'To sum up all, poverty, slavery and innate insolence, covered with an affectation of politeness, give you... a true picture of the manners of the whole nation' was Hogarth's opinion of the French in 1749, explains Michael Duffy.
'Thrice had his foot Domingo's island prest, Midst horrid wars and fierce barbarian wiles; Thrice had his blood repelled the yellow pest That stalks, gigantic, through the Western Isles!' ran the epitaph to one of the more than 20,000 British soldiers sent to St. Domingue in the 1790s.
The boy-king Henry VI was crowned King in England and in France. But the symbols of regal majesty at his Coronations, argue Dorothy Styles & C.T. Allmand, could not disguise the fragility of the union.
Thomas Gretton presents a special review of the impact of the 19th century French satirical artist.
David Nicholls examines the central position of Satan in early modern French popular culture.
Popular art in the form of cartoons, caricatures and simple engravings offered great potential for political propaganda as the revolutionary leaders discovered.
Peter Beck sets contemporary reportage of and reaction to the 1924 Olympics in the context of their times.
The refugee supporters of the House of Stuart, explains Bruce Lehman, made new lives for themselves as Europeans, achieving success as bankers, merchants, soldiers, churchmen and diplomats.
After the French Revolution, the colony of Guadeloupe experienced many upheavals and was, for much of the time, virtually independent. Nevertheless it kept the French flag flying against both Americans and British, its garrison deriving much strength from its newly-freed slaves. When Napoleon came to power, the black population revolted the Black Consul’s racist policies. H.J.K. Jenkins retells the story.
