FEBRUARY 2015
CONTENTS
Features
Every month
6 ANNIVERSARIES 11 HISTORY NOW 1 1 The latest history news
14 Backgrounder: US race relations 17 Past notes
Discover why Christians thought they were ‘cursed’ by sexual lust, on page 44
22 What did Magna Carta mean to the English in 1215? David Carpenter weighs up what impact Magna Carta had on barons, knights, women and peasants in the 13th century
28 The amazing legacy of Magna Carta Nick Vincent reveals how the charter has changed the course of world history
36 Captured by the Germans Former PoWs’ accounts of how they were captured give us a unique perspective on war in the trenches, argues AD Harvey
44 Christianity’s rocky relationship with sex Diarmaid MacCulloch traces the church’s 2,000-year obsession with physical love
51 Victorian murder scandals Clive Bloom investigates the 19th-century fascination with macabre killings
56 Britain at war over Vietnam Harold Wilson’s policy on the war in Asia sparked fury at home, says Sylvia Ellis
18 LETTERS 21 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW 40 OUR FIRST WORLD WAR 61 BOOKS Experts review new releases,
plus Anita Anand discusses her book on a prominent su ragette
75 TV & RADIO The pick of this month’s history programmes
78 OUT & ABOUT 78 History explorer: life in the Victorian workhouse 82 Ten things to do in February 84 My favourite place: Languedoc
87 MISCELLANY 87 Q&A and quiz 89 Sam’s recipe corner 90 Prize crossword
98 MY HISTORY HERO CarolineQuentinonWilliamHogarth
34 SUBSCRIBE Save 27% when you subscribe* to the digital edition
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ABOVE: English forces under King John clash with the French. Defeat at Bouvines in 1214 to Philip II of France so weakened John that he was soon forced to submit to his barons’ demands to seal Magna Carta BELOW: A scene from the Queen Mary Psalter (c1310–20) shows peasants reaping corn. The Great Charter did little to improve the lot of the 1.5 million unfree residents of 13th-century England
BBC History Magazine
COVER STORY
What did Magna Carta mean to the English in 1215?
It famously went on to inspire everyone from Cromwell to Gandhi, but what impact did King John’s Great Charter have on his subjects in the year that it was sealed? David Carpenter investigates
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A peasant cuts hay with a scythe in a 13th-century illumination. Magna Carta discriminated against huge swathes of the population, argues David Carpenter
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36 The grim experiences of First World War PoWs
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