Europe

Steven Gunn explores the surprising similarities between the impetuous Valois duke and the cautious Tudor pragmatist.

Trade may have followed the flag, but was there enough stimulus in imperialism to aid national bank balances and development from 1500 onwards? Patrick O'Brien sifts the evidence.

Graham Darby spins a thread to guide you through the labyrinth of The Causes of the Thirty Years War.

How important was the man to the movement? Andrew Pettegree asks what would have happened to the Reformation had the Diet of Worms witnessed its leader’s martyrdom.

The role of British architects in 19th century Russia: Jeremy Howard and Sergei Kuznetsov reveal how the pleasantest sight that some of Dr Johnson's Scotsmen saw was not the high road to England but the sea passage to Russia, where they found fame and fortune making a key contribution to urban remodelling and architecture.

John Cummins uses the 400th anniversary of Sir Francis Drake's death to reassess the man, his life and the legends surrounding him.

Mack Holt argues that the early-modern obsession with tradition was sometimes a deliberate smokescreen for innovation.

Pierre Sorlin considers Visconti's treatment of the 19th-century Italian nobility caught up in the Risorgimento

Richard Wilkinson wonders why historians have accepted the Cardinal's extravagant assessment of himself.

Omer Bartov asks how the armies of lords and kings became the forces of peoples and nations.