How many planets are there? As with the discovery of Uranus, the answer depends on who you ask. Detail from Joseph Wright of ...

What makes someone a king? More importantly, what unmakes a king? Henry II’s experiment in co-kingship saw one Henry III fall ...

The concerns of daily life prompted early modern people to seek reassurance in fate, stars, and astrologers.

The Grammar of Angels: A Search for the Magical Powers of Language by Edward Wilson-Lee finds in Giovanni Pico della ...

The coronation of the first Elizabeth is of considerable interest to us and of greater historical importance than most. Not only was it the last occasion on which the Latin service was used, as ...

In 1861 serfdom, the system which tied the Russian peasants irrevocably to their landlords, was abolished at the Tsar’s imperial command. Four years later, slavery in the USA was similarly declared ...

It was a wretched end to a vivid life. Emma Lyon was born in 1765 in the Wirral area south of Birkenhead. Her father, a blacksmith, died when she was a baby and she was brought up by her mother at ...

The Act of Uniformity passed by the House of Lords on January 15th, 1549, abolished the Latin mass in England. Prayers in English had already been included in the Latin services, and complete English ...

The English Puritans in 1603 had high hopes that the new Scottish king, James I, would push the Church of England nearer to Calvinism. As he rode south to London, James was presented with the ...

In 1950 the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia unanimously resolved that the withering away of the state should begin immediately. The Yugoslav dictator, Marshal Tito, may have been amused. He had an ...