History Matters

European mariners in the Atlantic in the 16th century used a reliable navigational aid: seabirds.

In the 19th century Russian peddlers became a scapegoat in Finland’s resistance against the tsar’s empire.

Over the course of the 19th century snake oil transformed from folk remedy, to industrial medicine, to notorious fake.

The sinking of the White Ship was a disaster for England’s King Henry I, but it was also felt deeply by his subjects.

Elizabeth I’s brief illness made the question of the succession top priority for William Cecil and the Privy Council.

Anglo-Saxon noblewomen took shelter from the invading Normans in nunneries. Did that make them brides of Christ?

Although the reception was not always warm, the English East India Company made several attempts to trade in Japan in the 17th century.

The murder of a priest, Jerzy Popiełuszko, in 1980s Poland exposed the cracks in the communist regime.

Colonists had contrasting views on the Jamestown famine. How severe was it really?

How likely is it that Alfred the Great sent two emissaries to India in the ninth century?