Medieval

Constance Head describes how, in the tenth century, a scholarly young man and an ambitious admiral presided over the large Byzantine empire.

J.J. Saunders describes the Papal envoy to the Mongol conquerors who travelled through Russia to eastern Asia in 1245-7.

Ivan Morris describes how the idea of heroic failure has always exerted a strong hold on the Japanese imagination.

L. Curtis Musgrave describes how willingness among medieval students to battle for their rights’ that, during the course of years, helped to shape the modern university system.

Bruce Chatwin describes how the dispute between Abel and Cain, the nomadic shepherd and the city-dwelling planter, has continued throughout history.

John B. Morrall describes how the ideals of monarchy came to be combined with the theory of Natural Common Law.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, writes E.R. Chamberlin, a young French King took advantage of the Italian ‘genius for dissension’.

Peter Partner describes how resentment against the exile of the Papacy in Avignon led to the ‘War of the Eight Saints’ in 1375 by the ‘Guelf’ cities of Italy.

B.G. Gokhale takes us on a visit to Surat, where the English adventure in India began.

Harold F. Hutchison describes how the tastes and affections of King Edward II were disgusting to the medieval orthodoxy of monks and barons.