Emma Slattery Williams

Emma Slattery Williams was BBC History Revealed’s staff writer until August 2022, covering all areas of history – from Egyptian pharaohs and pirate queens to Queen Victoria and Marilyn Monroe. She also compiled HistoryExtra’s Victorian newsletter and interviewed historians on the HistoryExtra podcast.. She studied both History and English at Swansea University.

Black-and-white engraving depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. She rests her head on the block as an executioner raises an axe above her, surrounded by attendants and onlookers.

General History

Botched executions: 9 death sentences from history that didn’t go to plan

The ‘Eye of Providence’, a symbol linked to the Illuminati, stares out from the reverse side of all US one-dollar bills

Georgian

Who were the Illuminati – and how can you join them?

The surgeon Robert Liston prepares to cut open a patient in the first half of the 19th century. Known as the “fastest knife in the west end”, Liston could remove a leg in less than 30 seconds. For most patients, however, the agony was more prolonged. (Wellcome Library, London)

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"An enlightened turn": how medicine (and the vaccination) developed in Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst

Edwardian

Your guide to the Pankhursts, the pioneering family who fought for Votes for Women

British Army National Service recruits

20th Century

National Service: here's what you need to know about the history of Brits being conscripted into the Armed Forces

Tudor

The Evil May Day Riots of 1517: what happened?

Gulag inmates were not simply imprisoned, but forced to carry out hard labour. (Photo by Getty Images)

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The founding and fall of the USSR. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A picture of people in a Chinese port

Victorian

The Great Tea Race of 1866

An early Peace People march in Belfast’s Woodvale Park

20th Century

What was the Peace People movement in Northern Ireland?

Illustration of the Children's Crusade of 1212, from the Story of the British Nation, Volume 1, by Walter Hutchinson, c1920 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Medieval

What was the Children’s Crusade, and did it actually happen?

A 19th-century painting of Queen Henrietta Maria fleeing England as the Civil Wars turn against Charles I (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Stuart

From the home front to the front line: what were the roles of women in the Civil War?

In a 19th-century painting by Charles Landseer, Oliver Cromwell reads Charles I’s explosive correspondence captured at Naseby. It revealed the king was conspiring to gain Catholic support for his cause (Photo by ART Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)

Stuart

10 key battles of the Civil War

A painting of the battle of Naseby

Stuart

The New Model Army: how Oliver Cromwell’s radical fighting force won the Civil War

An illustration of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, fleeing from battle after attempting to unseat his Catholic uncle, King James II and VII, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland (Photo by De Luan/Alamy Stock Photo)

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The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685: your guide to the a duke's failed bid to overthrow his uncle, James II and VI. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German prisoners of war arrive on British soil in 1944, bound for camps somewhere in England (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Second World War

The German Great Escape? The tale of the WW2 Island Farm escape attempt

King Edward VII in his coronation robes.

Edwardian

Edward VIIA guide to the king who ruled over the Edwardian age

King James VII and II depicted while in exile in France.

Stuart

What were the 1707 Acts of Union and what did they achieve?

Illustration depicting the first hot air balloon flight in America, piloted by Jean-Pierre Blanchard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1793.

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When was the first crossing of the English Channel by air?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Circulation of the blood, 1628. English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) was the first to correctly describe the mechanism whereby blood is circulated in the body. Diagram showing the existence of valves in veins. From Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus, by William Harvey. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

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A medical renaissance?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Around 200,000 freed slaves, like this soldier, joined the Union military in the Civil Wa

Victorian

The Emancipation ProclamationYour guide to Abraham Lincoln's proclamation

The first major clash of the war of American independence, at Bunker Hill

Georgian

Tea, taxes and the taking up of arms: a timeline of the American Revolution

General History

British schools and education: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Oscar Wilde pictured around 1882.

Victorian

Oscar Wilde's tragic end

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Eliza Acton: Britain’s first modern cookery writer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert Ballard with an image of Titanic’s upper deck

20th Century

TitanicWhen & where was the wreck finally discovered?

Newspaper boy with news of the Titanic disaster, 14 April 1912

Edwardian

TitanicWhat happened after the sinking?

US socialite Margaret Brown, who posthumously became known as the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ following her Titanic experiences.

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Titanic8 stories of passengers who sailed on the liner. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Titanic in dry doc before it was launched

Edwardian

TitanicWhen and how was the ship built?

Soldiers from Mao Zedong’s Red Army assemble in Yan’an, Shaanxi province, 1936 (Photo by Getty)

20th Century

The Chinese Civil War: a guide to the conflict and the rise of Mao Zedong

Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged from the gallows

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Hunting pirates: how piracy's golden age came to an end. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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