The Fencing Moral Panic of Elizabethan London
In Elizabethan England, it seemed like everyone was carrying a sharpened object with the intent to inflict damage.
Catherine of Aragon: Europe’s First Female Ambassador
Remembered as the wife Henry VIII brushed aside for Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon was viewed as a strong leader and diplomat in her own lifetime.
The Devonshire Manuscript
The sixteenth-century handwritten collection of poetry and commentary offers a glimpse of intellectual life at the court of King Henry VIII.
Ghosts of Landed Gentry, But Never the Ghosts of Serfs
Psychical researcher Harry Price combined the power of academic language with a cultural identity crisis to build a reputation as a “scientific” ghost-hunter.
The Woman Famous for Not Sleeping With a King
As a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of England, Frances Stuart was known as much for her ability to fend off the advances of King Charles II as for her beauty.
The Lady Who Might Have Been Queen of England
The failed campaign to put Lady Arbella Stuart in the line of succession began with a matchmaking scheme between her two grandmothers.
Whence the White Horse of Uffington?
A white horse of chalk both defines and defies a common understanding of what English heritage is, and is not.
Uplifting the Masses with Public Parks
Created in Victorian England, the earliest public parks were on a civilizing mission.
Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
The British Regency era lasted less than a decade, but it spawned a staggering number of unlikely fictional marriages.
When the English Witnessed Battles in the Sky
Some claimed the battles were so fierce they could smell the gunpowder.