Early comic panel illustration

England

Londoners read newspaper headlines about Britain's entry to the Common Market, January 1973. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The reluctant Europeans

The history of London’s 10 greatest live music venues

Soviet missiles in Red Square during the May Day Parade of 1962, the year the world came closest to nuclear war. (Photo by Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)

History explorer: the Cold War

Photo of pencils

Q&AHow old is the pencil?

Full-Length Portrait of King Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger

Q&AHow big was Henry VIII’s codpiece?

Queen Street Mill in Burnley. (Photo by Alamy)

History explorer: the power of cotton

The most popular historical figures you've (probably) never heard of

Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorerThe Second Barons’ War

Kate Summerscale. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The wicked boy: the mystery of a Victorian child murderer

A portrait of Anne Boleyn

Did Eustace Chapuys really despise Anne Boleyn?

Edmund II - better known as Edmund Ironside - shown in a 14th-century manuscript. (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)

Edmund Ironside: Anglo-Saxon warrior king

Elizabeth I of England

Personal politics in Elizabeth I's court

A portrait of Catherine Howard. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Catherine Howard: The death of innocence

The ruins of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Henry’s motives when dismantling such monasteries “were much more complex than pure revenge or pure avarice alone”, says Adam Morton. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorer6 places to explore the dissolution of the monasteries

A giant leap for mankind: William Harvey reveals the circulation of the blood

Aerial view on Westminster Abbey at night. (Photo by Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images)

7 of England’s best medieval buildings

The Grand Bridge at Blenheim. (Getty Images)

History explorerBlenheim Palace and Capability Brown

(Photo By DEA/G DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The Tudor sex guide

An illustration of Edmund Spenser’s poetic work ‘The Shepheardes Calender’. (Photo by Culture Club/Contributor/Getty Images)

The dark side of Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh wave from the famous balcony at Buckingham Palace after the Queen's coronation on 2 June 1953. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

7 memorable moments in the history of Buckingham Palace

Sex, scandals and betrayals: Charles II and his court

Photo of a couple holding up a fan

Q&AWhat signals were used in fan language?

Q&AWho executed King Charles I?

Francis Drake

Life of the Week: Sir Francis Drake

A vintage photograph showing an unknown man standing behind a stall selling lemonade, root beer and ice cream – among other things.

Q&AWho invented lemonade?

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. This is one of several replicas of a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. Cromwell is supposed to have said: “I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me… but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it.”

Why do we say 'warts and all'?

Patricia Simmons recording the speaking clock.

Q&AWho voiced the original speaking clock?

Portrait of King Henry VIII

History heroNathaniel Parker chooses Henry VIII (1491-1547)

7 Victorian recipes

Calendars of the twelve months (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

Medieval immigrants: moving to England in the Middle Ages