Medieval

David Starkey provides a historiographical guide to the fifteenth century English monarchy.

Jonathon Riley-Smith explores the historiography of the Crusades.

The popular revolts of 1578-79 and 1586-89 in Normandy were triggered by an unruly military presence and the high level of royal fiscal exactions. Joan Davies shows how the revolts were exploited by the nobility in their struggle with Henri III, who met the threat thus posed with force.

'A people's prospects are affected by its image of its past' - Arnold Toynbee presents an exclusive extract from his book on the Greek sense of the past, The Greeks and Their Heritages.

Arthur Waley profiles life and ideas in the 3rd century Chinese capital at the time of its capture and destruction by Huns.

The loss to the Turks of Constantinople, the ancient capital of the Eastern Empire, in 1453 had been a terrible blow to Christendom. It was the crusading dream of Charles V, argues Sinclair Atkins, to reconquer the Byzantine city.

The year 1980 is being celebrated throughout the world as the fifteen-hundredth anniversary of the birth of St Benedict, whose rule, explains Henry Loyn, has been the leading inspiration for monastic life in the Western church.

David Nicholls examines the central position of Satan in early modern French popular culture.