Why Court History Matters

Pauline Croft on why court history is relevant to the 1990s.

Inigo Jones' Banqueting House in Whitehall, with its great Rubens ceiling depicting the ascent of James I to heaven, formed the setting for the launch party in September of the new Society for Court Studies.

Old-style historians regarded the rise and fall of nations, governments, religions and economies as the only proper subjects of research. Yet in recent years a dazzling array of new approaches - women's history; changing perceptions of landscape; the relationship between man and the natural world; the history of food and cooking, to name but a few -have all proved the value of broadening our range when looking at previous societies. Through them we come to a richer appreciation of our own.

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