What were battles like in the time of King Alfred? Organised shield walls or brutal melees? Did they use cavalry? And what about fights at sea? Chris Bishop examines the ways of war in the 9th century. As King Alfred spent so much of his reign at war with the Vikings (or with the Danes […]
Wellington’s biggest Peninsular War secret
Tom Williams writes about the Lines of Torres Vedras in Portugal, Wellington’s biggest secret (in terms of size, anyway) during the Peninsular War against Napoleon. Today (7 April) sees the publication of the latest of my stories about Napoleonic-era spy, James Burke. Burke and the Lines of Torres Vedras is set in Portugal in 1810. […]
Vanity project or lasting legacy – was Hadrian’s Wall worth all the effort?
This year marks 1,900 years since the beginning of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. We know a lot about how it was built and who built, lived and worked on the wall, Douglas Jackson says. But what we can’t be sure is why it was built. Douglas, author of The Wall, wonders: was it just […]
Damn’ Rebel Bitches by Maggie Craig
Too many historians have ignored the role of women in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. This book aims to redress the balance. Damn’ Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling the fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745-46. Drawn […]
Bare-Arsed Banditti by Maggie Craig
They were modern men, the soldiers of the Jacobite Rising of 1745: doctors and lawyers, students and teachers, gardeners and weavers. These are the men often written out of history, or else depicted as gallant but misguided fools. But in reality they were children of the Age of Reason, they wrote poetry, discussed the latest […]
Agricola: Architect of Roman Britain by Simon Turney
Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a man fated for conquest and tied to the island of Britannia. He cut his teeth on military command during the revolt of Boudica, later commanded a legion against the warlike Brigantes, and was finally given the governorship of the province and was able to lead the armies north, incorporating into […]
Agricola’s victories in Britain
Agricola (AD40–93) was the only Roman general who could claim to have subdued the whole of Britain. Simon Turney has written the first biography of this important figure for nearly two millennia. He looks at why Agricola’s victories make him one of the great military figures in Roman history. A Roman general is marked by […]
I’m Spartacus! Slave revolts in Rome
Harry Sidebottom’s latest novel, The Burning Road, is set in Sicily during a revolt of enslaved people against the Roman Empire. He wonders why there were so few such uprisings during the many centuries of Roman rule – and why we’ve only heard of the one led by Spartacus. “I am Spartacus!” At first in […]