Political

In 1538, believing his kingdom to be under threat, Henry VIII brutally settled scores dating back to the dynastic conflicts of the 15th century, as Desmond Seward explains.

Richard Cavendish remembers the assassination of Caliph Ali, on January 24th, 661.

Richard Cavendish describes Edward the Confessor's canonisation, on January 5th, 1161.

The death of Cabinet government has been a near constant theme of British politics in the 20th century. But it came closer to reality under the premiership of Tony Blair, argues Archie Brown.

Outremer, the crusader kingdom, and its capital Jerusalem entered a golden age during the 1130s. Simon Sebag Montefiore portrays its extraordinary cast of kings, queens, conquerors and criminals.

Few English monarchs have such a poor reputation as Henry VI. Yet he was held in high regard by the Tudors, says Michael Hicks, despite losing the Wars of the Roses.

Between 1954 and 1958 Ann Moyal was a research assistant to the press baron Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook. Here she offers a personal recollection of the political mover and shaker as he embarked on a new phase of his career as a historian of his times.

Mary Heimann restores Czechoslovakia to its pivotal role in the Munich Crisis.

Stuart Clayton ask whether the mass media have undermined the status of leading authority figures in Britain since 1945.

Nicholas Dixon asks whether there was a radical transition between the two eras.