Eton - A Remarkable Heritage
By Sarah Powell
Eton is undeniably special. The largest of England's boarding "public" schools, it is one of the most famous schools in the world, its historic reputation perpetuated by traditions such as its distinctive dress code, Boating Song, Field Game, Wall Game, Eton Fives, Pop* and the achievements of the many great men educated there.
Read the article.

Henry Sinclair
By Duncan A. Bruce
More and more people are coming to accept as fact that Prince Henry Sinclair made a voyage of discovery to America landing in what is now Nova Scotia on June 2, 1398, nearly a century before the first voyage of Columbus. But history changes slowly.
Read the article.

Grand Tour
By Sarah Powell
A distinctly romantic aura surrounds the Grand Tour, that once traditional rite of passage into cultured adulthood. Travel in continental Europe, it was hoped, would broaden the mind, enthuse the spirit, and inspire the senses...
Read the article

A dainty dish to set before the King?
By Sarah Powell
The lamprey, a relative of the hagfish or slime eel, is an unattractive fish and some species have decidedly disgusting habits. Yet the decidedly unlovely lamprey was considered a great delicacy among aristocratic Europeans in the Middle Ages, to the extent that some aficionados literally ate themselves to death.
Read the article.

Dissing Honours
The last few weeks have seen heavy press coverage of honours in the UK. Most countries have honours. Few have such a collection as does the UK. The sheer variety of baubles, gongs, ribbons, titles, medals, citations and bits of braid to be won here has led to many charges.
Read the article.

Ireland: Land Valuation Records of the 1800s
By Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA Scot
To understand what is going on in 19th century Ireland with respect to land valuation, it is necessary to begin with a few details about taxation before change was legislated. Two taxes were collected, the tithe and the cess. The tithe was collected for the maintenance of the Established Church, the Church of Ireland. Until legislation in the 1820s the tithe was collected in kind, one tenth of the produce of the land; e.g., the tenth piglet or the tenth bushel. 
Read the article.

Puzzles in a Country Setting: St. Mary, Hale, Hampshire
By Judith Leigh, Assistant Director, Historic Churches Preservation Trust
Some eight miles south of Salisbury on the Hampshire side, in a tangle of small lanes, there is an enigma of a church: St Mary's, Hale. A church has existed on the steeply sloping site probably since pre-Domesday time, but the existing church's foundations were laid in the 14th century by the neighbouring priory of Breamore. 
Read the article.

The One Hundred Editions of Burke's Peerage
From the 1953 Edition of Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage
In 1826 John Burke produced the first edition of the Peerage which has ever since then been associated with his name. On the title page of the volume he described it as "A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom, for M.D.CCC.XXVI. Exhibiting, under strict Alphabetical Arrangement, The Present State of those Exalted Ranks, with their Armorial Bearings, Mottoes, etc., and deducing the Lineage of each house from the Founder of its Honors. With an Appendix, comprising the Prelates, the surnames of Peers, Titles by Courtesy of their Eldest Sons, Names of Heirs Presumptive, etc., etc."
Read the article.

Irish Chiefs
By Sean J Murphy
In 1999 it emerged publicly that one Terence MacCarthy of Belfast and Morocco, who claimed to be an Irish Chief, 'The MacCarthy Mór, Prince of Desmond', was in fact an impostor.
Read the article.

Flags in Britain - from the 107th Edition of Burke's Peerage and Baronetage
Flags have existed for thousands of years, and evidence from early civilizations suggests they have always been used at least in part to identify leaders and for ceremonial purposes. Flags in Britain probably date from the Roman invasion of the 1st century AD. The Roman flag, the vexillum, hung from a cross bar on a lance or staff and sometimes bore the device of the military unit to which it belonged. It is likely that it was also the Romans who introduced the dragon symbol to this country, a symbol adopted by English kings and borne by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
Read the article.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
By David M. Browne
The Royal Commission, established by a Royal Warrant in 1908, most recently revised in 2000, has a national role in the management of the archaeological, built and maritime heritage of Wales as the originator, curator and supplier of authoritative information for individual, corporate and governmental decision-makers, researchers and the general public.
Read the article.

The Gentleman's Club: An English Invention
by Sarah Powell
The club is a quintessentially English concept – indeed the very word "club" is untranslatably English and the inspiration for it emerged first in the London taverns and, from the mid- to late seventeenth century, the newly fashionable coffee- and chocolate-houses where the well-heeled assembled on certain evenings to discuss the interests of the day, whether political, literary, theatrical, legal, theological or simply scandalous.
Read the article.

Drawn to the Other Place
By John Jensen
Originally published in Lordly Cartoons.
A cartoonist's view of the Lords is only partly governed by his (or her) politics. Environment plays its part, too. A fourth generation Australian like me, born in 1930, brought up while the Empire still flourished and the world map glowed pink, was taught an English history in which the negative aspects were erased, in tandem with an Australian history from which the iniquity – such as the annihilation of the native Tasmanians – had been expunged. This was a world of heroes, mostly sporting, untainted by gossip and fawned upon by an uncritical Press.
Read the article.

Extracts from 'Agatha Christie A Readers Companion'
By Vanessa Wagstaff and Stephen Poole
Agatha Christie died in 1976. She left behind a most impressive literary legacy of sixty six crime novels and thirteen plays as well as 154 short stories most of which have been published in sixteen collections in the UK and thirteen in the USA. (A few stories have evaded publication as part of collections and are only available in their original serial form). She also contributed to three collaborative detective novels and as Mary Westmacott wrote six romantic novels. 
Read the article.

Women's Dress in the Family
By Vanessa Wagstaff
I have a particular interest in women’s dress and their social position in history and therefore the following photographs relate to women’s dress in my family.
Read the article.

Scottish and Irish Chiefs
By Hugh Peskett
Scottish and Irish Chiefs are appearing in Burke's Peerage & Baronetage for the first time, apart from those who have been listed before because they have also been peers or baronets. However, they represent an ancient aristocracy, part Gael, part Norse and part Fleming or Norman, and are generally of longer pedigree than the peers and baronets they are joining. Moreover most ancestors of the chiefs who are also peers or baronets were chiefs long before they acquired their other titles.
Read the article.

New Season, Old Traditions
By Sarah Powell
From Court presentation to gap year volunteer work, curtseying to catwalking, British aristocracy to European networking… the Season has changed. For generations of upper-class girls it was about refining social skills, meeting the right people - and, with luck, capturing a suitably "pedigreed" husband. Girls doing the Season "came out", casting off status-less childhood, presenting themselves to Court, society and the world as polished young adults, ready to support a prominent husband's business and social aspirations, keep house and ensure continuation of his family line. Court presentation was the "passport to Society". But priorities and "Society" itself were gradually to change.
Read the article

Origins of the English Peerage
by Mark Bence-Jones
The Dukes and Earls of popular fiction - in the days when the peerage was still regarded as a suitable subject for the novelist-were usually descended in an unbroken line from Norman or Plantaganet nobles of the same name. The opposite fallacy, mostly subscribed to by members of the untitled landed gentry, is that the present-day peerage originated with Tudor upstarts and Georgian borough-mongers. In fact, there are only three English earldoms in existence dating from before 1500 - Arundel - long merged with the dukedom of Norfolk - Shrewsbury and Derby.
Read the article.

The Churchill Project: Opening up Churchill's Bunker
By Phil Reed, Director, Cabinet War Rooms
It might seem peculiar to be extending the Cabinet War Rooms, which is renowned as a historic site, kept just as it was when it was abandoned at the end of the war in 1945. But that is just what is happening and with good reason.
Read the article.

Whatever Happened to Jenni Daiches - The Great Debate
By Sarah Powell
What, you may ask, do William Gladstone, Prince Charles, Benazir Bhutto and a chicken have in common? Where can you find a William Morris patterned ceiling, frescoes by Rossetti and Burne-Jones, and the country's only horizontal flue? Who stole - and many years later returned - a photo of Einstein? And whatever happened to Jenni Daiches? The answers to all the above lie in the rich history of two famous university debating societies - Cambridge, the oldest such society in England, and Oxford, the biggest and arguably most famous.
Read the article.

So, what did happen to Jenny Daiches? The Great Debate and Finale
by Sarah Powell
Because of their tradition of wide-ranging debate, the Oxford and Cambridge Unions enjoy international standing as independent platforms for free speech, a reputation reinforced by their tradition of playing host to well-known people of national and international stature who are invited to speak unopposed – which they do sometimes controversially – on subjects of their own choosing.
Read the article.

Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor
By Sir Bob Balchin
Knighthood is the most ancient non-royal title of honour to have existed continually in the British Isles, its origin dating back to Saxon times. For many centuries, therefore, knights have been commanded to kneel before their Sovereign to receive the accolade and this tradition is continued by HM The Queen to this day. The designation Knight Bachelor, used since the time of Henry III, comes probably from the Norman French battalere, one who fought on the battlefield.
Read the article.

Waterloo - I was there
By Trevor Rutter
The most extraordinary event in modern military history took place in some fields a few miles south of Brussels on June 18th 1815. It was, of course, the Battle of Waterloo. It was arguably the only occasion when two of the all time great military commanders met face to face in battle - Napoleon Bonaparte, known as the "little corporal", and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, variously nicknamed "The Iron Duke", "Nosey", "Atty" or simply "The Peer".
Read the article

British Ancestors in India
by Paul Rowland, The Indiaman Magazine
The thing I love about having British ancestors who lived and died in India and southern Asia, is that the period of my family's sojourn to India can be pinpointed between two specific dates; 1600 and 1947. 1600 is when Queen Elizabeth first granted the Honourable East India Company their charter to trade to the East.
Read the article.

Different Forms of Inheritance of Titles of Honour and Lord Archer's Proposed Change in the Descent of the Crown
By Thomas Woodcock
On 31 July 1997 a bill was proposed which, if had become law, would have removed any distinction between the sexes in determining the succession to the Crown. Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, better known as the fiction writer Jeffrey Archer, was its sponsor.
Read the article

The Vicereins of India
By Penny and Roger Beaumont
Many experiences of British women in India have been chronicled, including those described by Frances Hutchins as being "outside the charmed circle and the bonding process." Diaries, biographies and memoirs describe trials and pleasures of "memsahibs" ("the master's women"), mainly from Britain's middle-class, who went to India from early in the eighteenth century. 
Read the article

Wales on the Web
By Aled Betts
Wales on the Web is based at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. It is a subject gateway to material of Welsh interest on the World Wide Web, and was launched at the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff in November 2002.
Read the article

The Cutty Sark Trust
by Anna Somerset, Development Executive
Cutty Sark was launched on the 22nd November 1869 and is the last surviving example of an extreme clipper built for the profitable China Tea trade. Ships of her kind were built for speed and only expected to have a lifespan of 30 years. Cutty Sark is nearly 135 and after a long and celebrated history of achieving record-breaking crossings between Britain and China and Sydney she has found a home in Greenwich, South East London.
Read the article.

Do we have a Nobility?
By SIR ANTHONY WAGNER., K.C.V.O., Garter King of Arms.
Taken from the 1970 Edition of Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage.
About the time of Viscount Linley's birth I was asked by a continental student of such matters how it was legally possible for the son of a man not of noble birth to be in line of succession to the throne. I replied that, while a full answer would have to be a long one, the root of the matter was that nobility, in the sense which the word bears on the continent, not only does not now exist in the English legal system but has not existed since the Norman Conquest.
Read the article.

Order of Poland Reborn
By Rafal Heydel-Mankoo
Officially styled the "Order of Poland Reborn", this famous Order is more popularly known by the name emblazoned upon its badge: POLONIA RESTITUTA (Poland Restored). The Polish Parliament instituted the Order of Polonia Restituta on 4th February 1921. The Order ranks third in the Polish Order of Precedence but, due to the military nature of the Order of Virtuti Militari, it ranks second amongst civilian decorations. 
Read the article.

The House of Lords
By Lord Dunboyne
Taken from the 1963 edition of Burke's Peerage & Baronetage.
Historically, the survival of the House of Lords is a remarkable phenomenon. Heir of the National Council of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors and direct descendant of the Great Council of our Norman kings, the House was born, shaped and made aware in the cradle of feudalism. Yet it survived the disintegration of the feudal system.
Read the article.