Five hundred years ago, Thomas Wolsey endowed in Oxford a foundation he called Cardinal‘s College. Henry VIII, the monarch who dismissed and ruined him, re-established it as Christ Church later in his reign as an institution rich, spacious and imposing beyond any other. It would help young men of Tudor England and beyond to study history, improve their minds, enlarge imaginations and broaden experience for the benefit of the realm – under the tutelage, of course, of some remarkable dons.

Generations of students had their intellects and world perspectives shaped by Oxford. It was believed that the study of history – touching the ancient world at one end and modern politics at the other – interlaced with geography, economics, political science, law and modern languages, would demonstrate the reasons for the success or failure of states. The student would be taught – in Sir Isaiah Berlin‘s memorable phrase – to ‘spot the bunk!’

In this book, acclaimed histo