Explainer

Composite image of the historical Talleyrand and his portrayal in Apple TV+ drama Carême

The master of political survival: Talleyrand, the cunning foreign minister of Carême

Was Carême a spy? The true story of the world’s first celebrity chef

A man stands on a ladder. Two women lean out. The man is kissing one of the women

When women tied up men for Jesus: why Henry VIII tried to ban the medieval festival of Hocktide

JFK and Marilyn Monroe

“Risks he should never have taken”: a historian’s take on JFK’s sexual waywardness

Pope Franics waves to the crowd from a wheelchair

General History

How are popes elected? Here's what happens after a pope dies

Minutemen facing British soldiers on Lexington common

What happened at the battles of Lexington and Concord?

Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist below him

General History

Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

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

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

Biddenden cakes

What are the Easter treats known as Biddenden cakes, and who were the Biddenden Maids?

A character from Atomfall in front of the Windscale nuclear facility.

Britain’s worst nuclear disaster: the Windscale fire of 1957

Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony: how the last pharaoh's love affairs shaped Ancient Egypt's fate

Engraved portrait of British poet and politician John Milton

John Milton: the Paradise Lost author who challenged the status quo

Aethelred II, known as Aethelred the Unready

Aethelred: why was the Anglo-Saxon king called ‘the Unready’?

Basildon Park in Berkshire

The profits of slaveryThe dire impact of empire on Britain's countryside

A Japanese painting on silk, in a traditional Japanese style, of a Samurai warrior riding a horse.

General Early Modern

The 47 Rōnin: the true story behind the famous Japanese tale of revenge

A depiction of an attack by the 47 ronin

What is a rōnin in Japan, and how is it different to a samurai?

The assassination of Julius Caesar on the 'Ides of March'.

Q&AWhy do we need to beware the Ides of March?

Gilles de Rais, accused of murdering at least 140 children in 15th-century France

Was Gilles de Rais really history’s first recorded serial killer?

Portrait of Saladin

Saladin: a hero of Islam and scourge of the crusaders

The 'Blue People' of Kentucky

Blue Fugates: the rare blood disorder that turned the ‘Blue People of Kentucky’ blue

A boxing match in A Thousand Blows alongside an illustration of a Victorian boxing ring

A Thousand Blows: the real history behind the Victorian boxing drama

The Forty Elephants gang with an inset of Diamond Annie

Who were the real Forty Elephants? The true story of Mary Carr and the all-woman crime gang

An illustration of the future King Edward VI of England with his whipping boy (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

“Literally whipped”: the boys who took the beatings meant for royal bottoms

An engraving of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett for Jane Austen's novel 'Pride and Prejudice' (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Honeymooning with your mother-in-law? The truths of Regency romance

Queen Catherine the Great and (inset) a horse

Did Catherine the Great really have sex with a horse?

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo: the Renaissance polymath who transformed Western art

A c1300 depiction of a man paying taxes

Do you know the correct date of Magna Carta? Here’s why you might be wrong

Farmers standing in a field

Where does the term redneck come from?

John F Kennedy in 1960 (left) and would-be assassin Richard Pavlick

The JFK assassination attempt you’ve never heard of

Kuttenberg as seen in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

The real history behind Kuttenberg in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: how Kutná Hora became the silver crown of medieval Bohemia