On the Feast of St John the Baptist, June 24th, 1497, Venetian navigator John Cabot claimed North America for the King of England.

Robert Tomson was a typical Englishman and it nearly killed him, but it also made him a fortune and won him a bride.

The British Empire may be said to have started when Elizabethan importers got into a fight with the Dutch over the price of pepper.

The Sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra welcomed his guests from Christian England with an unexpected gesture of friendship.

Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus urged Fausto Andrelini not to miss out on England’s enchanting contribution to good manners.

In 1573, Sir Francis Drake had two ambitions: to revenge himself on the Spanish, and to see with his own eyes the Pacific Ocean.