Feature

The Battle of Trafalgar, by John Christian Schetky, c. 1841. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

Collingwood and Nelson

With Nelson dead at the Battle of Trafalgar, vice-admiral Lord Collingwood took command. It was the tragic conclusion to a friendship that began decades earlier.

Prizes from the 1567 English state lottery, from Humfrey Dyson’s A booke [of] proclamations , 1618. Folger Shakespeare Library. Public Domain.

The First English National Lottery

In 1567, permission for the holding of ‘a very rich Lottery General’ in England was granted by an increasingly cash-strapped Elizabeth I.

Charge of the 3rd (King's Own) Light Dragoons at the Battle of Ferozshuhur, by Henry Martens, 1847. Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Public Domain.

Ferozeshah and the First Anglo-Sikh War

The Sikh Empire was the last strong Indian military power standing against Britain’s East India Company.

St Bartholomew’s was refounded in the reign of Henry VIII. Courtney Dainton describes how, for nearly two centuries, it was one of only two major hospitals in England for the care of the general sick.

Interior of a hospital with a woman washing a man's feet, unknown artist, c. 16th century. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

Medieval Hospitals of England

In England, medieval hospitals flourished until the beginning of the 15th century, funded by taxes, tolls, and wealthy doners.

Cyrano de Bergerac: Poet, Philosopher and Swordsman

Mildred Allen Butler offers a profile of a renowned swordsman, student of philosophy, literary critic, social satirist and story-teller; Cyrano de Bergerac expressed his views of life in his ingenious account of expeditions to the Empires of the Sun and Moon.