Elizabeth I began her reign on 17th November 1558 as a young woman of only 25 years of age. However, by the time Elizabeth gave her first speech to Parliament in early 1559 she declared that it would ...

Common in the highlands, islands and lowlands of Scotland, the prickly purple thistle has been Scotland’s national emblem for centuries. The thistle, which grows to a height of five feet, has no ...

Born around 1068, very little is known of Henry’s early life: as the youngest son of William the Conqueror he had never expected to be king. Inheriting the throne from his eldest brother William II, ...

In 1216, at just nine years of age, young Henry became King Henry III of England. His reign saw turbulent and dramatic changes take place with baron-led rebellions and the confirmation of the Magna ...

An invention that changed the world was 200 years old in 2004. Britain celebrated the bicentenary of the steam railway locomotive with a year-long events programme, but it was not an engineering giant ...

The word “clann” comes from the Gaelic and means children, and its members claimed kinship from the common ancestor whose name they bore, and even the poorest clansman considered themselves of nobler ...

The South Sea Bubble has been called: the world’s first financial crash, the world’s first Ponzi scheme, speculation mania and a disastrous example of what can happen when people fall prey to ‘group ...

During his reign as King of England, as well as Denmark and Norway, Cnut had succeeded in the mission which his father had endeavoured to achieve, to rule over a vast North Sea Empire, united by his ...

A Norman noblewoman, Mabel de Bellême became Countess of Shrewsbury through her marriage to Sir Roger de Montgomery. Shrewd ...