History Today

In this abridged version of the prize-winning essay from our recent competition, Tracey Earl follows the fortunes of the Protestant refugees who came to Canterbury from the sixteenth century onwards.

Stephen Johnson discusses the opening of an 11th century castle in Northumberland.

Ann Hills explores the impact on various eras of history of the mines of the Nenthead area.

Three texts dealing with the transition from the Renaissance to the Modern Age

Brian Holden Reid recounts his own experiences of great military events. their literature, political significance and memory.

Though hymned by writers as an exemplum of Sparta's virtue, was Agesilaos the author as well as the spectator of her decline and fall?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - is this the secret of Braudel's fame as the Victor Hugo of French history?

Tony Thorncroft on the sale of golfing memorabilia.

'In the beginning, America was in the way'. Only slowly did 16th-century Englishmen turn from the chimera of a short-cut to Asia's riches to the vision of precious metals to be mined and colonies planted in the New World.

Alan Sked looks at the sensational leaking of Austrian military secrets to Russia on the eve of the First World War.