Cultural

Charles I Societies

Richard Cavendish looks at all things Stuart in the month when Charles I lost his head.

Tournaments and Early Tudor Chivalry

Business with pleasure - Steven Gunn shows how the spectacle of the joust oiled the wheels of service and diplomacy as well as building up the court's image, not just for Henry VIII but for his dynasty-founding father as well.

Islam - The Roots of Misperception

Akbar Ahmed offers the most timely review of how history and stereotype have often combined to make Western Orientalism a hindrance rather than a help in mutual understanding between two cultures.

Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England

End or beginning? Catherine Hills discusses how recent archaeology is filling in the gaps in our knowledge of 5th-and 6th-century Britain, fuelling the debate about just how important marauding invaders were to the changes that followed the legion's departure.