History Today

Queen Victoria’s uncle and immediate predecessor was a good-humoured, simple-minded sovereign, whose bustling amiability much endeared him to his subjects, writes Joanna Richardson.

The whole of Stendhal’s youth was spent under the aegis of Napoleon, and Napoleonic legend played an increasing part in his later writings.

Poet Laureate from 1850, writes Joanna Richardson, Tennyson became an acknowledged interpreter of Victorian morals and politics.

In British theatrical history, writes Joanna Richardson, the famous Kemble line has an almost unequalled record of achievement.

Joanna Richardson describes how, in 1865, Miss Buss told a School Enquiry Commission: 'I am sure that the girls can learn anything they are taught in an interesting manner.’

Joanna Richardson describes some French visitors to England, from Louis XVIII and Madame de Stael to Verlaine and Mallarme.

John Prest describes how the progressive Whig reformer of the 1830s became unpopular as Prime Minister after 1846.

Fifty years on from Winston Churchill’s death, Chris Wrigley surveys the literature available, highlighting key works and lesser-known titles.

Attempts to rehabilitate ‘Bad’ King John always come up against a major stumbling block: the verdicts of his contemporaries.

The arguments that took place in the village of Putney among the officers and soldiers of the New Model Army revealed fundamental divisions within the parliamentary forces.