History Today

Can the UK’s politicians offer lasting, inclusive solutions to the constitutional fall-out from last year’s referendum on Scottish independence? The historical precedents are not encouraging.

Accounts of the second siege of the royalist stronghold in Dorset during England’s Civil Wars have romanticised the role of its aristocratic owner. But was Mary, Lady Bankes even there? Patrick Little investigates.

Speculation about the illegitimacy of England’s royal lines has been encouraged by the publication of the DNA of the last Yorkist king. But, argues Ian Mortimer, it is history rather than science that should lead the debate.

The 'Divine Sarah' had her right leg amputated on February 22nd, 1915.  

The novelist and peer died on February 11th, 1940. 

The young queen married Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10 February 1840.

The beginnings of fashion are often traced to the courts and cities of medieval southern Europe. Should we be looking further north?

The mistress of Lord Nelson died on January 15th, 1815. 

The father of Unitarianism in England was baptised on January 14th, 1615.

Tudor Edwards describes how the austere order of Trappists in Normandy was driven by the French Revolution to seek refuge in Switzerland, Austria and Russia.