England

A Nottinghamshire election in 1593 descended into farce, violence and, ultimately, futility.

As told by one medieval chronicler, Britain’s past and future had been prophesied by Merlin, who foresaw its rise, fall and conquest. Did the magician have warnings for the present?

The Anglo-Saxons knew that life – and land – is precarious, which makes its gifts precious.

Shakespeare’s Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff refutes the claim by Virginia Woolf, that the women of Tudor England left only empty bookshelves.

Wills in early modern England tell us much more than simply who left what to whom, and should not be discarded lightly.

Anne of Cleves became known to posterity as the ‘Flanders Mare’ and Henry VIII’s ‘ugly wife’, thanks to disparaging descriptions by ambassadors and diplomats. What motivated them?

Reforms to divorce law inevitably prompt moral panic as they did in Victorian England. It has not yet proven to be justified.

‘Genocide’, the Holocaust episode of The World at War, was pioneering when it first aired. Does it stand the test of time? 

March is the loudest month. The late survival of a dialect name – Lide – for the month poses a medieval puzzle.