Alexander Lee

Buildings like the Shard may look like heralds of the future, but they are part of a long history of idealistic urban planning, says Alexander Lee.

Alexander Lee attempts to rescue the Borgia family from their baleful reputation as a political – and papal – dynasty steeped in sin.

Alexander Lee shows that Belgium’s new king will have to learn the lessons of the past.

Alexander Lee admires an article by Frederick Godfrey from 1952, reflecting new attitudes towards the Renaissance.

Alexander Lee finds a ‘lip-smacking smorgasbord of Tudor delights’ in the work of William Shakespeare.

As Cyprus attempts to solve its debt problem by targeting private assets, Alexander Lee finds some ominous lessons in 15th-century Florence.

The discovery of 13 bodies in a London plague pit has helped to illuminate the murkier aspects of life in the 14th century, writes Alexander Lee.

Following the surprisingly quick election of the first non-European pope in a millennium, Alexander Lee recalls some of the more controversial papal conclaves

Alexander Lee considers new evidence which suggests that Machiavelli may not have been the archetypal proponent of power politics he is remembered as.

The Pope’s resignation shows that the papacy is actually in a stronger position than it has been at any other point in its history, argues Alexander Lee.