Feature

Khan Mengli I Giray with his son, the future Khan Mehmed I Giray, at the reception of Sultan Bayezid II, Turkish miniature, c.1484.

Khans of Crimea

The Crimean Khanate was the last surviving heir of Chinggis Khan’s dynasty. Respected, feared and reviled, it found itself caught between empires.

A man pastes over ‘Vote for de Valera’ election posters with arrest notices, Ireland, c.1923.

In December 1922 a proclamation signed by George V formally established the Irish Free State. Among loyalists in three border counties of Ulster, partitioned and cut adrift from unionist jurisdiction, the sense of betrayal was acute.

Saint Thomas Becket curing a man in his sickbed, stained glass window (detail), Canterbury Cathedral, early 13th century.

Age of Doubt: Saints and Sceptics

The medieval period was a golden age of saints and miracles, but they were met with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Brigadier General Joshua T. Owen, 1860-65. Courtesy US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

‘A Baptism of Blood’

Fighting for the Union in the US Civil War, Welsh soldiers discovered that the cost of assimilation was the loss of their native language.

Bronze parade mask perhaps worn by male soldiers representing the Amazons. Nola, Italy, second century.

Renaissance Wonder Women

To Renaissance audiences, the mythical Amazons were exotic, mysterious and revealed hidden truths about their own society.

Charles X Gustav After Iversnaes, by Johan Philip Lemke, 17th century.

The Army that Walked on Water

For the Swedish king Charles X Gustav, the freezing winter of 1658 provided a unique opportunity: to march across the ice and create a Scandinavian superkingdom.

A queue of mourners attend the lying in state of George V at Westminster Abbey, 27 January 1936.

How Monarchs Succeed

As the accession of Edward VII shows, a new British monarch must represent the nation’s values – whatever that nation and those values are.

Tutankhamun in the Flesh

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 reopened arguments about the presumed race of the ancient Egyptians.

Christy Regenhardt is consulting editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers at the George Washington University, Washington DC.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Second Act

After the death of her husband in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt left the White House and embarked upon a new career as ‘First Lady of the World’.

‘The Vote is of the People’

Brazilian democracy is young, hard-won and under threat. As the country goes to the polls, its history reminds us that the right to vote is not a given.