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The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)

What did the Anglo-Saxons ever do for us?

General ancient history

10 facts about the Great Wall of China

Was King John murdered?

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York History Weekend 2017.

York History Weekend

York History Weekend: Last-minute tickets and venue information

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In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

The remarkable Codex Amiatinus, a "brute of a book", and part of a new exhibition at the British Library. (c) Sam Lane Photography/British Library)

“An absolute gem”: Anglo-Saxons at the British Library

A woman casts her vote, accompanied by her children, in December 1918. Women weren't as "timid and uncertain at the polling stations as had generally been anticipated", reported 'The Times'. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Female suffrage: Victory at last!

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5 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Dark Ages

Portrait of an African man, c1530. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The missing Tudors: black people in 16th-century England

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Royal babies

Following the announcement that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex is pregnant...

A portrait of Henry VIII with Prince Edward, his son by his third wife, Jane Seymour. If the future Henry IX had survived, there may have been no cause for Henry to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn in 1533, says Amy Licence. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

6 royal births that changed the world (or could have)

The future King George VI (1895-1952) as a baby, 1895. The name 'George' appears in the list of the top 10 boys' names both today and a century ago. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

What’s in a name? A brief history of baby name trends from the Anglo-Saxons to today

A portrait of three of the children of Henry VII: Prince Henry; Arthur Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Royal sibling rivalry: Henry VIII, Richard III and other monarchs whose fate was determined by their brothers and sisters

Queen Victoria with children

Queen Victoria’s children

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Black History Month

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‘Guerrilla’ and the real history of British Black Power

Nelson Mandela podcast

Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life

Martin Luther King waves to supporters on the Mall in Washington DC during the March on Washington, 28 August 1963. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

Martin Luther King: the big questions

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Black British history and Charles I’s children

Emmett Till pictured with his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, in the early 1950s. (Photo by Alamy)

The legacy of Emmett Till: the murder that reshaped the American civil rights movement

Rosa Parks Riding the Bus

My history hero: Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

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Malcolm X chats with Eric Abrahams – the Oxford Union president who vowed to “fill the room with blacks” – before giving his famous address on 3 December 1964. (Getty)

Malcolm X in Oxford: Black power amid dreaming spires

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American civil rights leader Martin Luther King in Washington DC, where he delivered his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech to a quarter of a million civil rights supporters in Washington DC in August 1963. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

Mourning Martin Luther King: the life and legacy of the civil rights leader

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Black Tudors

An illustration of slaves picking cotton on a plantation. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Books interview with David Olusoga: “Black history affects all of us – it is British history”

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The Library

Unlock exclusive content for BBC History Magazine subscribers

The crew of SMS King in its home port following the battle of the Skagerrak, June 1916. (Photo by A Renard/ullstein image via Getty Images)

First World War

Jutland: the battle that won the First World War

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Laurence Olivier plays Richard III in the 1955 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In it, the controversial monarch is damned as everything from a "bottled spider" and "lump of foul deformity" to a "poisonous bunch-backed toad". (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Why did Shakespeare revile Richard III?

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A colourful painting from the 15th century showing several merchants gathered together

Moving to medieval England

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White horse of Uffington

General ancient history

Who were the Celts?

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More from The Library

The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

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

Atomic bomb damage in the city of Hiroshima, 1945. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 “razed and burnt around 70 per cent of all buildings”, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Was the US justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War? You debate

Adolf Eichmann during his trial in 1961

Second World War

Forgotten voices of the Holocaust

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Victoria’s ascension and the Third Reich

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Britons under Nazi rule podcast

Second World War

Britons under Nazi rule

Photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann of Hitler and architects visiting the construction site of the Berghof around Christmas 1935. From left to right: Leonhard Gall, Gerdy Troost, Hitler, and Wilhelm Brückner, Hitler’s chief adjutant. (United States National Archives, College Park, Maryland)

Second World War

Where did Adolf Hitler live? The homes of the führer and how they were used as Nazi propaganda

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Women's history

Ada Lovelace “had a unique and farsighted insight into the potential of computers,” says James Essinger. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ada Lovelace: a visionary of computing

Test pilot Melitta Schiller (right), Berlin, June 1943. (Photo by DRK/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

The women who flew for Hitler: An interview with Clare Mulley

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

Quiz: 100 Women Who Changed The World

Austrian physicist Lise Meitner

6 women in science history you (probably) didn’t know about

A fourth to fifth-century AD Roman mosaic shows a woman spinning. The household was considered a woman's natural environment; the political arena certainly was not. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

6 women who changed the course of Roman history

Historians Joanne Paul, Olivette Otele and June Purvis dissect the results of our recent poll: 100 women who changed the world.

Video: 100 women who changed the world

More women's history

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?

Sir Winston Churchill leaves his London home for Chartwell, Kent. (Photo by PA-Images)

A new life of Churchill

Director Peter Jackson in 2015 in Beijing, China (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

First World War

Peter Jackson on the First World War

Wreck of Fishing boat, Iceland. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Adventures in Iceland

Treaty Of Paris, 1783, by Benjamin West (Photo by Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

Brexit and American independence

Philippe Sands tells the story behind his new BBC podcast and Radio 4 series, Intrigue: The Ratline. (Photo by Jillian Edelstein/Camera Press)

The Nazi on the run

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Latest articles

The miller Samuel Wood, whose arm and scapula were torn off when entangled in a rope attached to a moving mill machinery in 1737. (Photo by Alamy)

7 bizarre cases in the history of medicine

Max Adams.

York History Weekend

York History Weekend 2018: 5 minutes with Max Adams

John Cooper.

York History Weekend

York History Weekend 2018: 5 minutes with John Cooper

An illustration depicting the Heiji Insurrection of c1159 - one of the first samurai battles. (Photo by Alamy)

A brief history of samurai warfare

History Quizzes

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

The Romanovs, 1913: Nicholas II with his wife and children. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

History quiz – The Romanovs

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

Second World War soldiers

Second World War

Second World War quiz

People praying for relief from the bubonic plague, circa 1350. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Medieval quiz

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Popular historic periods

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

Tudor

Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

Medieval

Victorian - Getty Images

Victorian

20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

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Popular people from history

Painting of Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) gives his famous v-sign as he opens the new headquarters of 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron of the RAAF (Royal Auxiliary Air Force) at Croydon, 1948. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Winston Churchill

Photo of Tutankhamen's mask

Tutankhamun

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Popular historic topics

Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

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

Women's history

Illustration of a couple

Sex and love

The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

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