Political

Alan Sked looks at the sensational leaking of Austrian military secrets to Russia on the eve of the First World War.

Helen Graham on the political coalitions in Spain in the 1930s and their role in blocking Fascism.

Paul Preston follows the unsettled road leading to the clash between the Republicans and Nationalists.

Port wine and a queen for England from Braganza - commercial and cultural links strengthened the alliance steadily during the Age of Reason.

Robin Studd shows how Henry III's acceptance after 1259 of vassal status for England's one remaining continental territory of Gascony gave enormous scope for interference by the French crown.

Was the Protestant Church of Elizabeth the catalyst for a new patriotism, based on a special sense of English destiny and divine guidance?

Ruthless militarists who extinguished a more thoughtful and sophisticated culture? Or synthesisers of genius who gave England a new lease of life in focusing its attention on Continental Europe? R. Allen Brown weighs profit and loss from the events of 1066.

Without their Welsh connections, the Tudors could never have made good their rags-to-riches ascent to the English throne, argues Peter R. Roberts.

Much Tudor art may not have been 'home-grown' but its form and subject matter tells us a great deal about England's 'natural rulers'.