People in history

David Hendy © The Rocket House
The power of noise
[14th March 2013]

Ahead of his new BBC Radio 4 series, David Hendy explores the history of noise

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© Bridgeman Art Library
Treachery: What really brought down Richard III
[4th February 2013]

A new project has been launched to locate the mortal remains of King Richard III, more than 500 years after he was buried in the, now lost, church of the Franciscan Friary in Leicester. David Hipshon, author of a book on the controversial Yorkist monarch, discusses his theories for the reason for Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485

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'Longline bra' found at Lengberg Castle © Beatrix Nutz
Medieval lingerie
[19th July 2012]

An archaeological find in Austria has raised questions concerning our ancestors’ dressing habits. Beatrix Nutz examines underwear, hygiene and social acceptance in the 15th and 16th centuries

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© Twentieth Century Fox
Abraham Lincoln: five facts
[20th June 2012]

Following the cinema release of the new film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, here are five facts about the former US president...

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Ivy Williams © Corbis
Women first
[8th March 2012]

March 8 is International Women's Day, an event first celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland in 1911, and is now a global celebration of women and their achievements. Here, June Hannam explains the legislation that allowed women to take up civil posts for the first time, more than 90 years ago, and Philip Carter chooses six trailblazers from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
 

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© Bridgeman Art Library
A queen in a king’s world
[1st March 2012]

Helen Castor, presenter of the new BBC Four series She Wolves: England's Early Queens, explores how Matilda, daughter of Henry I, came tantalisingly close to becoming England’s first female ‘king’

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© Dreamstime
A love match?
[14th February 2012]

Linda Porter looks at Henry VIII’s often misunderstood relationship with his last wife, Katherine Parr, and questions whether it was, indeed, a case of true love.

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© British Library
How we first learnt to swim
[3rd December 2011]

The first handbook on how to swim was the brainchild of an eccentric ‘crypto-Catholic’ with a liking for controversy. Nicholas Orme surveys an ambitious visual guide designed to tempt Tudor gents into the water

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© Dreamstime
Royal weddings through history
[27th April 2011]

From bridesmaids and kisses to gold and embroidery, we bring you a history of royal weddings

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Yuri Gagarin in space helmet just before take off in Vostok © Novosti/TopFoto
The rocket men
[12th April 2011]

We take a look at two remarkable pioneers of space travel and the brutal pasts they could never shake off

 

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