England

From the fourteenth century until the building of the railways, writes D.J. Rowe, the Newcastle keelmen were indispensable and pugnacious carriers between collieries and sea-going ships.

Meyrick Carre introduces James Howell; an enquiring disciple of the new astronomers who enlivened the British seventeenth-century scene, and ended his life as historiographer-royal to Charles II.

C.G. Cruickshank describes bows and fire-arms in the early sixteenth century.

Philip Ziegler describes how the devastating Plague reached South-west England in the summer of 1348.

Stuart Andrews describes how the founder of Methodism shared the encyclopaedic concern with science that characterizes the eighteenth century.

Jessica Hodge traces the significance of a settlement that was the largest known military site in King Arthur’s time.

The first of two articles by C.G. Cruickshank describing logistics and pageantry in the reign of King Henry VIII.

Alan Rogers reflects the influence of power among those surrounding the throne and how, throughout the entire medieval period during which Parliament existed, the magnates had greater sway than the Commons.

H. Ross Williamson profiles the life and career of Cardinal Reginald Pole: cousin to Henry VIII; once Papal candidate; ‘a humanist of European reputation’; Pole spent much of his life abroad, in an artistic and philosophical circle that included Michelangelo.

Kenneth Woodbridge describes the letters of Sir Richard Hoare, Banker, Goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London, to his sons.