Portraits

Our writers profile individuals, some of them overlooked, and explore how they shaped the world as we know it.

Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, centre, discusses strategy against the Russians at his field headquarters on the Finnish-Russian border, April 1942.
portraits

Gustaf Mannerheim, leader of a free Finland

Gustaf Mannerheim's rise from a troubled youth to Finland's iconic wartime leader illustrates how leadership is forged by both personal traits and the unpredictable tides of histor..

Henrik Meinander August 21, 2024
A portrait of John Clare by William Hilton, 1820.
portraits

John Clare, the peasant poet

An agricultural labourer who shot to literary fame for his rustic verse in the 19th century, John Clare was feted as ‘The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet.’

Tommy Gilhooly August 8, 2024
Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223.
portraits

Gerald of Wales, chronicler of the Celtic world

Gerald of Wales was a 12th century chronicler whose mixed heritage and thwarted ambitions led him to pen vivid, controversial accounts of Ireland and Wales, forever shaping percept..

Katherine Harvey July 25, 2024
Charles IV of France, meeting his sister Isabella of France at the gates of Paris in 1325.
portraits

Queen Isabella, the ‘she-wolf of France’

Queen Isabella, daughter of the king of France and wife and mother to kings of England, was an intelligent and shrewd political operator in an era of conquest and civil war.

Caroline Burt July 10, 2024
Fulvia pierces the tongue of Cicero's severed head
portraits

Fulvia, blazing star of the late Roman Republic

A daring and brilliant figure, Fulvia played an active role in elite politics in the dying days of the Roman Republic.

Daisy Dunn June 28, 2024
Etching of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.
portraits

Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the uncrowned King of Poland

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a major figure in 19th Century European politics, kept the Polish Question alive.

Adam Zamoyski June 12, 2024
Geometric shaped interior in the Jameh Mosque in Isfahan.
portraits

Mullā Ṣadrā, Islam’s greatest modern philosopher

Despite being widely considered the greatest philosopher in modern Islamic thought, the Persian ‘theosopher’ Mullā Ṣadrā (1571-1635), who flourished under the Safavid dynasty, rema..

Josh Mcloughlin May 31, 2024
Keith Murdoch, left, in London in 1941.
portraits

Keith Murdoch, the patriarch

Decades before Rupert Murdoch ruled his news empire, his father, Keith Murdoch, was recognised and feared as a media and political powerbroker.

Michael Crick May 15, 2024
Wenceslas Hollar's map of England with scenes from the beginning of the Civil War.
portraits

Henry Stubbe, early modern champion of ‘Mahometan Christianity’

Henry Stubbe, one of the leading classical scholars of the 17th century, associate of Thomas Hobbes and a radical republican, saw Islam as the ultimate Puritan religion.

Paul Lay April 29, 2024

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