Explainer

Portrait of founding father Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull

Your guide to Alexander Hamilton, plus 6 fascinating facts about the founding father

Alex Hogh Andersen as Ivar the Boneless

The real Vikings: the early medieval world behind the hit drama

Monument to Prince Vladimir the Great in Moscow

Q&AWho were the Kievan Rus and what do they have to do with the Vikings?

Edward Jenner

Q&AWhen did medical practitioners start to be called ‘doctor’?

The Huguenots vs France: who were the Huguenots and what did they believe?

Scrooge and Marley's ghost

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Bah Humbug’ and what does it mean?

Thomas Cromwell, Tudor statesman and 'alter rex'.

Your guide to Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor statesman and prince of the church

Marble bust of Caligula

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

Your guide to...debtors' prisons

Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of ‘The Crown’

The Crown S4 E8 real history: why did Margaret Thatcher & the Queen clash over apartheid in South Africa?

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan

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

The aftermath of Kristallnacht, when businesses and properties owned by Jews were the target of vicious Nazi mobs

Second World War

Life in Nazi Germany: everything you wanted to know

Your guide to the Roman empire: when it was formed, why it split and how it failed, plus its most colourful emperors

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria’s voracious appetite for food and sex

Your guide to Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn

Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

The lost heirs of Henry VIII: Alison Weir on Katherine of Aragon’s failed pregnancies

Actor Stephanie Levi-John as Lina in 'The Spanish Princess'

Catalina: the real history of The Spanish Princess favourite

The Spanish Princess Part II. (Image by Starz)

The real history behind The Spanish Princess

Portrait of Catherine of Aragon

Your guide to Catherine of Aragon: Henry VIII’s first wife and mother of Mary I

A Hawker Hurricane in flight over Britain

Second World War

Your guide to the Battle of Britain: how the RAF turned back the Luftwaffe

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

Elizabeth I: a guide to her life and rule, plus 7 facts you might not know

WW2 surrender signed, 2 September 1945

Second World War

How and when did WW2 end?

King George VI and his eldest daughter, Elizabeth

The death of King George VI: what happened?

The pilgrim fathers

Your guide to the Pilgrim Fathers, plus 6 interesting facts

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan: the Mongol warlord who almost conquered the world

Iron Age bronze head

The Celts in Britain: everything you need to know

Illustration of last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, surrendering to the 'barbarian' Odoacer

Your guide to...the fall of Rome

Top, left to right: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour. Bottom, left to right: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr.

Henry VIII’s six wives: your guide to the Tudor king's queen consorts

A 16th-century painting of the Tower of Babel

General ancient history

Your guide to...the ancient city of Babylon

A portrait of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland.

Your guide to Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs