Stuart

Early modern fairy tale or urban legend? Who was London’s pig-faced lady and where did she come from?

When England’s search for a Northwest Passage via sea failed, an audacious plan to forge a land route was hatched by the Muscovy Company.

Emulating her godmother, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart captured hearts and minds as Europe burned. 

Dismissed as ‘high and mighty’ and accused of pushing Charles I towards civil war, Henrietta Maria was a deft military mover – perhaps more so than the king himself.

The aim of Charles I’s foreign policy was to restore his nephew’s lands in the Rhineland. France, he thought, was the key to success. 

An armed uprising by a handful of religious extremists in Restoration London led to serious consequences for British and, ultimately, world history. 

In an age of political and religious division that ended in Civil War, Lucius Cary and his circle at Great Tew offered a space for debate and compromise.

Along with Robin Hood, the romantic highwayman is one of the great myths of English outlawry. But the model for this most gallant of rogues was a Frenchman name Claude Duval, who carried out audacious robberies with a touch of Parisian flair.

A look at John Ogilby's Britannia road atlas.

The painter’s reaction to the Jacobite Rebellion is more than mere satire.