Tuesday, 31 January 2023

His most grievous sins included cloistering his relations to remove them as rivals to his succession in 814, mortally blinding his nephew for revolt, breaking a sworn treaty with his sons, and allowing his marriage to deteriorate to the point of his wife having an affair with a courtier.

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Louis I is known in Germany as ‘the Pious’, but in France as le Débonnaire ; both sobriquets capture aspects of his behaviour. He was suffic...
Saturday, 21 January 2023

Potosi and much of Upper Peru remained divided into ethnic factions well into the seventeenth century

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Whereas other parts of Spanish America witnessed a tendency towards homogenization of white, peninsular Spaniards ( peninsulares ), who some...
Friday, 20 January 2023

What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit

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What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit: the ability to borrow huge sums to ...

The general historical chapters represent a miserable level of performance

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One of the most disappointing of all county histories is Polwhele's Devon. The general historical chapters represent a miserable level o...
Thursday, 19 January 2023

In its first century, Potosi produced nearly half the world's silver

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Potosi produced more silver, according to official tax records, than all Mexico combined before 1650. In its first century, Potosi produced ...

Cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns make up 60-70% of the seafood eaten in the UK

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Despite its island credentials, Britain - bafflingly - is not known as a nation enamoured of fish, other than its favourite, battered, deep-...
Sunday, 8 January 2023

Disturbing imponderables like 'character', 'pure luck', 'ability to mix', and 'boldness' have a way of tipping the scales

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[the scholarship boy] is unhappy in a society which presets largely a picture of disorder which is huge and sprawling, not limited, ordered,...