Social

During the first half of the thirteenth century, Matthew Paris recorded in words and drawings the events of world history. W.N. Bryant tells his story.

G.W.S. Barrow tells the story of a twelfth-century London student in revolt.

Stephen Usherwood shows how Rembrandt’s genius gives a vivid impression of 17th-century Holland.

In the second century A.D. North Africa played an important role in imperial Roman life

A.L. Rowse analyses heraldry as an essential element in the social history of England in the later middle ages and early modern period.

In the early eighteenth century, writes Robert Halsband, the marriage of an aristocratic young widow and a Drury Lane singer caused violent surprise among her friends.

H.A. Monckton offers a taste of the beer of Elizabethan England, a beverage reportedly, ‘dark in colour, not very heavily hopped, and probably rather sweet and vinous’.

Joan Hasler describes how, as controller of Calais in 1558, Edward Grimston was captured when the town surrendered to the Duke of Guise and held to ransom in the Bastille.

A.N. Marlow describes how city-life in India, four thousand years ago, bore a striking resemblance to that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

W.L.F. Nuttall describes how, when the Star Chamber was abolished in 1641 it became easier to print home news, and many newspapers appeared, supporting both sides in the Civil Wars.