Long Live the Ancien Régime!
The coronation of Charles III was dense with meaning. It’s complicated; and easy to misunderstand.
Recently published
Pax by Tom Holland review
An account of the Roman Empire at its height amounts to a marvellous vademecum.
Henry III by David Carpenter review
A new account of some of the most exciting, terrible and important years in English history.
Germany, Protesters and the Yellow Star
How should we view the worrying rise of protesters using symbols of the Holocaust to legitimise their cause?
The First Map of the Moon
At 9pm on 26 July 1609, Thomas Harriot pointed his telescope at a five-day-old crescent moon. It made him the first person to train such an instrument on the skies and map the moon.
The Scramble for Madagascar
The world’s fourth largest island was among the prizes of Europe’s ruthless African land grab. When one American diplomat made plans for his own enterprise, he soon found that the French had other ideas for Madagascar.
The Menin Gate is Unveiled
The finished Menin Gate memorial, unveiled on 24 July 1927, recorded 54,896 British and imperial soldiers who died at Ypres between 1914 and 1918, and whose bodies were lost.
‘Found Incapable’
As senility came to be recognised as a distinct diagnosis, methods of protecting patients – from themselves and from others – had to change.
The Battle of Königsberg
For the German military command, the citizens of East Prussia were not a concern; they were a weapon.
The Colony That Vanished
Having prospered for more than 400 years, a medieval colony on Greenland vanished without a trace, but its memory lived on.