History Today

Garrow for the Defence

Until the late 18th century, few criminal defendants thought it worthwhile to engage a lawyer on their behalf; but in the 1780s things suddenly changed. John Beattie looks at the part William Garrow, a brilliant young defence lawyer, played in altering the course of justice.

Public Disputations, Pamphlets and Polemic

Ann Hughes continues our articles on the Civil War period by investigating the controversies in public debate and the printed word that fuelled religious arguments before and after the Interregnum.

Rinuccini and Civil War in Ireland, 1644-49

Andrew Boyd tells the story of the ill-fated mission of a papal nuncio whose blundering zeal doomed the hopes of Irish Catholics of profiting from the civil war between Charles I and his Parliament in England.

Les Invalides, Paris

Douglas Johnson examines the powerful hold Les Invalides exercises over France's historical mythology.

Gruyere's Cheesemakers

David Birmingham draws on the private papers of an 18th-century Swiss cheese farmer to recreate a world whose business sophistication and economic arrangements cut across the context of the rustic joys of an Alpine lifestyle.