Political

Western Spies in the Levant

Robert H. Schwoebel explains how, in the fifteenth century, the growing power of the Turks prompted a number of European princes to despatch emissaries to the Levant as intelligence officers on the Eastern Question.

Is There A Case For James II?

What was the “black thing” that palsied the character of the brave but highly unpopular monarch who was dethroned in 1688? Maurice Ashley queries a poisoned historical legacy.

Lloyd George’s Expedients, Part II

John Terraine sheds fresh light on the principles at stake in the disputes between generals and politicians during the last year of the First World War.

Marie de Médicis as Queen and Regent of France

J.H.M. Salmon describes how lust for power was the consuming motive of Marie de Médicis' life, but also how she failed to identify her personal ambitions with the symbolic meaning of the French crown.

Mission to Burma 1855

British missions to the Chinese Court had already run into many grievous difficulties. When a mission was despatched to Burma, writes Mildred Archer, they found their problems no less irksome.

Rebellion in Australia: the Story of the Eureka Stockade

Early in December 1854, a group of miners, led by a hot-headed Irish rebel, defied the forces of the Australian Government. For many Australians, writes T.R. Reese, this gallant but hopeless gesture still symbolizes democracy’s unending struggle to preserve the freedom of the common man.