Volume 61 Issue 8 August 2011

The story of a country that has long punched above its weight is told in Scotland’s refurbished National Museum, says David Forsyth.

Courtly love, celebrated in numerous songs and poems, was the romantic ideal of western Europe in the Middle Ages. Yet, human nature being what it is, the realities of sexual desire and the complications it brings were never far away, says Julie Peakman.

James Whitfield on why the theft of a Spanish master’s portrait of a British military hero led to a change in the law.

The fools of the early Tudor court were likely to have been people with learning disabilities as a new project demonstrates, says Suzannah Lipscomb.

Queen Anne ordered a racecourse to be built on Ascot Heath in 1711. It was officially opened on August 11th.

Mary Queen of Scots left Calais for Scotland on August 14th, 1561, aged 18 years old.