This comparative study investigates court politics in four kingdoms that succeeded the south Indian Vijayanagara empire during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: Ikkeri, Tanjavur, Madurai, and Ramnad. Building on a unique combination of unexplored Indian texts and Dutch archival records, this research offers a captivating new analysis of political culture, power relations, and dynastic developments.

In great detail, this monograph provides both new facts and fresh insights that contest exi...

In 2007 Dutch royal historian Arnout van Cruyningen first published a short guide to the House of Orange-Nassau and the Monarchy in the Netherlands in the English language.

This illustrated, revised and updated edition, packed with biographical, historical, genealogical and constitutional information, marks the abdication of Queen Beatrix and accession of King Willem-Alexander in 2013. It celebrates the two centuries old Kingdom of the Netherlands and much older Orange Dynasty.

A must-have ...

On September 22, 1914 between 06.20 am and 07.55 am three British cruisers went down o the Dutch coast, HMS Aboukir,Hogue and Cressy. Of the combined crew of 2296 no less than 1459 men perished on their ships or in the sea. ere were 837survivors. e perpetrator was a simple German submarine, U-9. is event in the early days of the First World War came as a big boost to the Germans. But for the British it was a dire blow, the biggest loss ever in icted on the Royal Navy, hitherto deemed invinc...

During the 90’s, two young historians travel to Budapest. How-ever, fate interviens. The car battery dies in Beieren. When the car stops, the two historians find themselves in Bad Reichenhall, the town where Karl Ullrich, one of the most wellknown commanders of the infamous Waffen-SS divisions ‘Totenkopf’ and ‘Wiking’, lives. An unplanned meeting turns into an interview that lasts multiple days, which gives a unique perspective on the life of this officer. He shares his past so open...

The focus on the 1944 Ardennes offensive is always on the initial dash of Kampfgruppe Peiper and the battles around Bastogne. The tanks steal the show. Most German forces involved were however infantry divisions with little means of transport. They are often regarded as the weak link: the footsloggers who could not catch up with the tanks.

There was however an often overlooked German infantry success in the Schneiffel sector. The German 18th Volksgrenadierdivision almost singlehanded defeated...

Heinrich Himmler, one of the most infamous mass murderers of all time, was originially from a conservative and Catholic family in Bavaria. Later he would break away from the church.

Himmler and his SS are responsible for the murders of 6 million Jews. The Allied Forces knew more about this during the war than they care to admit, since the British had broken the SS-codes.

Himmler was heavily involved in the state-of-affairs of the Netherlands and Belgium. However, he clashed with NSB-collabora...

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, first published in 1866, is a collection of 24 of the most commonly held superstitions of the Medieval era. For each story, Baring-Gould presents his research into the history and possible inspiration for the myth. Included among these familiar tales are: The Wandering Jew, the story of the Jewish shoemaker who is doomed to wander the earth until the Second Coming. William Tell, the Swiss hero who shot an apple off his son’s head. Saint George, a Christian...

In 1741 a VOC ship from India arrives in the Netherlands, with a miraculous animal on board that no one in Europe has ever seen before: a young rhino named Clara. For no less than seventeen years she travelled with her owner Douwe Mout through almost every country in Europe. Wherever she is exhibited, she is a sensation; she grows into the most famous rhino in European history.

She is a star, a wonder for science and a muse for artists who immortalise her in paintings, drawings, sculptures an...

The author: From a youthful observer in Hungary, Endre B.

Gastony evolved into a student of history at the University

of Oregon. As professor at Augustana University, he combined

teaching, with research and writing on the topics of nationalism,

international events, and Hungarian history. He also conducted

college study tours in Europe, until retiring into a life of more

research, writing, besides tennis and sailing.

Historical guiding principles: Leopold von Ranke’s advice, chronicle the p...

Cities are in a constant process of change and are the theater of interaction among people and their complex, historically multi-layered, culturally diverse living environment. Therefore, various interests, needs, and values affect these dynamics of interaction and urban change, which bring challenges and opportunities for the development of cities. Particularly, when urban development deals with such complex living environment and the management and conservation of both listed and non-listed...