France

Christopher Allmand examines Alain Chartier’s Le Livre des Quatre Dames, a poem written in response to the English victory at Agincourt, and asks what it can tell us about the lives of women during this chapter in the Hundred Years War.

The Maid of Orléans was born on January 6th 1412: she has been an incarnation of French national identity and pride for six centuries.

Robert Pearce asks why Louis-Philippe's 'July Monarchy' was overthrown.

Clovis I died in Paris on November 27th 511, aged 46.

Colin Jones and Emily Richardson reveal a little-known collection of obscene and irreverent 18th-century drawings targetting Madame de Pompadour, the favourite mistress of Louis XV of France.

Rachel Hammersley discusses how events in the 1640s and 1680s in England established a tradition that inspired French thinkers on the path to revolution a century later.

Lindsay Pollick reviews changing interpretations.

Operation 'Rutter' was launched on August 19th, 1942. Here, M.R.D. Foot reassesses views of the Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe.

The theft of the most famous painting in the world on August 21st, 1911, created a media sensation.

Mary Queen of Scots left Calais for Scotland on August 14th, 1561, aged 18 years old.

The Battle of the Somme began on July 1st, 1916. 21,000 men were killed on the first day. In this article, Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior reassess the campaign.

Louis XII came to the throne in 1498 and ruled France for sixteen years. According to Howell Lloyd, he was a 'ruler in transition': images of Louis XII elevated royal power to divine status, paving the way for the ideology of absolutism to flourish in the era of the Sun King.

Richard Cavendish provides an overview of the life of the French monarch who was nicknamed 'the Universal Spider'.