Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

7 weird and wonderful Georgian beauty treatments. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges in the upcoming film 'The Last Duel',

“A spotlight on historic societal misogyny and disbelief of women”: what The Last Duel gets right and wrong

A scene from the German film 'Ways to Strength and Beauty', 1925. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

Germany’s naked truth: the 19th-century nudism movements co-opted by the Nazis

Historian Saul David

Saul David“It was astonishing bravery – and cold-blooded bravery, too”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A family history of France. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A homemade ouija board, a treasure hunt and fake madness: the great escape of World War I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from The Travels of Marco Polo, showing a teenage Marco on the deck of a ship sailing away from Venice

Why are Marco Polo's travels so famous?

Trial by combat: the real history behind The Last Duel. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval miniature depicts a monk and a woman in a bed.

Sex in the Middle Ages: have attitudes really changed?

A reconstruction of a Viking church

Vikings in America: the Europeans who arrived 500 years before Columbus. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pompeii: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German doctor Otto Warburg at work in his laboratory

Otto Warburg: the Jewish doctor and the Nazi war on cancer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

A mosaic that shows two Roman women exercising, one holds a flower and another holds a leaf

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Roman women

Women carrying flags and scythes or beating drums - one has a child on her shoulders - march on the Palace of Versailles to protest to the king

General Early Modern

Women in the French Revolution: fighting for equality

Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges in the upcoming film 'The Last Duel',

The medieval women who spoke out against sexual violence

Illustration of the man in the iron mask standing by the window of his cell and guarded by two musketeers

Unmasking the 'man in the iron mask': do we know the identity of the famous prisoner?

My father the Nazi. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mário Soares of the Socialist Party basks in public adulation after becoming prime minister in the election of 1976. (Photo by Getty Images)

Your guide to the Carnation Revolution

Greek soldier Pheidippides arrives in Athens with news of the Greek victory over the Persians at Marathon, only to die on the spot

Pheidippides: is the ancient Greek marathon runner remembered for the wrong run?

John of Gaunt: prince without a throne. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John of Gaunt shown in a c16th-century portrait

John of Gaunt: The man who would be king. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black-and-white image shows King George V inspecting soldiers

How did the British royals survive WW1?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Historian Dennis Duncan guides us through singular stories from the history of the book index

A surprising history of the index. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

QuizHow Much Do You Know About Ancient Greece?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Boats clash at sea in this illustration of the 480 BC battle of Salamis, fought between a Persian army led by King Xerxes I and the Greek army led by Themistocles

Salamis, 480 BC: a horror at sea for the Persian empire

Dr Benjamin Pohl explores the role of monks and abbots in the Middle Ages, and asks: why did they write histories?

Why did medieval monks write histories?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An image of Hippocrates from the 14th century, sitting and holding a book open in front of him

Hippocrates and humours: medicine in ancient Greece

The Green Knight shows his severed – and still talking – head to King Arthur in this illustration of the beginning of the 14th century legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: what’s the story?

Perceval meets the Fisher King in an illustration for Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century Perceval, The Story of the Grail

How to write a medieval romance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.