France

Richard Cavendish remembers how France took Calais, the last continental possession of England, on January 7th, 1558.

The ill-suited couple were wed on January 25th, 1308.

Andrew Boxer considers explanations for France’s disastrous foreign policy between the wars.

Matthew MacLachlan asks how far Napoleon defeated himself.

The Duke of Orleans was assassinated on November 23rd, 1407.

Kevin Desmond looks for records of a little-known French inventor who rivalled Thomas Edison.

Philip IV had every Templar arrested on October 13th, 1307.

Mark Bryant looks at the way caricaturists viewed the scandal engulfing France at the end of the 19th century.

Hanna Diamond examines the mixed experiences of the French men and women of every social class who fled their homes in the mass exodus from the Nazis in 1940, and those who took them in.

R.J. Knecht looks at the ­practical considerations behind the smooth operation of the huge courts of the Valois kings of France.