Stuart

Following his accession, the majority of James I’s new English subjects accepted their Scottish king with ‘comforte and contentmente’. Such sentiments would not last.

Wills in early modern England tell us much more than simply who left what to whom, and should not be discarded lightly.

In the era of the early modern ‘secret state’, two notorious brothers set up an elaborate intelligence network, managing a vast array of spies and informers watchful for Jacobite plots against Britain.

Early modern fairy tale or urban legend? Who was London’s pig-faced lady and where did she come from?

When England’s search for a Northwest Passage via sea failed, an audacious plan to forge a land route was hatched by the Muscovy Company.

Emulating her godmother, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart captured hearts and minds as Europe burned. 

Dismissed as ‘high and mighty’ and accused of pushing Charles I towards civil war, Henrietta Maria was a deft military mover – perhaps more so than the king himself.

The aim of Charles I’s foreign policy was to restore his nephew’s lands in the Rhineland. France, he thought, was the key to success. 

An armed uprising by a handful of religious extremists in Restoration London led to serious consequences for British and, ultimately, world history. 

In an age of political and religious division that ended in Civil War, Lucius Cary and his circle at Great Tew offered a space for debate and compromise.