Volume 74 Issue 8 August 2024

‘The Tournament, or the Days of Chivalry Revived’, by Richard Doyle, c.1840. Trustees of the British Museum.

The Rebirth of Chivalry is Rained Off

On 28 August 1839, the earl of Eglinton hosted a ‘medieval’ tournament to mark Queen Victoria’s coronation. It was a damp squib.

‘A Pastoral Visit‘, by Richard Norris Brooke, 1881. National Gallery of Art. Public Domain.

On the Spot: Lori D. Ginzberg

‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That scholars who study elite white men are more objective.’

King John with his unsteady crown, from Matthew Paris’ Chronicle of England, c.1250. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

King John’s Lost Treasure

The loss of his treasure on the road to war was said to have brought about King John’s demise. What happened to it?

From left to right: Clementine Churchill, Richard Law, Léon Blum and Winston Churchill, Chartwell, 10 May 1939. Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo.

Radical Conservatives and the Federal Union

Britain’s Second World War Conservatives and their utopian dream of world government.

Catherine of Braganza as St Catherine of Alexandria, by Jacob Huysmans, c.1665. Royal Collection Trust/Bridgeman Images.

‘The Lost Queen’ by Sophie Shorland review

The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza, Britain’s Forgotten Monarch by Sophie Shorland returns the consort to her rightful place in Restoration history.

‘The moost mighty prynce Rychard’, from the Rous Roll, Warwick, 1483-85. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Richard III and Kingly Justice for All?

Was Richard III a just king or just doing what a king should do?

Trench at Bud Dajo during the Moro Rebellion, 1906. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Massacre in the Clouds’ by Kim A. Wagner review

In Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History, Kim A. Wagner offers a blow-by-blow account of Bud Dajo. But is the devil truly in the detail?

Nina Simonovich-Efimova with a Petrushka puppet, 1930. Museum Archive of the Obraztsov State Central Puppet Theatre.

The Powers of Soviet Puppetry

The puppet theatres of Kazakhstan combined Soviet ideals with Kazakh traditions to educate the masses.

Black and White Milk Bar, Fleet Street, London, c.1935.

Britain’s First Milk Bar Opens

Entrepreneur Hugh Donald McIntosh struck white gold when London’s Black and White Bar opened on 1 August 1935.

A street scene in Bucharest during the Romanian Revolution, 15-25 December 1989. Forteopan (CC BY-SA).

How Do Europe’s Cold War Divisions Persist?

East was East and West was West – until 1989. The Wall is gone, but are its Cold War demarcations still there?