Britain

In 1373, writes Jan Read, King Edward III signed an alliance with Portugal which has lasted ever since.

H.T. Dickinson & Kenneth Logue describe the events of a Scottish protest against the Act of Union with England.

Alaric Jacob introduces the soldiers and administrators who prepared the way for nineteenth-century Empire.

At Toulon, writes Stephen Usherwood, the Royal Navy first became deeply involved in the affairs of the French Revolution.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, writes D. Pepys Whiteley, an easy-going Royal Duke was deeply embarrassed by the scandalous revelations of a discarded mistress, and by the publication of his private letters.

During his many years of administration, writes H.T. Dickinson, Walpole was highly unpopular with large sections of the community.

W.J. Reader describes a scandalous episode that arose out of the transfer of authority in India from the East India Company to the Crown.

Stella Margetson describes how, with the single-mindedness of a devoted artist, John Palmer revolutionized the transport system of the British Isles.

In 1862 a Japanese official mission visited England, nine years after the re-opening of their country to the world. Carmen Blacker describes how their strange attire and ‘inscrutable reticence’ surprised the mid-Victorian public.

A.P. Ryan describes how, each Easter, the Irish Republic commemorates the anniversary of the April Rising in Dublin when a short-lived Provisional Government of the Republic was proclaimed.