Cultural

For centuries before independence in 1877 the Romanian principalities led a precarious life of their own, writes Kenneth Johnstone.

Since its foundation, writes Ian Bradley, the Old Vic theatre became in turn a drinking den, a temperance hall, and the home of serious ballet and drama.

Few European royals, male or female, writes M.L. Clarke, have enjoyed a better education than Christina.

On his visit to England in 1768, the King of Denmark held an elaborate masked ball in London. By Aileen Ribeiro.

Derry Moore, 12th Earl of Drogheda, remembers the events surrounding the establishment of History Today magazine. 

Nicolas Cheetham describes how the Fourth Crusaders captured Byzantium in 1204 and French noblemen created feudal principalities in Southern Greece.

Michael Grant describes how the most essential single fact in the whole history of the Etruscans was their division into separate city states.

Duchess by bigamy, but a Countess by marriage, Elizabeth Chudleigh found refuge from her marital troubles in St Petersburg, writes Anthony Cross.

From A.D. 400, writes E.R. Chamberlin, imperial Rome was subject to pillage and plunder, but Popes in the Renaissance destroyed in order to rebuild.

Impressions of the social and literary scene in the French capital, as recorded by nineteenth-century visitors.