France

Charles Stephenson introduces a plan for chemical warfare in the Napoleonic navy, devised by Thomas Cochrane, Lord Dundonald, the model for Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code both drew from pseudohistory linking France’s Merovingian dynasty to the bloodline of Jesus Christ.

Peter Furtado on one of the most traumatic places in British military history.

In welcoming a new publication of the collected numbers of The Wipers Times, Malcolm Brown wonders why we find the idea of humour in the trenches so shocking.

Monarchs claim to be surrounded by an aura of majesty. Cartoon historian Mark Bryant examines some famous incidents when a caricaturist’s pen punctured this aura and revealed the lack of a sense of humour in high places.

Richard Vinen ponders the political significance of two of France’s most potent female icons and finds there is more to them than meets the eye.

Richard Ballard looks at how events in the opening years of the French Revolution took shape in a town three days’ journey from Paris.

Simon Kitson explores the prevalence of spying for and against the Nazis in southern France after the German invasion.

The greatest battle of Napoleon’s career took place on December 2nd, 1805. Although it is often called the Battle of the Three Emperors, Michael Adams sees it as a very personal clash between two men struggling for the mastery of Europe.

The future Queen of France was born on November 2nd, 1755