Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
Abdul Karim’s rapid rise in Victoria’s household made him enemies.
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Photo by Hayman Selig Mendelssohn, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The grand-daughter of Queen Victoria was as close to the poor of Moscow’s slums as she was to the Russian Tsar.
© Nigel Brown, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
King Philip V of Spain sent a second Spanish Armada against Britain, but it suffered much the same fate as the first.
© David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Lady Blakeney agrees to spy for the French Revolutionary government in return for her brother’s life.
© Carole Raddato, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
British sympathy for Roman imperial progress evaporated when officials began asset-stripping the country.
© Wellcome Trust, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
The Scottish missionary and medic believed that slavery could better be eradicated by trade than by force.