When Richard I heard that the town of Verneuil in Normandy was under threat, he made a vow that few could be expected to take so literally.

Richard the Lionheart told Philip, the martial Bishop of Dreux, to decide whether he was a bishop or a knight.

Following the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, King Henry V instructed the Church of York to recognise the contribution of one of her eighth-century bishops.

In 1607, settler Captain John Smith was captured by the Algonquin near the English colony at Jamestown, and watched his captors’ ceremonies with rising anxiety.

Sir Walter Raleigh was within his rights to experiment with the Native American habit of smoking tobacco, but he should have told his servants first.

When young Walter Raleigh first came to the court of Queen Elizabeth I he had little more than his wardrobe in his favour, and he wore it wisely.