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Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce in 'Outlaw King'. (Photo by Netfix / David Eustace)

Robert the Bruce: what do we know?

April 2019 issue of BBC History Magazine out now!

King John: the making of a medieval monster

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Steve McQueen stars in the 1963 film that turned the 'Great Escape' into a symbol of Allied pluck and ingenuity. (Image by Alamy)

Second World War

The not-so Great Escape

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Latest articles

Queen Victoria

Season 3 of the hit drama Victoria airs in the UK on Sunday...

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren

The marriages of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren

"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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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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Portrait of a young Queen Victoria, c1850, by F Winterhalter. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Queen Victoria

Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

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

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The mourning of Queen Victoria

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Portrait of a young Queen Victoria, c1850, by F Winterhalter

The killing of Queen Victoria’s personal chef

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Queen Victoria refused to wear her crimson velvet robes of state for her wedding to Albert. Instead, she opted for a dress of pure white and “simple magnificence”. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

“Nothing could have gone off better”: the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Osborne House from terrace.

History explorer: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

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As Queen Victoria ended the 19th century, she was not her usual self. She was visibly fading: her voracious appetite had disappeared and she had lost almost half her body weight. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The final days of Queen Victoria

More on Queen Victoria

In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

London & North Western Railway locomotive, 1848. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

8 ways railway travel changed everything for Britain

(Photo by Alamy)

Brexit lessons from history

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Rutger Bregman. (Photo by Maartje ter Horst)

Rutger Bregman: historian in the news

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?

Women's history

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

Hallie Rubenhold photographed in London. "In the 19th century, being both poor and a woman was a terrible combination. The cards were stacked against them," she says. (Photography by Fran Monks)

Hallie Rubenhold: “To most people, the women killed by the Ripper are just corpses. I want to tell a different story”

Mary Stuart, shown here in a painting after Nicholas Hilliard, might have been a good queen, says Kate Williams, but the odds were stacked against her. (Image by Superstock)

Who betrayed Mary, Queen Of Scots?

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A rocky relationship: Eleanor of Woodstock with her husband, Reginald II of Guelders. (Photo by Alamy)

The medieval rebel princesses

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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

A maid polishes a silver dish. Female domestic servants were highly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, but in Reformation France they found some ways to fight back. (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images)

The Library The women who wouldn’t be silenced in Reformation France

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Queen Anne, based on a work by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c1702–10. Anne's reign saw women take centre stage in fierce political debates. (Photo by Bridgeman/National Trust Photographic Library)

Queen Anne's feuding favourites

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More women's history

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A painting of the Amritsar massacre. While Churchill described the killings as "without precedent", MP Benjamin Spoor said: "Amritsar is not an isolated event, any more than General Dyer is an isolated officer." (Photo by AKG)

The Amritsar massacre: the British empire’s darkest day

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The battle of Dover, 24 August 1217, (image c1880). (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

The devil’s monk

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Unknown Woman Wearing a Hat by Isaac Oliver, c.1590-5. Features in Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver, at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 February 2019 to 19 May 2019. (Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II 2019)

Pocket-sized paintings: Elizabethans in miniature

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Top ( l-r) Agrippina the Elder, Julia, and Livia. Bottom (l-r) Messalina and Agrippina the Younger

The Library The women who built the Roman Empire

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This c1610 painting shows an elderly Elizabeth. The queen used "gems and pearls" to divert attention from her decaying body, says Anna Whitelock. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Library Elizabeth I: the monarch behind the mask

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A 15th-century detail from the Fountain of Youth, Piedmont, Italy. (Image by De Agostini/Getty Images)

Sexing up history: how to study and tell the history of sex

The Japanese city of Hiroshima shortly after the US dropped the atomic bomb

Second World War

Should America have dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

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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

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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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Second World War

A legendary spymaster

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Second World War

Female flyers in Nazi Germany

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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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Greek slavery, Victorian heroism and Dan Snow on cars

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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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Londoners read newspaper headlines about Britain's entry to the Common Market, January 1973. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Library The reluctant Europeans

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“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 Library Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe

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Latest articles

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Love before Prince Albert: Queen Victoria’s suitors

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

Musician and dancing fool in Paris, 14th century. (Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images)

What was life like for a court jester?

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren. Kaiser Wilhelm II is pictured left in the front row. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Friends, family and rivals: Queen Victoria and the European empires

The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

Members of the Home Guard train racing pigeons as messengers in Blackburn, July 1940. Soon, carrier birds like this would be supplying vital intelligence on German arms factories and troop movements in occupied Europe. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The pigeons’ war on Hitler

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Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, seated from left to right, in Yalta for the 'Big Three' Conference. In February 1945, British diplomats were already joking that it was actually a conference of the ‘Big Two-and-a-Half’. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Second World War

WW2: When Britain stood (not quite) alone

Winston Churchill leaves a cabinet meeting

Second World War

Churchill’s days of destiny

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El Alamein battle in the Libyan desert, c1942. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library El Alamein: the line in the sand

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Sunset on the Western Front during the Second World War – watchmen at their posts. Official British postcard issued by the Ministry of Information. War Office Photograph B. 1370. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Second World War

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Second World War

Night view of people jammed into Times Square, New York, celebrating the end of the war in Europe. (Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Second World War

The Library Was 1945 the world’s year zero?

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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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