This was a Catholic tribunal founded on a temporary basis in France and Germany. Its purpose was to seek out heresy, prosecute and punish it. In the thirteenth…
Author: Dean Swift
‘Dean Swift’ is a pen name: the author has been a soldier; he has worked in sales, TV, the making of films, as a teacher of English and history and a journalist. He is married with three grown-up children. They live in Spain.
William Cobden
Cobden was a self-educated farm labourer from Surrey, England who became one of the first professional journalists. By this I mean that he wrote for the papers of…
Sales of General History in book form – news!
Sales of Volume I and II of General History in book form are advancing sedately on line. Wherever you live in the world you can contact www.amazon.com or…
A brief history of Russia
Russia is a vast area of land occupying most of eastern Europe and much of northern Asia. So little is known about this country that Winston Churchill said…
The Métis & the Red River Rebellion
Among the first Canadians were the oddly named Métis – having a mixture of pure Native American blood with white, mostly French and Scottish. It was a robust…
After devastation, the Reconstruction of the United States
The American Civil War had left most states, especially in the South, in chaos and sad decline. American boys from North and South had killed each other, most…
More about THE BOOK
The first (and second) volume of General History in print – some news With a book presentation on September 13 at midday, held in the famous Orchid Gardens…
Once upon a time . . .the Law of Fratricide
For those of you who are not entirely confident (very few indeed I should judge) in the English language there are a number of useful words that end…
Hohenstaufen (1138 – 1254) and Hohenzollern (1417 – 1918)
The Hohenstaufen dynasty was named after the castle of Staufen (long ruined) in north-eastern Swabia. From 1338 to 1254 its leader were crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, beginning…
The Ottoman Dynasty (and a warning about names)
History students must not confuse the word ‘Ottoman’ with ‘Ottonian’, though it is easy to do so. The latter is another name for an ancient German royal dynasty…