Britain

Jahangir’s Turkey-Cock

‘Larger than a peahen and smaller than a peacock’, Jahangir wrote in 1612. Geoffrey Powell describes how the bird reached England from America some decades before the Indian knew it.

The British Embassy in Paris, 1714-63

J. LaVerne Anderson describes how the post of British Ambassador to the rulers of France has been a difficult assignment, and not only in the eighteenth century.

Peace with Spain, 1605

Robert W. Kenny describes how, on the death of Elizabeth I, an appeasing spirit entered British diplomacy.

Manuscripts and Men

C.V. Wedgwood assesses the impact of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1869-1969

Warren Hastings

T.C. Owtram introduces Warren Hastings. After thirty years in the service of the East India Company, eleven of them as Governor-General, Hastings returned in 1785 to face impeachment at Westminster Hall

Forgery in the Middle Ages

J.J.N. McGurk describes how vanity and the ambitions of families and religious houses prompted the widespread invention of documents upon property and genealogy.