Explainer

Your guide to Karl Marx: who was he, what was the Communist Manifesto and why is he important?

English countrywoman (right) with a lady of the court. From ‘Civitates Orbis Terrarum’, 1572. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Tudor women: what was life like?

A colour illustration of First World War allies, the German Reich and Austria-Hungary, featuring soldiers shaking hands, their troops and national flags, c1915. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

First World War

Q&AWho was involved in the First World War? Who was on each side?

Olivia Colman as Queen Anne in 'The Favourite'. (Photo by Twentieth Century Fox/Entertainment Pictures)

The Favourite: the real history behind the new Queen Anne film

Frogmore Cottage

Your history guide to Frogmore Cottage

An illustration depicting the Heiji Insurrection of c1159 - one of the first samurai battles. (Photo by Alamy)

A brief history of samurai warfare

An Aztec priest performing the sacrificial offering of a living human's heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

General ancient history

Q&AHow many people did the Aztecs sacrifice?

A painting in the tomb of Inherkha – a priest wearing the mask of Horus is performing the opening of the mouth ritual. The purpose was to restore to the deceased the use of the senses, thus restoring life in the next world. Ancient Egyptian 20th dynasty c1186-1070 BC. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Why was mummification used in Ancient Egypt, and why did they leave the heart in the body?

A First World War silk screened poster c1918 showing a frightening German soldier holding a bloodied bayonet. Caption reads: "Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds". (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Why did the Allies call Germans 'Huns' during World War I?

The real history behind ‘The White Princess’

A portrait of James Gordon Bennett, Jr (1841–1918), by Alexis Joseph Perignon, 1867. (Photo by The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Gordon Bennett’?

(Photo by iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do Americans call the British ‘limeys’?

First World War

What is the origin of the phrase 'to blow smoke up someone's arse'?

The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

Q&AHow much did it cost to build Versailles?

A still from a 1960 film about the Alamo, showing the chapel being covered by troops

Remember the Alamo! What happened in the 1836 siege and battle?

(Photo by naphtalina/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we say ‘resting on your laurels’?

When did Ancient Egypt start and end?

Henry VIII. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&AHow many executions was Henry VIII responsible for?

First World War

In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve?

Q&AWhy were people of noble birth said to be ‘blue blooded’?

First World War

Why is WW1 called the 'Great War'?

A mad is tied to a stake and burned alive as a crowd, including priests, look on

Heresy: a brief history

Man biting a bullet

Q&AWhy do we say ‘bite the bullet’?

General History

What is the origin of the phrase ‘Dutch Courage’?

A depiction of enslaved people in a tobacco factory in Lynchburg, Virginia, 1874

General History

Were enslaved people in America ever paid for their work?

When did the English alphabet first exist, and why are there 26 letters in the order we know them today?

Did Henry VIII love his last wife Katherine Parr?

Q&AWhat is the origin of the phrase ‘going postal’, meaning ‘going berserk’?