France

Philip IV had every Templar arrested on October 13th, 1307.

Mark Bryant looks at the way caricaturists viewed the scandal engulfing France at the end of the 19th century.

Hanna Diamond examines the mixed experiences of the French men and women of every social class who fled their homes in the mass exodus from the Nazis in 1940, and those who took them in.

R.J. Knecht looks at the ­practical considerations behind the smooth operation of the huge courts of the Valois kings of France.

On January 5th, 1757, Robert-Francois Damiens attempted to assassinate Louis XV.

Richard Wilkinson, Louis XIV’s new biographer, searches for the real Sun King.

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of a great fortress being sacked, on August 15th, 1209.

Martin Evans looks at the events of 1956 and the French war on terror, both at home and elsewhere, and how this was a turning point for French fortunes in the Algerian War of Independence.

The life and career of one of the most vilified men in history.

Charles Stephenson introduces a plan for chemical warfare in the Napoleonic navy, devised by Thomas Cochrane, Lord Dundonald, the model for Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey.