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The entrance to Bodiam Castle. "If any castle conjures up the ‘romance’ of the mediaeval world, this is it," says Michael Smith. (Photo by Andrew Ray/LOOP IMAGES via Getty Images)

From magnificent ruins to imposing forts: 10 must-visit British castles

10 things you need to know about the battle of Bosworth

Oliver Cromwell: the secret of his military genius

From The Library

A depiction of HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland, by Samuel Atkins c1794. (Photo by UtCon Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

5 facts about Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour

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In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

The blue-robed Henry VII pictured performing a variety of tasks at the Tower of London following his accession to the throne, in a contemporary illustration. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Bosworth: the dawn of the Tudors

From The Library

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts scenes of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. To characterise the English response in 1066 as "deliberately acquiescing" is a little hard on our 11th-century compatriots, says Professor George Garnett. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Did English leaders “deliberately acquiesce” to foreign rule in 1066?

Spanish flu

First World War

When Spanish Flu hit Britain

From The Library

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Have nuclear weapons helped to maintain global peace?

The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

Dancers demonstrate the Charleston, c1926. The dance is often associated with ‘flappers’ – newly enfranchised women with bobbed hair, short skirts and supposedly looser morals – and characterised by frenetic up and down movements and swivelling, akimbo limbs. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Strictly history: 5 facts about the history of dancing

Ruins of Hiroshima shortly after the dropping of the atomic bomb. (US Air Force/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

The countdown to Hiroshima

Soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division in Okinawa listen to news of Nazi Germany's surrender. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

The battle for Okinawa: one Marine’s story

Podcast Website large Antony Beevor

Second World War

Beevor on Arnhem

Firemen tackle a blitz fire amidst the rubble surrounding St Paul's Cathedral, London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Second World War: a timeline

Members of 617 squadron, known as the Dambusters

Second World War

How successful was the Dambusters raid?

Read more on the Second World War

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Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe

From The Library

Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists

Britain’s tearoom fascists

From The Library

Protesters on the streets of Prague during the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968. Of all the history books Ian Kershaw has authored down the decades, his two wide-ranging volumes on modern Europe have proved the most difficult to write. (Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Ian Kershaw on the trials of writing modern history

From The Library

Norman cavalry charge the enemy in this detail from the Bayeux Tapestry. Debate rages over the pros and cons of the tapestry leaving France for the first time in more than 900 years. (Photo by Photo 12/Getty Images)

Will the Bayeux Tapestry actually come to Britain?

From The Library

More from The Library

The Bayeux Tapestry

How much do you know about the medieval embroidery?

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting a naked man with an erection reaching out towards a naked woman, who is covering both her face and her pudenda with her hands. (© Bayeux Museum)

The Bayeux Tapestry with knobs on: what do the tapestry’s 93 penises tell us?

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman conquest of England in 1066. (Photo by DEA/M. SEEMULLER via Getty Images)

The Bayeux Tapestry now and in the future

Podcast Website large Kathryn Hurlock

The story of the Bayeux Tapestry

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Norman invasion of 1066. The majority of historians now agree that the tapestry was probably commissioned by Odo of Bayeux, the half-brother of Duke William. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

5 Bayeux Tapestry facts: what is it, why was it made and what story does it tell?

The charging Norman cavalry shown in glorious technicolour at the battle of Hastings in this masterpiece of storytelling. (Art Archive)

How English is the Bayeux Tapestry?

Norman cavalry on the charge in the Bayeux Tapestry. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

Why the Nazis fell in love with the Bayeux Tapestry

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A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

12 facts about the Stuarts

Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Winchester History Weekend 2018: 5 minutes with Diarmaid MacCulloch

A Battle of Britain type 'scramble', circa 1940. An improved Spitfire is pushed onto the runway by a group of pilots from the squadron. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The good war?

Members of the Ku Klux Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC in 1925. The Klan of this era was a terrorist group in the precise meaning of that term, says Linda Gordon. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

When the Ku Klux Klan was a mass movement

History Extra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee, Richmond (Photo by Library of Congress)

Who should we commemorate?

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC History Magazine)

The extraordinary history of ordinary things

(Photo by David Hampton)

A half-hour history of Europe

Ian Hislop (Photo by J.Fernandes/D.Hubbard © Trustees of the British Museum)

Dissent through the centuries

The march for Catalan Independence held in Barcelona, 11 September 2014 (Photo by Jordi Elias Grassot/Alamy)

Scots and Catalans

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100 women who changed the world

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History Quizzes

How much do you know about history? Test out your knowledge with our quizzes:

The results of the poll: 100 women who changed the world. (Photos by Getty Images/Alamy)

Quiz: 100 Women Who Changed The World

great fire 4

Great Fire of London quiz – how much do you know?

Second World War soldiers

Second World War

Second World War quiz

In this painting from c1650, a witch wields a broomstick as demons and 'familiars' (helpers of witches) congregate before her. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

History quiz – witchcraft and superstition

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Portrait of King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour and Prince Edward. (Photo by Getty Images)

Tudor

Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

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Photo of Mabel Capper and Patricia Woodlock advertising a meeting, Manchester, Lancashire, July 1908

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