England

Cardinal Pole in Italy

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.

Accounts Rendered, 1700-1714

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

Richard Grafton and his Chronicle

In 1569, Richard Grafton, an enterprising London printer completed the first attempt to provide a critical history of England. Martin Holmes describes the process.

The New Forest from Norman Times

William Seymour takes us on a visit to the New Forest, stretching from Southampton Water to the Wiltshire Avon, and the favourite hunting ground of many English monarchs.

Heralds of the College of Arms

A.L. Rowse analyses heraldry as an essential element in the social history of England in the later middle ages and early modern period.

The Noble Lady and the Player

In the early eighteenth century, writes Robert Halsband, the marriage of an aristocratic young widow and a Drury Lane singer caused violent surprise among her friends.