England

Pioneering Royals

On June 2nd, 1953 Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey in the first coronation service to be televised. Here are more pioneering Royals.

Venus in the Face of the Sun

Nicholas Mee recalls Jeremiah Horrocks, the first astronomer to observe Venus cross in front of the Sun, whose discoveries paved the way for the achievements of Isaac Newton.

The Opium Wars

The wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60 are a perfect case study of the divergence of opinion that the British Empire continues to generate.

Yorkshire’s Luddites: At War with the Future

In 1811 skilled textile workers in Britain attacked factories and factory owners to defend their livelihoods. By the time the Luddite cause hit Yorkshire in 1812, it had become a genuine mass movement.

Painted out of History

The abdication crisis of 1937 forced a royalist magazine to present a different face to the world, as Luci Gosling reports.

The Book of Becket

The true nature of the relationship between Henry II and his ‘turbulent priest’ Thomas Becket.

Mary Tudor: Queen of Hearts

Mary Rose was the younger sister of Henry VIII. David Loades describes how this forgotten Tudor was something of a wild card.