ON THE COVER: ALAMY X2, AKG X1, ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST©HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II, 2016/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES X1, GETTY X3, COVER IMAGE ENHANCEMENT - CHRISSTOCKERDESIGN.CO.UK/ON THIS PAGE: ART ARCHIVE X1
Abraham Lincoln famously said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” By the 19th century, the United States had become divided over the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery, with the slave-holding South viewed by the free North as immoral. After Lincoln was elected President, the tensions exploded into bloody civil war. Brother was pitted against brother over four years of brutal combat, but there was so much more to it than a fight over slavery. We’ve got the full story from page 42.
Sticking with civil wars, but this time much closer to home, we have the tale of King Charles II’s escape to France following his defeat at Worcester (p27The Merry Monarch was forced to disguise himself as a servant, and even resorted to sleeping in a tree at one point in his desperation to avoid the same terrible fate as his father.