perspectives revealing a more complex and accurate history of the city. 

Abbots Ascendant

William Chester Jordan’s study of one of medieval Europe’s great monastic rivalries suggests that social mobility may have been more common in the Middle Ages than historians previously thought.