Nancy Mitford describes how Louis XV never talked politics out of the Council Chamber. Hunting was his only distraction until Madame de Pompadour introduced him to “plans and designs ... bibelots and stuffs ... gaiety and lightness.”
Julian Piggott, former British Commissioner in Cologne, tells the story, as he witnessed it, of the French attempt in 1923 to create a buffer state on their eastern frontier. The first part of this articles can be found here.
J.M. Thompson reveals a remarkable set of late 18th century letters, penned by an enthusiastic female supporter of the French Revolution.
Crispin Andrews finds echoes of one of Sherlock Holmes’ most celebrated mysteries in a tale of 18th-century France.
Sally White recalls the efforts of the British League of Help, launched in the wake of the First World War by Lilias, Countess Bathurst, to raise funds to support devastated areas of France.
For a few years an impoverished barrister became one of the most effective orators and journalists of the French Revolution, writes John Hartcup.
Charles Johnston describes how, during the latter half of the fourth century, one of the last of the Roman poets was appointed by Valentinian I, Emperor of the West, to undertake the education of his hopeful son Gratian.
Joanna Richardson relates how, as Préfet de la Seine from 1853 until 1870, Haussmann superintended the rebuilding and enlargement of Paris.
The King of Aragon was deeply involved in the religious wars of the thirteenth century in south-western France, writes Jan Read.
Joanna Richardson finds that Anatole France's politics, like his private life, remained unorthodox, but the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s changed his literary life.
