Kings, in general, do not like to be challenged. They do not tolerate contradiction and enjoy exercising power in an absolute manner. This was the case with Henry II Plantagenet, the first of his name, king of England in 1154...

Monday, October 5th 2020, it is 10.30 am. The history and geography teacher of the fourth year of the Bois-d'Aulne secondary school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine is going to teach moral and civic education. He has decided, in accordance with the programme, to tackle the issue of freedom of expression. He has been preparing his lesson for a long time, he is proud of it, his name is Samuel Paty...

In 1887, Sadi Carnot was elected President of the French Republic. Today, he is only remembered for being the first president to be assassinated. This is how...

On August 28th,1963, Martin Luther King pronounced this short phrase that would remain famous: "I had a dream". This black American pastor dreamed of a world of peace, where all men would be equal and brothers. Although the laws establishing segregation had been repealed, the United States still practices segregation between blacks and whites on a daily basis. And violence against African Americans has never stopped. Many people struggle against the injustice of a two tiered country. Some choose to respond to violence with violence, others take a different, less radical path. For Rev. Martin Luther King, hate did not eliminate hate, only love would.

You will recall that we left John the Fearless triumphant in 1407 when he had just had his cousin and rival Louis I of Orleans, brother of King Charles VI, assassinated. It was now 1419 and John had come a long way. The unfortunate Charles VI, then known as the Mad King, had been ruling for thirty-nine years. His fits of madness lead cousin John to want to take over the throne. But Charles VI now had an heir, the dauphin Charles. And although some suspect that he was in fact the son of Louis I of Orleans, Queen Isabeau's lover before he was murdered, he was still the official heir...

The war between Armagnacs and Burgundians did not pit the lovers of a south-western brandy against those of a boeuf bourgignon, no. It was a civil war that took place within the wider context of the Hundred Years' War. In those days, families did not hesitate to kill each other to gain power...

The assassin of the day was a woman, which was so rare that there was no word in French for it. One could say murderess, but the murder was more than a murder, since it was premeditated. And in the case of Henriette Caillaux, there was no doubt that there was premeditation...

We all learned at school that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28th 1914 was the trigger for the First World War. But how could the death of this crowned head in a country that we couldn't necessarily place on a map trigger the First World War and plunge Europe into chaos?