France

The Battle of Sandwich: England's Lost Victory

A little-known encounter between the English and French navies should rank alongside Trafalgar and the defeat of the Armada.

The Poisoned Will of Jean Meslier

A French priest’s shocking attack on religion called for the fall of altars and the heads of kings.

The Limits of Nationhood

In the interwar period, France and Germany worked towards an integrated Europe.

Popular Front leader Léon Blum, by Erich Salomon, 1936. Berlin Gallery, Museum of Modern Art (CC0).

Léon Blum’s Republic of Broken Dreams

French history since the revolution has been marked by promises of progress that end in bitter failure. The election of Léon Blum’s Popular Front in 1936 was one such example.

Braille reading at the Library for the Blind, 1875. New York Public Library. Public Domain.

Louis Braille and the Night Writer

Louis Braille’s tactile reading system made literacy for the blind a reality, but he was indebted to an officer in Napoleon’s army.

Flight of fancy: Louis XVI and his family attempt to flee Paris. French caricature, 1792

Louis XVI's flight from Paris

The royal flight to Varennes took place on June 20th, 1791.

So bloody was Francis I’s defeat of the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano in 1515 that it made previous battles resemble ‘children’s games’. Robert J. Knecht traces the French king’s route across the Alps towards war in Italy.

Maximilien Robespierre on the scaffold, 28 July 1794, c. 1799. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. Public Domain.

The Fall of Robespierre

The momentous final days of Maximilien Robespierre are well documented. Yet many of the established ‘facts’ about the Thermidorian Reaction are myths.