A Test Case for Tolerance
Jean Calas was sentenced to be broken on the wheel in front of the cathedral in Toulouse, on 10 March 1762.
France
Heirs and Spares
It was not easy to be the second son. The younger brothers of the French kings could choose either to rebel or reconcile, but neither option was straightforward.
We are Family
From alliances, to open warfare; from tense meetings on bridges, to collective mourning at family funerals: French and English royalty were united by marriage and divided by war.
A Worthy Cause?
During the Franco-Prussian War a British wine merchant was imprisoned in Cologne, accused of being a spy. The public clamoured for the government to secure his release, but wartime diplomacy was not so straightforward.
An Acceptable Hero
Josephine Baker’s induction into the Pantheon is both a cause for celebration and a prompt to explore France’s progressive values.
A Rebel with Every Cause
The extraordinary insurrections of Gustave Paul Cluseret.
Facing the Terror: a Witness to the French Revolution
The recently discovered chronicle of an opinionated, elderly aristocrat provides a vivid portrayal of Paris during the most febrile days of the French Revolution.
Napoleon: Two Centuries of Life after Death
Revolutionary soldier or tyrannical emperor? The question is as pertinent now as when Bonaparte died in exile on remote Saint Helena in 1821.
The Battle of St Louis
Saint or sinner? Recent demonstrations in the American city of St. Louis are just the latest battle for the legacy of a medieval French king.
The Culinary Enlightenment
The belief that you are what you eat emerged in 19th-century France, where the pleasures of the table were sautéed with philosophy and medicine.