Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i History Extra

"Schemer. Manipulator. Murderer. As with many powerful women from the past, Margaret Beaufort has found herself in the firing line, viewed as a Machiavellian mastermind who, some believe, orchestrated the killing of the princes in the Tower – all in aid of her decades-long plan to install Henry Tudor as king of England. But in our cover feature, Lauren Johnson offers a different take. Though Margaret did facilitate Henry’s ascent, it was only in the dying years of the Wars of the Roses that she may have realised that her son could achieve the ultimate prize. Turn to page 22 to see what Lauren has to say. Also this month, we’re exploring an equally dramatic transfer of power in more recent times. In November 1975 General Franco died and Spain’s…

IF YOU STROLL ACROSS THE GREEN SWATHE OF the Maidan in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) – past the monumental marble Victoria Memorial built to honour that Empress of India – and keep heading south, the city noise fades, and so too does the bustle. Off Debendra Lal Khan Road by the Tolly Canal, and opposite the zoological garden, are the gates of Bhowanipore Cemetery. Walk through them and you enter a world of order and peace. At the back, beyond lines of graves from the 19th and 20th century, are the headstones of young, mainly British men who fought in both world wars and died here. Many perished from diseases such as malaria and smallpox; some were killed in accidents, and one was apparently murdered while off duty. Also here are…

After claiming the crown at Bosworth, Henry wed Elizabeth of York (right), daughter of Edward IV, helping to heal dynastic rifts. The myth goes that Margaret was the ideal mother but a nightmare mother-in-law, so power-crazed that she even directed how her daughterin-law must give birth. This idea is founded on a book of ordinances (rules for the royal household) attributed to Margaret by an 18th-century antiquarian, but there is no evidence that she wrote them. Other contemporary writings have also been misunderstood. In 1498, three Spanish ambassadors reported that “the Queen [Elizabeth] is a very noble woman, and much beloved [but] she is kept in subjection by the mother of the King.” However, it is not certain that those writers actually met either woman. Stopping only briefly in London,…

Spain’s great crisis You can hear Paul Preston answer listener questions on the Spanish Civil War at HistoryExtra.com/podcast On 15 June 1977 something remarkable occurred across Spain: people went to the polls in free elections for the first time since 1936. With Adolfo Suárez’s UCD party securing victory, the complex process of building a democracy could now begin. Yet how was this to be achieved without plunging Spain back into dictatorship or the horrors of another civil war? The widespread consensus was that sacrifices would have to be made – and that meant an amnesty. On 14 October, that amnesty passed through Spain’s parliament, the Cortes, into law. This hugely consequential piece of legislation effectively stated that acts of terrorism in opposition to the Franco dictatorship – which meant the…

The most celebrated of all ancient Romans almost met a watery end before he’d made his big splash in the vast ocean of history. In 75 BC, Julius Caesar – then in his mid-20s and yet to establish himself as the most powerful man in Rome – sailed to Rhodes to study with a famous Greek rhetorician. But on his journey east, he was kidnapped by Cilician pirates from southern Anatolia. There was nothing so unusual about this stroke of misfortune – the waters of the eastern Mediterranean were plagued by bandits all too willing to prey on Roman travellers. But there was certainly something unusual about what happened next. Seemingly oblivious to the danger in which he now found himself, Caesar decisively took control of the situation. According to…

The Bayeux Tapestry is an amazing artefact – and it’s exceptional not least because of its very existence today. Precious few pieces of embroidery from the medieval period survive, let alone ones that are almost 70 metres long. And, of course, the story it tells – of the conquest of England by the Normans – is one of immense historical significance. So we rightly celebrate it, and excitement about its forthcoming loan from Bayeux to the British Museum is high. But what if this artefact wasn’t really so very exceptional at the time it was made? What if it was just one of several embroideries produced to commemorate the Norman victory over the English at the battle of Hastings in October 1066? Professor John Blair, an expert in the Anglo-Saxon…

Danny Bird What was the genesis of Legenda? Was there a moment when you knew you had to write this book? Janina Ramirez From the start of my academic career, I learned from [Palestinian-American literary critic and activist] Edward Said and others the value of acknowledging one’s perspective: being transparent about who you are, rather than claiming some sense of neutral empirical truth. For me, identity rests on three pillars. First, I am a woman. Second, class: I come from an immigrant, working-class background. Third, heritage: Polish-Irish, born in Dubai, raised in the UK, married to a Spanish-Scot, with a distinctly European sense of self. With all that, I wasn’t going to get away without a Catholic upbringing: convent school, just very Roman Catholic foundations. I’m not practising now, but…

In the 21st century, we have moved into an era of performative covert action. Leaders such as Vladimir Putin have used the shadow of death to coerce their enemies overseas and to reinforce their warrior image at home. But as Simon Ball argues persuasively, assassination has always been an option, even for seemingly well-behaved states that appear to uphold the rule-based international order. In previous decades, they were simply a little less boastful about their activities. This is a riveting and timely book, with its ambitious global coverage and assiduous historical research covering important assassinations since 1909. Ball offers us new insights on even the most famous cases including Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Rasputin, Mahatma Gandhi, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King. However, what is most intriguing is…

Idi Amin is a historical figure synonymous with evil. Branded ‘Africa’s Hitler’ in newspaper headlines and immortalised in lurid books and documentaries detailing his regime’s many atrocities, Uganda’s most infamous dictator is remembered as a monster: irrational, bloodthirsty and larger than life. While powerful, this framing has also been limiting. In both media and scholarship his rule has often been reduced to a spectacle of violence, obscuring the more complex social, cultural and political dynamics that allowed it to function for nearly a decade. Such narratives often foreclose deeper inquiries into how and why many Ugandans invested themselves in his government’s projects, and their stories’ unsettling lessons. Derek Peterson’s engaging new book is therefore an important intervention in the historiography of Uganda’s postcolonial experience. Rather than reproducing wellworn caricatures, the…

Alfred Buckham: Daredevil Photographer National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait, Edinburgh / Until 19 April 2026 / nationalgalleries.org Admire more than 100 images and artefacts spanning the career of a groundbreaking pioneer of aerial photography, from wartime shots to breathtaking views of Scotland. Discover letters, journals and even Buckham’s passport, displayed for the first time, and explore his process via original cameras and glass negatives. You can even dabble in his photographic techniques in an interactive zone. A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music Foundling Museum, London / Until 29 March 2026 / foundlingmuseum.org.uk Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus – first performed in 1749 to raise funds for the Foundling Hospital – is explored in this new exhibition that traces its journey from 18th-century composition to modern impact. Across four floors, rare scores,…

The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd, the flare of the floodlights – what enchantments they conjure! If you’d visited a regional playhouse over two centuries ago, though, a very different set of sights, sounds and, particularly, scents would have assailed you. “Light was from tallow candles made with mutton fat – smelly and smoky,” explains tour guide Dave Palmer in Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal. Not that the audience would have cared. “They were pretty pungent, too,” smiles Palmer. “They didn’t bathe much, and puffed away on clay pipes throughout the five or six-hour show. With about 400 people packed into pit, stalls and boxes, the whole place ponged to high heaven. And it was a wild crowd: yelling, booing, cheering, hissing, throwing things at the actors…

Helen Keller 1880-1968 IN PROFILE Helen Keller was an American writer and activist. Having lost her sight and hearing at just 19 months old, she later learned how to speak, read and write. She became a prolific author and campaigner for blind and deaf people, women’s suffrage and world peace. In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon Johnson. Her ashes were interred at Washington National Cathedral with long-time companions Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson. "She sought to use the power of language to change the world, becoming an advocate for women’s suffrage and disability rights" When did you first hear about Keller? It was when I was eight or nine years old, growing up in Canada, and I borrowed a book about her from my…

1. Three weddings and a baby One fact that really struck me in this month’s cover feature was that, by the age of 15, Margaret Beaufort was already on her third marriage – as well as being the mother of a young son (page 24). 2. Bargain of the (19th) century? In 1803, as I learned in this month’s Anniversaries, the United States paid just $15m to acquire 828,000 square miles of land from France. In an instant, the Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the country (page 8). 3. An illustrious whiff Reading Q&A, I discovered that several illustrious figures, including George Bernard Shaw, were involved in the interwar Smell Society. Despite its unusual name, the organisation had the laudable aim of improving air quality (page 37).…

The rightful king I enjoyed reading the interesting article by Caitlin Ellis on the rivals for the throne in 1066 (October). In particular, it was fascinating to read about Edgar Ætheling’s claim, which was surely the strongest, based on pure bloodline. But other factors were considered, too, by the Witan (king’s council) in those days, and bloodline by itself was no guarantee of success. The ability to command respect through leadership and bravery on the battlefield were also required characteristics, along with the support of the leading nobles. With England facing external threats and with Harold’s proven ability on the battlefield, there was only really one choice for them. Edgar was too young and inexperienced; Harald Hardrada was surely just a chancer out to get what he could; and William…

On 2 January 1893, the black American abolitionist and reformer Frederick Douglass delivered a lecture on Haiti to an audience in Chicago. It was widely alleged, he reflected, that the Caribbean republic was riddled with “voodooism, fetishism, serpent worship and cannibalism”, and that “little children are fatted for slaughter and offered as sacrifices to their voodoo deities”. Such claims, Douglass declared, were false. He told his listeners that, while serving as US minister (effectively, ambassador) to Haiti between 1889 and 1891, he found no evidence of ritual sacrifice, despite diligent investigation. By the time Douglass spoke in Chicago, the idea of Haitian ‘voodoo’ as a murderous cult was lodged in the American public consciousness. As he noted, the features of this myth would have been familiar to many. According to…

All serious scholarship on ancient Sparta has to be conducted within the penumbra of the ‘mirage Spartiate’, a French term coined in 1933 to describe the problem posed by idealised accounts of Sparta. Popularisers too often ignore it. Andrew Bayliss does not. Ancient Sparta’s mirage was of two kinds: partly a sheer figment of the perfervid imaginations of Sparta-watchers; partly the distorted, even consciously bent, observations also of outsiders. In such a hazardous evidentiary situation, Bayliss does a grand job of sifting, evaluating and re-composing the available sources into a lively and plausible history of this nonpareil Greek city from c1000 to 371 BC. As Bayliss notes, there’s never a shortage of supposedly original new books on ancient Sparta. He’s written one himself before this. There’s something about Sparta that…

Janina Ramirez “In virtually every revolutionary moment, women were excluded from shaping national identity. It’s a profound injustice.” Janina reveals how men have co-opted women’s stories for their own advantage down the centuries, on page 68 Paul Preston “The forging of Spanish democracy was a collective triumph led by King Juan Carlos. It speaks to a people’s collective determination never to face civil war and dictatorship again.” Paul explores how pluralism arose from the ashes of tyranny in post-Franco Spain, on page 28 Ruth Goodman “In the Tudor era, everyone became that bit safer, the day-to-day became that bit more predictable, and a lot of people got a little bit richer.” Ruth explains why 16th-century England witnessed advances in peace and prosperity, on page 46 David S Potter “When all…

THE BOOK OF KELLS, ONE OF THE GREATEST pieces of medieval art, is today displayed in the library of Trinity College Dublin. This illuminated gospel book is named after the monastery in County Meath where it was kept in the Middle Ages. It’s a masterwork of medieval calligraphy and painting, with its Celtic knot patterns, scintillating colour, and the staggering intricacies of the display pages and canon tables – all smoky golden magnificence. An Irish annalist called the book “the great Gospel of Columcille [Columba], the chief relic of the western world”. It may be the work described by the historian Gerald of Wales in the 1180s, in his book on Ireland. “Look more keenly at it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art,” he wrote. “You…

In March 1457, a short, slight widow left Pembroke Castle to embark on a 100-mile journey across territories stalked by civil war and pestilence. Her husband had died only four months earlier, carried off by plague contracted during imprisonment at another Welsh castle during the spurts of Yorkist resistance that marked the early Wars of the Roses. It was just weeks since she had given birth – a traumatic labour, endured without her family or support network. But she set out now to Newport with a firm sense of purpose. She would protect herself in one of the only ways a woman could at that time: by finding another husband. This widow and mother was Margaret Beaufort. She was 13 years old. The newborn she left at Pembroke would, in…

1936-39 Nationalist forces headed by General Franco overthrow the Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War. Franco establishes a dictatorship that will endure until the 1970s. 26 July 1947 The Law of Succession establishes Spain as a kingdom with Franco as head of state. Franco has the right to nominate his successor. July 1969 Franco announces the identity of his successor: Juan Carlos (pictured below right), grandson of King Alfonso XIII. 20 December 1973 Franco’s prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated by ETA. 20 November 1975 Franco dies. Juan Carlos becomes king and head of state. 5 July 1976 Adolfo Suárez becomes prime minister. Later that year, the Spanish parliament overwhelmingly approves his reform project. 15 June 1977 Suárez’s UCD party secures victory in Spain’s first free elections since…

Stink tank Writers George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells were both members of an organisation called the Smell Society. Founded by the lawyer Ambrose Appelbe in 1935, the society campaigned for the improvement of often foul-smelling air. Members also aimed to concoct new terms to describe a variety of odours: Appelbe declared that he wanted to add 500 ‘smell’ words to the English language. The Smell Society never had a large membership, and folded during the Second World War. Fishy business In 1872 Karl Staiger, a German naturalist working in Australia, sat down to a meal. Not recognising the fish he was served, he forwarded a sketch of it to a fellow scientist, the Comte de Castelnau, who declared it a new species that he named Ompax spatuloides. Unfortunately, Staiger…

FAMILY PLANNING The Nazis considered nuclear families to be the building blocks of a ‘pure’ German nation The family was exalted in Nazi ideology and propaganda as “the germ cell of the nation”. In the Nazi Party platform, a 25-point programme outlining their political goals, it was declared that: “The state must ensure that the nation’s health standards are raised by protecting and infants." This 1936 poster shows the Nazi eagle spreading its wings protectively over the valuable German family. Echoing the eagle, the father of the family has his arms around his wife and one of his children; the mother holds a baby in her arms, while a third young child smiles out at the viewer. “The NSDAP protects the national community” is the headline slogan, with further wording…

Radical times The decades preceding 1789 were filled with royal scandals, failed treaties, corruption and dazzling scientific spectacles. Through pamphlets, songs and underground news, Robert Darnton reveals in this December 2023 episode how ordinary Parisians absorbed these events. historyextra.com/bastille-pod Let them eat cake? Behind the glittering façade of Versailles, Marie Antoinette’s own voice, preserved in private letters, reveal a woman of vulnerability, wit and resilience. Catriona Seth uncovers the individual behind the myth: teenage bride, embattled queen, tragic figure. This February 2023 episode reconsiders her legacy. historyextra.com/antoinette-pod Guillotines and paranoia Whispers of betrayal, sharpened blades and a nation gripped by fear are the order of the day in this episode from May 2024, as David Andress confronts the phase of the French Revolution known as ‘the Terror’. He unpacks the…

In his new book, Roger Luckhurst sets about the monumental task of chronicling the evolution of burial practices. In doing so, he does a wonderful job of exploring millennia of deathly debate, including the cultural meanings behind particular approaches. The book is composed of three sections. Part One examines how humanity first took care of their dead, from prehistoric hominid grave sites to early examples of cremation and mummification. This is followed by a closer inspection of more structured tombs and necropolises, often associated with the advancement of human settlement. It includes a wealth of archaeological discoveries such as prehistoric barrow cemeteries, ancient Egyptian pyramids and vaults, as well as classical cities of the dead. The second section focuses on the cultural beliefs of the world’s great religions relating to…

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits 250 miles above us. A collaboration between 15 countries, it weighs around 400 tonnes and is the size of a football pitch. Since 2 November 2000, it has ensured that humankind has an off-planet presence. It’s also the subject of Archive on 4: Out of This World (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 1 November), which tells the story of how the ISS came to be built. It’s a tale of international cooperation, but also of rivalry and political machinations. Via archive audio, eyewitness testimony and the insights of experts, the documentary takes in the end of the Cold War, China’s exclusion and, intriguingly, a prefab in Moscow. It also asks: what can the ISS tell us about a future in which nations work together in…

Across 1/4 Site of an 1854 rebellion by gold diggers in Victoria, Australia who, though defeated, secured the vote and better treatment (6,8) 9 Romulus and Remus? (5) 10 The eleventh month of the French Revolutionary calendar (9) 11/12/28 Term sometimes applied to the conflict precipitated by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 (3,5,3) 13 First coins (with the half version) struck by the US mint in 1793 (5) 14 Scene of a crushing defeat of the Romans by Hannibal (6) 15 Early Latin name for England (6) 19 A physical test once used to determine an accused’s innocence or guilt (6) 21 Historic port of Aberdeenshire, once a trade centre of weaving and silversmithing (5) 25 The best-known work of this 17th/18th-century satirist has become a classic of children’s literature (5) 27 An Act of 1914 with…