England

Portrait of Hipólito da Costa holding a copy of the Correio Braziliense, c.1810. Acervo do Ministério das Relações Exteriores - Coordenação-Geral de Patrimônio Histórico (CGPH/MRE). Public Domain.

The Free Brazilian Press

Brazil’s first newspaper was published from London by an exiled Freemason on first-name terms with British royalty. Who was Hipólito da Costa and what was his news?

Study for a satirical print against the Jewish Naturalisation Act, by Louis Philippe Boitard, 1753. Trustees of the British Museum.

Immoral Panic: Antisemitism in Georgian England

In 1753 the journey of a minor Jewish naturalisation Act through Parliament prompted an outsized furore.

Calendar miniature for July showing haymaking, from a book of hours illustrated by Simon Bening, France, 1510-25. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

The Meadows of Medieval Summer

Chaucer’s meadows are romantic landscapes of leisurely frolicking. But for medieval haymakers July meant a month of hard graft.

Gin Lane by William Hogarth, 1751. Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. Public Domain.

End of the Gin Craze

The Gin Act of 25 June 1751 finally succeeded where previous legislation had failed and banished ‘Madam Genever’ from Georgian London.

Coronation of the young Henry, 1170. English manuscript, 13th century. Bridgeman Images..

Henry the Young King is Crowned

On 14 June 1170 Henry II crowned his successor. Rather than secure the Angevin realm, it set the stage for rebellion.

Miniature of Mary, Queen of Scots wearing a crucifix, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578-79.

Making a Martyr of Mary, Queen of Scots

Even when she was imprisoned, Mary, Queen of Scots carefully curated her Catholic image.

Tobacco box with royal arms of Great Britain, c.1679-97. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘This Little World’ and ‘A Golden World’ review

Two recent books – This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England by Nandini Das and A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England by Lauren Working – put 16th- and 17th-century England on the map.

Portrait of a man in a fur-trimmed coat holding a letter, Italian painter, c.1540. Metropolitain Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘Huguenot Networks’ by Penny Roberts review

Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe by Penny Roberts reveals the clandestine cross-border contacts of Huguenot spies, diplomats, and scholars.