English history
Whispers of ‘usurper’ at the Lancastrian court
When Henry Bolingbroke deposed his cousin Richard II, the populace at first united under his command. But was it a sign of divine retribution when his health dramatically deteriorated?
Could anyone be trusted in Tudor and Stuart England?
An investigation of the codes, disguises and invisible inks used by plotters and spymasters captures the paranoia of an age when secret messages could be hidden anywhere
Ordinary women make just as thrilling history as great men
Philippa Gregory investigates the lives of English women over 900 years – in sickness, health, business, war, prayer and prostitution
Rocked by rebellion: the short, unhappy reign of Edward VI
As Tory writers reflected on the safe passage of the Stuart dynasty through the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81, an anonymous…
The machinations of the Dudleys make Game of Thrones look tame
This is the gripping story of the ever-fluctuating fortunes of three generations of the Dudley dynasty, servants to — and…
Henry VIII’s windfall from the monasteries was shockingly short-term
In 1536 there were 850 monastic houses in England and Wales; just four years later they were all gone. The…
When sedition was rife in 18th-century London
Researching the seditious literature of earlier periods is seldom suspenseful, pulse-quickening work. For every thrill of archival discovery, there are…
The hazards of attending a queen
When Queen Alexandra chose her ladies in waiting she prudently surrounded herself with elderly and plainish ones, who did not…
The first Puritans weren’t so much killjoys as ardent believers in honest living
‘Puritan’ is a term of abuse, and we tend to use it to refer to such figures as the nightmarishly…
Rebellion without a cause: Peter Ackroyd's curious Civil War
How our perceptions of 17th-century England are dominated by the convulsions of the two decades at its centre! Peter Ackroyd’s…
Anne Boleyn’s last secret
Why was the queen executed with a sword, rather than an axe?
