Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i History Extra

“Ten years ago, on 26 March 2015, an English king was buried in a cathedral. What made this event particularly unusual was that the king had died more than 500 years ago, and had been residing under a car park in Leicester until very recently. I'm referring, of course, to Richard III, whose rediscovery in 2012 is arguably the greatest history news story of this century. But how could we be sure that this skeleton did indeed belong to the Yorkist king? To provide an answer, the latest scientific techniques were employed, as recounted in this month's cover feature. It's written by Turi King, who led the DNA verification process that ensured the correct man would be laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral. Turn to page 22 for the full…

Why Elon Musk should take a lesson from Confucius WATCHING THE NEWS ON ELON MUSK'S SPACEX project to make humanity a “multi-planetary species” beginning with a colony on Mars, I found myself reflecting on an earlier moment in history. Between 1405 and 1433, the Chinese sent seven great missions to south-east Asia and across the Indian Ocean, visiting the Persian Gulf, India and east Africa. The first fleet alone comprised many dozens of ships and more than 27,000 men. Admiral Zheng He's fleets included the biggest wooden vessels yet built, dwarfing the tiny ships that later carried Columbus and Magellan. Modern theories that such Ming ‘treasure ships’ could have exceeded 400 feet (122 metres) in length, however, are now rejected by experts; the size of wooden ships was always limited…

One October evening in 1809, Robert Wedderburn was walking through London, one child asleep in his arms and his daughter beside him, when he saw a gang of about 20 drunks encircling a young man near his home on Peter Street, St Giles. Things were getting hairy; it was clear the man was in danger. Wedderburn tried to pull him away from the gang peacefully, but it was no good. If he wanted to help, he'd have to get his hands dirty. He handed the sleeping child to his daughter, took off his coat and “said he would fight one or two of them at a time”. Alas, they all set upon him at once and beat him with thick walking sticks. He might have died then and there outside…

Some history books are very clearly labours of love. This is one such, devoted to a topic that most scholars would neglect as too tangential to the mainstream – yet making a success of it. The author has an aptitude for biography, and uses it here to discuss the careers of two prominent figures in the politics of the mid-17th century, Edward Hyde and Bulstrode Whitelocke. These men were on opposing sides in the Civil War, and their lives followed very different trajectories in subsequent decades. Hyde was a royalist who spent a decade and a half in exile after the war, returning in triumph at the Restoration to become Earl of Clarendon and chief royal minister before ending up once more a fugitive, dying overseas. Bulstrode was a parliamentarian,…

One of the earliest known recipes for a pink dye, written in Tuscany around 1480, promised “a beautiful rosy hue”. You only needed brazilwood, chalk, tartar and “if you can, the urine of an ass, but moderately. If you do not have ass urine, that of a drunk man will do.” An inauspicious start for a colour associated with romance. Michel Pastoureau is known for his excellent scholarly monographs on European colour history. The past 25 years have seen the publication of Blue, Black, Green, Red, Yellow and White. Pink is the first of his studies into a wider chromatic range that will include orange, purple, grey and brown. Pink is, like its forebears, a social history, organised first chronologically then into short thematic essays that explore different aspects of…

Edvard Munch Portraits National Portrait Gallery, London / Until 15 June / npg.org.uk The haunting work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944) takes centre stage at the National Portrait Gallery this spring. Best known for his searing masterpiece, The Scream, Munch's radical approach to portraiture, capturing identity and inner turmoil with striking intensity, is revealed in the displays. Sirens, Women and the Sea Ferens Art Gallery, Hull / Until 5 May / hullmuseums.co.uk From a fifth-century BC Greek vase to Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces by Herbert James Draper, this exhibition explores the history of the mythological creatures whose song could be so deadly. It also features contemporary artists like Abe Odedina and Emma Stibbon and reveals how the legends connect to themes of climate change, migration and gender fluidity. Animated Activism: Women…

RECIPE Easter simnel cake ELEANOR BARNETT bakes a sweet confection that originally offered Christians a respite from tedious Lenten dishes Once an Easter essential, simnel cake is harder to come by these days, overshadowed by copious amounts of chocolate. This is such a shame, because it's a delicious, light and visually spectacular fruit cake with a burst of nuttiness provided by the melted marzipan layer in the middle. It is often decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing Jesus's disciples – minus the treacherous Judas. According to a legend with its roots in the Victorian era, simnel cake was created when a couple named Simon and Nelly argued about what treat they should make with some leftover unleavened dough. Simon wanted to boil it, whereas Nelly insisted it should be baked.…

1. Time for bed In Sophie Nibbs's feature on historical pirates, I was surprised to learn that some of them followed strict rules, including having an 8pm curfew on the ship (page 60). 2. Mum's not the word Mothering Sunday will soon be upon us and I hadn't previously realised that this began as a day when Christians would return to their ‘mother church’, rather than celebrate their own mums (page 85). 3. Ancient Rock-star In this month's Anniversaries, I was intrigued to discover that Gibraltar takes its name from Tariq ibn Ziyad, a governor of Tangier who conquered the promontory in the eighth century (page 6).…

Some say that the first Jews sailed to India on King Solomon's ships IN THE WARM WINTER SUN OF MATTANCHERRY, a district of Kochi in Kerala, I wandered the labyrinthine streets of Jew Town. The main thoroughfare, Synagogue Lane, is lined with shops sporting names such as Shalom, some displaying the Star of David in their windows, and selling Kashmiri shawls, spices and handicrafts. This is the historical heart of India's Jewish community – though today there are hardly any Jews living here. Kochi (formerly Cochin) has a centuries-long Jewish presence. The date of the earliest arrivals is debated; some say that the first Jews sailed to south India on the ships of King Solomon some 30 centuries ago. Certainly, references to Jewish traders in India have been found in…

RENAISSANCE “If you want to understand why people make such a fuss about Machiavelli, start here” Catherine Fletcher enjoys a lively examination of political thought in Renaissance Italy → page 74 MEDICINE “Between the Black Death and Covid-19, societies learned how to coordinate and how to innovate” Virginia Berridge is intrigued by a book discussing efforts to control contagion through the centuries → page 78 CULTURAL “Many monarchs and local leaders demanded the kinds of reassurance that only magic could offer” Tabitha Stanmore lauds a look at links between magic and the church → page 79 SOCIAL “One feature of pilgrimage is that it means a multitude of different things to different people” Peter Stanford assesses a book mapping the history of faith-based journeys → page 76 INTERVIEW Hallie Rubenhold…

Artistic genius Even among the many luminaries of the Renaissance, Michelangelo stands out. From his sublime sculptures to the majesty of the Sistine Chapel, this brilliant artist helped to define the style and substance of a transformative epoch. Catherine Fletcher joined us to examine the man for our Life of the Week series. historyextra.com/michelangelo-pod Shakespeare's sisters Histories of the Renaissance often extol the lives of ‘great men’, but this cultural revolution was also shaped by creative women. In a 2024 episode, Ramie Targoff introduced some overlooked pioneers – from England's first female playwright, Elizabeth Cary, to Shakespeare's contemporary Mary Sidney, translator of the Book of Psalms into English verse. historyextra.com/renaissance-women Beauty regimes Using breadcrumbs for exfoliation and toxic lead-based cosmetics, women knew that appearances could make or break reputations during…

This book marked a milestone in the study of the European Middle Ages. Geary's starting point is deceptively simple: the observation that practices of human remembrance have their own distinctive history. Because medieval memorial culture conditioned the sorts of texts that were preserved into the early modern and modern eras, this has significant implications. The central argument is that western Europe saw a sea change in attitudes and practices of remembrance around the year 1000, characterised by new efforts to systematise institutional and local memories. These not only set the parameters for how we see the era, but also how we view earlier periods, because the relevant documents have all been refracted through this late 10th-century lens. Many important sources for earlier centuries survive only in copies from the turn…

There is a persistent idea that the Catholic church was trapped in a fierce battle against magic for much of the medieval period. Though Anne Lawrence-Mathers’ beautifully illustrated new book doesn't put paid to the notion entirely, it at least adds considerable nuance. In a tour of 20 books ranging in origin from the Carolingian empire to early Tudor England, she exposes the complicated and often pragmatic relationship between Christian elites and the supernatural. In theory, medieval churchmen condemned magical practice. The argument ran that anything supernatural, from predicting the future to communicating with the dead, was realised through demons and should thus be avoided on pain of death (of one's immortal soul – the actual death penalty was more patchily applied). In practice the line was much more blurry,…

Family fortunes Narrated by Paul McGann, Titanic: Ship of Dreams (BBC Sounds, Tuesday 8 April) is an immersive and, at 13 episodes, exhaustive retelling of the doomed liner's story (pictured). It draws you in – especially the first episode where McGann and his brother, Call the Midwife star Stephen, discuss their great uncle James, who was born in the Liverpool slums to a family who had fled famine in Ireland and worked aboard the ship. Ideas around free market capitalism shape how we live today, and David Dimbleby explores how this happened in The History Podcast: The Invisible Hands (BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 26 March). He goes back to the Battle of Britain and a Hurricane pilot, Antony Fisher, who watched his fellow pilot and brother, Basil, go down in flames.…

IN PROFILE Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet physicist and, later, dissident awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for championing human rights around the world. After playing a major part in the development of a Soviet hydrogen bomb, he grew concerned about the moral and political implications of his work. In 1980, he was arrested and exiled by Soviet authorities, and later became prominent in political opposition in the USSR. Sakharov used his position in the Soviet elite to try to change the system from within, urging leaders to stop testing nuclear weapons and protect human rights When did you first hear about Sakharov? While I was studying Russian at university in the late 1980s. I spent half a year in Moscow during the Gorbachev era – in fact,…

Jonathan Healey “The Civil Wars are endlessly fascinating and full of remarkable characters. I'm working on a book that tells the epic tale of how war came in 1642, and the people who drove the crisis or tried to stop it.” Jonathan explores the reign of Charles I on page 53 Hallie Rubenhold “I believe that historical true crime can offer a lens through which we can look at a particular moment in time. As a social historian, that's priceless.” Hallie reveals what the Dr Crippen murder case can tell us about life in the early 20th century on page 70 Tim Grady “Societies are very good at commemorating their own wartime losses. It is remarkable to think, therefore, that the enemy dead were also once included in many local…

The pioneering historian, author and campaigner Marika Sherwood was born in Hungary in 1937 to a Jewish family. As a survivor of the Holocaust, she emigrated to Australia in 1948 and then to the UK in 1965. She worked as a teacher in London during a period that saw a rise in the number of pupils from Black British Caribbean communities, and witnessed discriminatory practices such as the disproportionate placement of Black pupils in lower teaching streams. She was also keenly aware of the damaging impact of historical silences and erasures around the Black presence in Britain. Sherwood's commitment to the research and dissemination of African diasporan history first emerged in 1982 with the publication of a book on the British Honduran Forestry Unit during the Second World War. Together…

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts CULTURAL Silliness and shame From parading with horse skulls to chasing cheese down hills, Britain has a varied menu of folk customs – some rather strange. But, as Liz Williams explains, many also feature darker undercurrents of shame, judgment and social conformity. ROMAN Toga party A good toga was the Roman equivalent of a posh suit – saved for best, and worn by elites. That's one of the insights into Roman clothing offered by Ursula Rothe. She explains how garments ranging from tunics to sandals could indicate social status in the ancient empire. SOCIAL Ideal homes The carpeted bathroom was history's worst home-furnishing trend, according to Deborah Sugg Ryan, a design historian who answers listener questions on topics…

Ellie Cawthorne: In 1910, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen murdered his wife, Belle Elmore, before going on the run with his mistress, triggering an international manhunt. It was one of the biggest news stories of the day and became known as the ‘crime of the century’. What drew you to this case as a historian? Hallie Rubenhold: I believe that historical true crime can offer a lens through which we can look at a particular moment in time – and this case is no different. You have a huge amount of documentation – witness statements, police files, trial transcripts – revealing what people saw, what they experienced, what their daily lives were like. It's like a core sample of what was happening in the world at a certain time, and it…

Discerning where the modern world is heading can be a confusing business, especially when one set of evidence contradicts another. In the west, organised religion is in decline in all but a few small pockets, yet pilgrimage is expanding fast. Throughout history, it has usually been intimately connected with faith traditions, a chance to join with others of similar beliefs on a physical journey to get closer to your god or gods. So why, then, are we seeing spectacular revivals of, for example, the Camino de Santiago – the ancient Catholic pilgrim paths to the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, by tradition the burial place of the apostle James? By the mid-1970s, notes Kathryn Hurlock, only 240 pilgrims were recorded walking to Santiago each year. In 2024, nearly 500,000…

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic was met by much discussion about which methods of control work best. Should other states adopt the severe lockdowns enforced in China? Didn't similar mortality and case numbers eventuate in Sweden, a country that prided itself on not locking down? The debate was never entirely settled and, as time passed, the severe lockdowns of the early phase of the pandemic fell out of favour. Shelagh Ogilvie's book ranges from the 14th century – the era of the Black Death – to the 21st with the aim of providing answers to this conundrum. She identifies six institutions – market, state, community, religion, guild and family – that have played a role in the transmission and control of contagion. Considering each in turn, she aims to…

Across 1 Battle of ____ Hill, February 1881, in which the British were routed by the Boers (6) 4 Former Soviet republic that was devastated by a 1932–33 famine resulting from Stalin's collectivisation policy (7) 10 Royal house that provided three kings of England in the 14th and 15th centuries (9) 11 Surname of husband and wife physicists who shared the Nobel Prize in 1903 (5) 12 Electronic location system, vital to Britain's air defences during the Battle of Britain (5) 13 Former artillery ammunition consisting of small, tightly packed balls (9) 14 Nasa programme that prepared the way for the Apollo moon landing missions (6) 16 Ancient Mesopotamian city, in Sumerian mythology the home of the storm god, Enlil (6) 19/20 Key figure of the American civil rights movement…