Europe

Michael Broers argues that the influence of Napoleon’s Empire was out of all proportion to its duration.

As Battle of Britain Day approaches Brian James has been finding out why some of today’s leading military historians argue that it was not the RAF but the Royal Navy that saved Britain in 1940.

Christopher Tyerman explains why he believes the crusades were important in shaping the ideology and fiscal and political structures of the secular state.

The controversial decision to uncover the remains of the famous 18th-century castrato Farinelli in Bologna may or may not prove insightful for music historians ... while an exhibition on castrati in London illuminates this exclusive profession for the wider public.

Richard Dimbleby’s account of what he witnessed at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 has become infamous in Britain. Less well known is the work of two other BBC employees who made radio programmes about Belsen shortly after the camp’s liberation.

The Holy Roman Empire had survived over a thousand years when it was finally destroyed by Napoleon and the French in 1806.

Frederic Raphael explains how the isles of Greece, and the rest of the classical world, caught his imagination.

Peter Neville says that Bush and Blair failed to draw the proper lessons from Munich 1938 when they raised the spectre of Chamberlain and appeasement to justify their war against Saddam.

What did medieval contemporaries think of military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights? Helen Nicholson investigates.