Political

Kings knight knights, but who knights kings? Peter Linehan looks at how Alfonso XI got round the problem and in the process strengthened his hold on his kingdom.

'You are Monarchial No. 1 and value tradition, form and ceremony.' But was Clementine Churchill's encomium of her husband always reflected in Winston's personal relations with Britain's kings and queens over six decades? Philip Ziegler presents an account of a colourful but chequered relationship.

Money makes the world go around: Kathleen Burk looks at how the Yankee dollar transferred influence from the Old World to the New.

Michael Antonucci discerns Byzantine origins in today's international power politics.

Elizabeth Manning looks at how an Enlightenment ruler enlisted opera in his struggle to homogenise and reinforce the Habsburg empire.

Brian Dooley assesses the incident which brought the world perilously close to nuclear war.

Norman Bainbridge looks at the events to mark Nottinghamshire's role in the English Civil War.

Paul K. Martin with an eyewitness account of Barcelona's rival Olympics of 1936.

By the late 1920s, Stalin and the Soviet Union seemed on the road to totalitarianism. Did the system spawn a monster – or a monster the system? 

When the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, resistance came not from the Chinese government, but from plucky local groups who waged guerrilla war, Anthony Coogan uncovers their little-known story and explains why it remained so.