Duels of History

Could the Spanish have conquered Mexico without the help of Malinche, a Native American slave who became Hernan Cortés' translator? Enslaved by the Mayas and then the Spaniards, doomed to be sacrificed, Malinche made herself indispensable by becoming the conquistadors' interpreter.

How did Marie Curie's love affair with the married physicist Paul Langevin divide France? Jeanne Langevin, cheated on and humiliated by her husband with the world's most famous scientist, was determined to take revenge. She turned a personal story into a political battle, which would have consequences for the Nobel Prize winner's career.

Why does the figure of revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg continue to shine whilst Friedrich Ebert, Social Democrat and President of the Weimar Republic, remains a traitor to the German people?

How did communist activist Angela Davis become an icon in her relentless fight against Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California? The young African-American became a target for Reagan, who made it his mission to save his country from the "red peril" and wanted her sentenced to death.

In 1913, Camille Claudel, one of the most acclaimed artists of her time, was committed to a psychiatric asylum for insanity. She accused world-famous sculptor Auguste Rodin of persecuting her. They had enjoyed a passionate relationship, but things had turned sour, and she blamed him for all her problems and accused him of trying to steal her works.

Did the sentencing to death of Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, enable the Chinese Communist Party led by Deng Xiaoping to absolve itself of the crimes of the Great Helmsman? Accused of counter-revolutionary crimes after Mao's death, she embodied the hard left of the Chinese Communist Party, which Deng is determined to get rid of to make way for his modernisation plan.

Why is Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, still viewed as a Machiavellian manipulator? By marrying into the family her father wanted to forge an alliance with, she became forever associated with the worst scandals of Renaissance Italy.

How did a simple tennis match between a woman, tennis star Billie Jean King, and a man, ex-player Bobby Riggs, become a television phenomenon and change the face of women's sport?

Two thousand years after the fact, can we really say that Messalina and Agrippina, two empresses of Roman antiquity, were the criminals and depraved women described by chroniclers of the time?

Did Marie Antoinette betray her adopted country? The queen is said to be insensitive, arrogant, ready to do anything to betray France. Did she deserve the fate reserved for her by the revolutionaries led by Robespierre? The latter is considered a dictator, solely responsible for revolutionary terror and its thousands of deaths.