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Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

Shakespeare: everything you wanted to know

The time travelling Tudor: Anne Boleyn’s most surprising representations in film, TV and literature

Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Diana (Emma Corrin) in 'The Crown', left; and the real royal couple dancing in Sydney

Netflix’s The Crown: the real history behind the royal drama

Princes in the Tower Podcast Series

Princes in the Tower Exclusive podcast series

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In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana on her wedding day in 'The Crown' S4. (Photo by Netflix)

Historian Sarah Gristwood reviews The Crown season 4: “We’ve reached the issue of how fiction influences opinion in the real world”

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19

Dr Edward Jenner, a British physician, performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of eight, in 1796. (Photo by Getty Images)

The history of vaccination: from Edward Jenner to anti-vaxxers

Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales

Gwrych Castle: the history of the new home of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here

The Crown

As the fourth season of The Crown is released on Netflix, we bring you the real history behind the hit show...

Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Diana (Emma Corrin) in 'The Crown', left; and the real royal couple dancing in Sydney

Netflix’s The Crown: the real history behind the royal drama

Diana and Charles in Canada, 1986

Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage

Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher attend a ball to celebrate the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, 1979 in Lusaka, Zambia. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II: what was their relationship like?

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan: what happened and why did he break in?

Charles and Camilla, 1979

Prince Charles and Camilla: a history of their romance

Emma Corrin as Diana and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in season 4 of 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E2 real history: what are the Balmoral tests?

Read more about The Crown

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Historical Q&As

How did Spanish Flu get its name? When did our ancestors start using toilet paper? Why did the famous Crystal Palace burn down? And where was the WW1 Armistice signed? Here are the top questions about history, answered by historians and experts…

Shoppers in Liverpool during the 1960s

Q&A Why is the shopping day after Thanksgiving called ‘Black Friday’?

Statue of King Alfred the Great in leafy Trinity Church Square, Southwark. It is thought to be the oldest statue in London.

Q&A What’s the oldest statue in London?

An empty knight's armor sitting on a chest.

Q&A How did knights in armour go to the toilet?

Photo of Abraham Lincoln

Q&A Did Abraham Lincoln’s beard win him the election?

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waves to the crowd at Heston Airport and declaims

Second World War

Q&A Did appeasement cause the Second World War?

How did England react to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1751? (Illustration for BBC History Magazine)

Q&A Did the introduction of the Gregorian calendar spark riots?

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HistoryExtra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

German writer Hans Fallada (1893–1947), pictured in 1934 with his son Uli in a carriage in Carwitz, Mecklenburg. (Photo by Getty Images)

Second World War

Germans who resisted the Nazis

Podcast Winch Simon Parkin Web large

Second World War

A secret WW2 wargame

Bernard Cornwell talks about the final novel in his Last Kingdom series and his next project – a new Sharpe adventure. (Image by Getty Images)

Bernard Cornwell on The Last Kingdom’s finale and the next Sharpe

King Arthur and a hand holding the sword Excalibur.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the legends of King Arthur, but were afraid to ask

Pectoral ornament in the form of a double headed serpent, Aztec/ Mixtec, c 1400/1521 (Photo by Getty Images)

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Aztecs, but were afraid to ask

Dr Johanna Dale explores how the seventh-century Northumbrian king Oswald became an important saint across medieval Europe, on the HistoryExtra podcast. (Image by Getty Images)

Oswald, the many-headed medieval saint

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Trending in the US

Diana and Charles in Canada, 1986

Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn’s final battle: Tracy Borman reveals Henry VIII’s final ‘kindness’

Anne Boleyn (left) and her daughter, Elizabeth I. (Photos by Getty Images)

What did Elizabeth I think of her mother, Anne Boleyn? Historian Tracy Borman explains

Viking Berserker figures. The one on the left is wearing a helmet with horns. His companion wears the mask of a wolf or bear. Sweden, 6th century. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

The truth about Viking berserkers

Picture galleries

Explore our historical galleries covering a wide range of historical periods and topics…

2C2A1441

In pictures: 150 years of the British Red Cross

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in season 4 of 'The Crown'. (Photo by Netflix)

The Crown S4 news: Netflix releases first images of Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher

This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

VE Day revellers blowing party trumpets

Second World War

In pictures: jubilant VE Day street party celebrations

Latest articles

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the ‘Origin of Species’ cause a clash between church and science?

A portrait of Henry VII, the first Tudor king of England, by Michiel Sittow. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Monarchy timeline: from the Middle Ages to the modern era

'The last Day of Pompeii', 1833. Briullov, Karl Pavlovich (1799-1852). Found in the collection of the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Pompeii: a remarkable window into ancient Roman life

Boys playing conkers in 1926. Horse chestnuts played an unlikely role in the war effort just a few years earlier. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

First World War

Did conkers help win the First World War?

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History Quizzes

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

How much do you know about the Vikings? Test your knowledge with our quiz. This mid-19th century painting shows Viking ships on the River Thames. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

History quiz: How much do you know about the Vikings?

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

Medieval quiz

(Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Tudors history quiz: test your knowledge of the dynamic dynasty

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

History quiz: how much do you know about the Black Death?

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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

Medieval

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Victorian

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20th Century

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Painting of Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Winston Churchill 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

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

Tutankhamun

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Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

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

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The charge of the light, battle illustration

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