Eastern Europe

Cecil Parrott describes how the elderly monarch from a Christmas carol was based on the character of a young and vigorous sovereign, assassinated on his birthday by his own brother.

Joanna Richardson describes how, during the 1830s, the world of Bohemia offered a warm and fruitful climate to artists and writers.

Michael Grant tells how, some 1000 years ago, the “Scourge of God” died on his wedding night.

Terence O’Brien recounts how some women served with their husbands in the Crimean War as cooks, laundresses and nurses to the Regiment.

Between the years 1300 and 600 B.C. the virile kingdom of Ararat rose to be a large empire, which long held the Assyrians at bay.

An orchestral performance in June 1939 demonstrates why the Czech Republic has a moral standing that few other nations possess, says Paul Lay.

Paul Lay pays tribute to the playwright, dissident and former Czech president, who has died aged 75.

Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha died on 11 April 1985.

Mary Heimann restores Czechoslovakia to its pivotal role in the Munich Crisis.

The 2009 Nobel Prize winner for literature is well placed to describe the trials of Eastern European minorities through the maelstrom of the 20th century, writes Markus Bauer.