Military

C.R. Boxer profiles the naval adventures of the Netherlands' Tromp family - a thorn in the side of mid-17th century English maritime activity.

Taking a historiographical angle, Marcus Cunliffe describes how, in 1861, the American federal experiment broke down, and there ensued the greatest and most hard-fought of modern wars before that of 1914.

On October 23, 1812, the Emperor Napoleon, campaigning in Russia, was for six hours threatened with dethronement by a theatrical coup d'etat back in Paris. Godfrey LeMay describes what happened.

In these extracts Arthur Bryant describes the glorious reign of King Alfred, 871-99

Chris Darnell examines the political and military background to the IRA’s last major action against the British army.

This extract is the first of a series in which Dr. Arthur Bryant describes the evolution of the English Kingdom, through the invasions of Saxons, Danes and Normans, to its consolidation in medieval times.

A.H. Burne describes how, 500 years ago at the Battle of Castillon, where the Great Talbot lost his life, the English crown forfeited its 300-year-old dominion over Aquitaine.

John Wheeler-Bennett's account, with many illuminating details, of the attempt that nearly put an end to the Third Reich.

The contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I, Ivan IV was the real founder of modern Russia, and, Jules Menken writes, the originator of the disciplinary system by means of which many Russian rulers since have held, their power.

Accused of cowardice at the Battle of Minden, and often-cast for the role of villain when he was Colonial Secretary, Lord George Germain, writes Eric Robson, nevertheless had many of the qualities of a successful statesman.