Political

If the world were ruled by a single Christian monarch, peace and justice would prevail: such was Dante’s vision in the early fourteenth century, writes Robert F. Murphy.

This cultured but energetic ruler left behind him ‘a governmental machine that was the wonder and envy of Europe’.

Howard Shaw introduces Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, a regicide, and a man with principles and temper of a Cassius, who “stuck at nothing.”

Four hundred years ago, writes Antonia Fraser, the young Queen of Scots, then struggling to hold her own against her factious nobles, saw a favourite servant butchered at her feet.

Judith Mason describes how, in February 1525, Francis I of France was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia by an Imperial army, led by his rebellious subject the Constable of Bourbon, who later launched an attack upon the Holy City.

Prudence Hannay introduces Lady Granville, the younger daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She bridges the gulf between two very different social periods. Brought up among the most dashing personalities of ‘the Devonshire House set’, she died in the great age of mid-Victorian respectability.

G.W.S. Barrow describes how, 260 years ago, the Scottish people made a difficult but necessary choice.

T.C. Owtram introduces Warren Hastings. After thirty years in the service of the East India Company, eleven of them as Governor-General, Hastings returned in 1785 to face impeachment at Westminster Hall

Romney Sedgwick describes how, under the pen-name of Junius, Sir Philip Francis ‘threw his firebrands’ at King and Government during the years 1769-72.

‘On the winning side, yet subject to all the former tyrannies,’ the radical Winstanley in 1649 protested against Cromwell’s rule. By A.A. Mitchell.