Early comic panel illustration

England

The mistresses of Charles II.

c1895: Queen Victoria with her family. Standing left to right: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein; Prince Henry of Battenberg; Count Arthur Mensdorff-Pouilly; Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg; George, Duke of York. Seated left to right: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg; Queen Victoria; Victoria Mary, Duchess of York holding Prince Edward of York; Prince Arthur of Connaught; and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who were Queen Victoria's children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters

Thomas Cromwell. (Photo by Gustavo Tomsich/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The truth about Thomas Cromwell

Julian of Norwich holds her famous book in a sculpture at the doors of Norwich Cathedral. (Photo by Creative Commons Wiki)

Julian of Norwich: Janina Ramirez hails 'the female Chaucer'.

A depiction of the Norman army, from the Bayeux Tapestry

Everything you wanted to know about the 1066 Norman invasion and the battle of Hastings – but were afraid to ask

Dance of Death, printed by Jacob Meydenbach, Germany 1492. (Photo by Alamy)

The Black Death and social change.

The Church of St Martin of Tours in Canterbury

Q&AWhat is the oldest church in England?

Illustration of Elizabeth I in a cage

What if...The Spanish Armada had landed?.

Children in Auschwitz

Second World War

The Windermere Children: the remarkable stories of 300 child survivors of the Holocaust

Our composite image shows Henry II framed by an Arabic arch. Henry claimed he "would sooner accept the errors of Nur-al-Din" than suffer Thomas Becket remaining as archbishop. (Image by Bridgeman/Getty Images)

King Henry II: the Muslim monarch of medieval England?

Illustration of Boudica, victorious over the Romans

What if…Boudica had defeated the Romans?.

Two scenes from the Chronique de St Denis, late 14th century. The left-hand scene depicts the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France in 1137. The scene on the right shows Louis departing by ship to go on the Second Crusade in 1147. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Eleanor of Aquitaine: the medieval queen who took on Europe’s most powerful men.

A portrait of the young Elizabeth I. (Photo by Art Collection 2/Alamy Stock Photo)

Elizabeth I's personality: the unfathomable queen

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

Black Death quarantine: how did we try to contain the most deadly disease in history?

The Normans: everything you wanted to know.

Illustration of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on their wedding day

The royal weddings of Henry VIII: Alison Weir on what came before divorced, beheaded, died...

Henry VIII

Q&AWhat was the Sweating Sickness? And how did Henry VIII ‘self-isolate’?

Children play as air raid wardens during the Blitz in London

Q&AHow did WW2 affect schools in London?.

Henry V. (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library / Alamy)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry V and the battle of Agincourt

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?.

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective.

'The Poor Actress's Christmas Dinner', a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Braithwaite Martineau, says much about the way Victorians had begun to understand the problem of loneliness. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The invention of loneliness: why being 'unhappy alone' is a surprisingly modern idea.

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their third son, Prince Edward, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of royal mothers and childbirth.

Stonemason Andrew Ziminski. (Photo by David Hampton)

Written in stone.

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & The Light book review: Hilary Mantel's epic finale "lives up to the hype".

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), holding a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow Airport, 17 March 1969. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

In pictures: the history of London’s Heathrow Airport

Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Secrets of Lindisfarne.

Depiction of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) by a late 18th/early 19th unknown artist. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

5 smells that made Georgian England.

The Jacobite rebellions: how close were they to returning the Stuarts to power?

Nancy Astor on the campaign trail in 1919

Nancy Astor facts: who was the first female MP in British history to take her seat in parliament?