Feature

Charge of the Light Brigade led by Lord Cardigan at the Battle of Balaclava, by Harry Payne, 1884. Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Public Domain.

Why the Light Brigade Charged

The fatalist view of the Light Brigade’s charge towards the Russian guns at Balaclava is being challenged. They had their reasons why.

Coming to Terms with the Past: Northern Ireland

Richard English argues that historians have a practical and constructive role to play in today’s Ulster.

History With the Boring Bits Put Back

Terry Jones, former Python, describes how a perverse fascination with the boring bits of Chaucer converted him from being a clown into a historian of the 14th century.

Portrait de Felice Orsini, by Louis Buchheister, c. 1858. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. Public Domain.

Felice Orsini: Striking a Blow for Freedom?

The consequences of Felice Orsini’s assassination attempt on Napoleon III were momentous and paradoxical.

Puppets of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson from a satirical nativity scene, Krakow, 1937. Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe. Public Domain.

Wallis Simpson and the Divorce Law

Did the British government suppress evidence that might have prevented Wallis Simpson’s divorce? Edward VIII’s marriage prompted changes to the law, but did it also break it?

The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215

Ralph V. Turner considers how and why Magna Carta became a beacon of liberty in Britain and, increasingly, in the United States.

The Great Fire of Moscow, by Johan Lorenz Rugendas II, 1820. Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Public Domain.

Britons in the Great Fire of Moscow

Some British and Irish-born Muscovites waited out Napoleon’s invasion of 1812, surviving both the French army and the five-day inferno.

A portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, by Joseph Vivien, c. 18th century. Albertina. Public Domain.

Cardinal Richelieu: Hero or Villain?

The image of Cardinal Richelieu, carefully crafted during his lifetime, soon became that of a demonic schemer. How?

Study after The Raft of the Medusa, unknown artist, after Théodore Géricault. Musée de la Vie romantique. Public Domain.

Britain and the Medusa Shipwreck

The French tragedy at sea, immortalised in Géricault’s masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, was put to use in the service of British patriotism.

A woman at a sewing machine, by Herman Heijenbrock, c. early 20th century. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

Sewing Machines: Liberation or Drudgery for Women?

With its effects felt on both the household and workplace over the 19th century, the invention of the sewing machine changed women’s lives. But not always for the better.