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Mary, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542–67) was “absolutely useless as queen of Scotland”, says historian Sean Lang. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

9 of the worst monarchs in history

The young Queen Victoria’s struggle to gain the throne

Did the Tudors invent the Wars of the Roses?

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Pompeii,Italy

The A to Z of Pompeii with Mary Beard

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Latest articles

In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Though green dominates the celebrations today, the colour blue was first associated with St Patrick. The earliest depictions of the saint show him in blue garments, as in this 13th century folio, La Vie des Sains. ( Image ©The British Library Board/Leemage / Bridgeman Images)

6 facts you might not know about the history of St Patrick’s Day

A customer shops for a pistol at Freddie Bear Sports sporting goods store in Tinley Park, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The historians’ view: what are the real issues in the US gun control debate?

An engraving from 'The Illustrated Police News', c1889, imagines Jack the Ripper

Your guide to Jack the Ripper

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?

Women's history

As Women's History Month continues in the USA, UK and Australia…

$Emily Davison is felled by King Edward VII's horse, Anmer, moments after trying to grab his reins during the running of the Derby, 4 June 1913. The suffragette suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries. She died four days later. (Photo by Arthur Barrett/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)$

Emily Davison: the suffragette martyr

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Vienna Plague Hospital, 1679. (Getty Images)

The Library Women of the plague

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From left to right: Queen Isabella of Castile; French regent Anne de Beaujeu; and Catherine of Aragon. (Photos by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/DeAgostini/Imagno/Getty Images)

The Library Game of Queens: when women ruled Renaissance Europe

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c1935: Beatrice Shilling sits astride her Norton motorcycle. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

5 “bloody brilliant” 20th-century women

A portrait of Anne Boleyn. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Anne Boleyn: a 16th-century feminist?

The archaeologist and explorer Gertrude Bell (1868-1926). (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Gertrude Bell: adventurer, diplomat, mountaineer and anti-suffragette

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More women's history

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria

Season 3 of the hit drama Victoria ended in the US on a cliffhanger regarding Prince Albert's health...

A portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with five of their nine children, by Frederick Winterhalter. (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Library Victoria and Albert: a marriage of misery?

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"Queen Victoria was more than just a token ruler of India. Passionately interested in its people and culture, she intervened frequently in Indian politics," says Miles Taylor. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s Indians

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Queen Victoria pictured c1862 during her period of mourning after the death of her husband, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince Albert: the death that rocked the monarchy

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The mourning of Queen Victoria

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Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

Annie Gray “For Queen Victoria, food was a way of exploring the world”

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The opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851. (The Print Collector/Getty Images)

A big day in history: Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition at the famous Crystal Palace

More on Prince Albert

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Duncan Grant's studio at Charleston. Despite its lack of creature comforts, the East Sussex farmhouse became the weekend hub of the Bloomsbury set. (Photo by Charleston House/Tony Tree)

History Explorer The story of the Bloomsbury set

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A portrait of Catherine of Siena, who in the 1360s experienced a vision from God during which – according to her biographer, Raymond of Capua – she drank the water from the wound in Christ’s side. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The medieval mystics with a hotline to God

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The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee, near Wrexham, North Wales. The aqueduct was built by Thomas Telford. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Brunel: the man who built modern Britain

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Miners on strike after the decision from the High Court of Justice to seize all assets of the labor unions, 1984. (Photo by Alain Nogues/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

There was more to the 80s than Maggie

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Trending in the US

Portrait of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, 1536. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Henry VIII’s six wives in a different light

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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

A couple get amorous in this 14th-century illustration

Call the medieval sex doctor

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c1895: Queen Victoria with her family. Standing left to right: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein; Prince Henry of Battenberg; Count Arthur Mensdorff-Pouilly; Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg; George, Duke of York. Seated left to right: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg; Queen Victoria; Victoria Mary, Duchess of York holding Prince Edward of York; Prince Arthur of Connaught; and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who were Queen Victoria’s children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters

Read American history

History Extra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Portrait of King Henry VI, the subject of this episode of the History Extra podcast. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Henry VI: terrible king

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Living through Partition

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The English in America

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Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in WWI. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

First World War

Churchill’s navy

Jack Sheppard and his accomplice Blueskin rob a home without waking the owner, circa 1720. (Photo by Alamy)

Victorian murder scandal

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The spies of Queen Elizabeth I

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Brexit

The history behind Britain’s decision to leave the European Union…

1st May 1975: Three documents, for and against, published for the referendum on the Common Market. The document 'Britain's New Deal in Europe' (centre) contains a recommendation by the government signed by prime minister Harold Wilson for Britain to stay in the Community. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Britain decides: the first European referendum

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The Library Why has Britain decided to leave the EU?

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A cartoon from 'Punch' magazine (1903) titled 'Fidgety Joe', by Edward Linley Sambourne, depicting two parents representing the Duke of Devonshire and Arthur Balfour (centre), respective leaders of the Liberal Unionist and Conservative parties, trying to control their son, Joseph Chamberlain. In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain began his famous crusade for Imperial Preference – an issue which caused deep divisions in the government and ultimately paved the way for the Liberal Party's return to power in the 1906 general election. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Brexit, the Corn Laws and the Common Market: a brief history of Britain’s trade deals

“The anglocentric view we have of British history is unsustainable,” says Misha Glenny

The Library How to negotiate an exit

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The big question: Has the European Union been a success?

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The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

Reinhard Heydrich’s brutality was shocking, even by Nazi standards. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

Killing Hitler’s hangman: the dramatic story of Reinhard Heydrich’s assassination

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Four young members of the largest group of Kindertransport refugees arrive at Southampton, England, in March 1939. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Remembering the Kindertransport

American Flying Fortress bombers and a Mustang fighter practise formation flying over England, training for rain that would help break Nazi resistance. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library The Allies’ big idea: the largest air battle of the Second World War

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Australian PoWs in a camp at the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, c1945. More than 80,000 forced labourers, including PoWs, died during the construction of Sumatran railway, most the victims of disease, starvation and maltreatment. (Photo by State Library of Victoria)

Second World War

The Sumatran Railway: The forgotten death railway

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The 1993 film ‘Schindler’s List’. (AF Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Second World War

7 must-see Second World War films

Members of the Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill LNER (London and North Eastern Railway) LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) dressed in their civilian clothes march along a platform passing a steam locomotive on 1 July 1940 in London. (Photo by Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The Dad’s Army guide to defending Britain

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Latest articles

Are we returning to an age of political extremes? (Illustration by Davide Bonazzi for BBC World Histories Magazine)

The big question Are we returning to an age of political extremes?

Is it true that an angry mob of Dutchmen killed and ate their own prime minister in 1672? (Illustration by Glen McBeth)

Is it true that an angry mob of Dutchmen killed and ate their own prime minister in 1672?

A painting by Vincenzo Camuccini depicting the death of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The death of Caesar: do we know the whole story?

British military behind a barricade in Dublin, 1916. (Photo by ullstein picture via Getty Images)

Bullets and ballot boxes: a history of Anglo-Irish relations since the Easter Rising

History Quizzes

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

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

Medieval quiz

A depiction of a witch on a broomstick. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

History quiz – Halloween

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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

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

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

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Golden funerary mask of Tutankhamun, inlaid with lapis lazuli, obsidian and turquoise. (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

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