Volume 55 Issue 11 November 2005

Andrew Cook takes a look at the Duke of Clarence, grandson of Queen Victoria, who is most often remembered as a wastrel who died young, and is sometimes mentioned as a suspect for Jack the Ripper murders.

The famous French author Alexandre Dumas never let fact get in the way of a good story: his ability to spin a yarn made his books instant bestsellers. But, having unravelled the stories behind two of Dumas’ most famous works, Roger Macdonald presents a startling solution as to the true identity of the Man in the Iron Mask.

The last truly Anglo-Saxon King was remembered with such affection he became a sainted embodiment of a pacific and idealistic form of kingship under Henry III.

Mussolini casts a long shadow. R J.B. Bosworth describes how Italians of both the left and the right have used memories of his long dictatorship to underpin their own versions of history and politics.

Simon Adams investigates the political and religious options available to the Catholics of early Jacobean England, and asks why some chose to attempt the spectacular coup in November 1605.

Tom Bowers previews the History Channel’s new series on the Crusades and finds out what is different from previous attempts to put the holy wars on screen.

Elizabeth Sparrow unpicks the origins of the long-standing belief that Penzance, in Cornwall, was the first place on the mainland to receive news of the victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson.

Alex Butterworth looks at the parallels between the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans recently, and the devastation suffered by Pompeii in the first century AD.