On 11 May 1812 Spencer Perceval, the British Prime Minister, was fatally shot at close range in the lobby of the House of Commons. In the confused aftermath, hi

Only once in history has a British Prime Minister been assassinated. At 5.00 p.m. on Monday, 11 May 1812, John Bellingham made his way to the Houses of Parliame

John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham is one of the most enigmatic and overlooked figures of early nineteenth century British history. The elder brother of Pitt the Yo

England entered the nineteenth century having lost the American states and was at war with France. The slave trade had been halted and the country was in tormen

Barely two centuries ago, most of the world's productive land still belonged either communally to traditional societies or to the higher powers of monarch or ch