Medieval

Maurice Keen describes how, in the years around the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Robin Hood emerged as the legendary hero of the common people of England.

Sir Steven Runciman profiles a fabled Englishman, concerned with the political and military relationships between East and West.

The early Renaissance royal palace on the Thames

Top gun? Alexander McKee assesses Henry VIII's prowess as a commander by land and sea in the light of his 1545 campaigns against the French.

Business with pleasure - Steven Gunn shows how the spectacle of the joust oiled the wheels of service and diplomacy as well as building up the court's image, not just for Henry VIII but for his dynasty-founding father as well.

Akbar Ahmed offers the most timely review of how history and stereotype have often combined to make Western Orientalism a hindrance rather than a help in mutual understanding between two cultures.

Geoffrey Clarke on netting the Poll Tax in Hastings.

by Christopher N.L. Brooke

Alexander Kazhdan considers the influence of totalitarianism and meritocracy in the Byzantine empire – and its relationship to the growth of the Russian and other successor states in the East.