Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

The White Ship disaster

The White Ship disaster"The most disastrous moment in British maritime history".

The White Ship: a medieval royal tragedy.

The aftermath of Kristallnacht, when businesses and properties owned by Jews were the target of vicious Nazi mobs

Second World War

Life in Nazi Germany: everything you wanted to know

An ‘ordinary’ Nazi.

A portrait of Anne Boleyn. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Anne Boleyn: a 16th-century feminist?.

Poland 1939: The invasion that sparked WW2.

The Oseberg ship from around AD 820 is one of the most well- preserved Viking ships ever excavated (Photo by Noe Falk Nielsen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Viking ships: 5 lesser-known facts

Solon, an Athenian statesman (left) laid the foundations for democracy

Your guide to...the history of democracy

Unexpected Irish tales.

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

Professor Jan Bill on the HistoryExtra podcast.

At sea with the Vikings.

A 14th-century depiction of bakers at work. (Image by Getty Images)

Social mobility in the Middle Ages: could medieval people improve their station?

Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers.

A near-contemporary depiction of the 14th-century English monk, mathematician and astronomer Richard of Wallingford. Monks were among the leading scientific practitioners during the medieval period. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The genius of medieval science: from medicine to mechanical clocks.

Tudor queens on screen.

Image depicting Roman general Germanicus oversing the burial of the bones of Romans killed in the battle of Teutoburg Forest

What was the Roman Empire's greatest defeat? It might be Teutoburg Forest in AD 9

An empty knight's armor sitting on a chest.

Q&AHow did knights in armour go to the toilet?.

The Knights of the Round Table are that the heart of many Arthurian legends

Who were the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, and where does the Holy Grail fit in?

Your guide to the Roman empire: when it was formed, why it split and how it failed, plus its most colourful emperors

The Varangian Guard as depicted in the illuminated 12th-century manuscript known as the Madrid Skylitzes. These Viking warriors became the Byzantine emperors' personal bodyguard

What was the Varangian Guard? A brief history of the Viking warriors of the Byzantine empire

A portrait of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. Henry and Catherine's marriage was a happy one, until their failure to produce a male heir began to cast a long shadow. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Catherine of Aragon: Henry's greatest queen

The French Revolution: Everything you need to know.

Edward the Confessor seated at a banquet

Edward the Confessor: England’s holy hardman.

A painting of 1616 depicts the Moriscos boarding ships to sail from the port of Valencia

The 17th-century expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: what happened?.

Your guide to Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn

ever before,” says Margaret MacMillan. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

"We’ve come to think that peace is normal, but that's not the reality": Margaret MacMillan on humanity's compulsion to go to war.

Medieval daily life: everything you wanted to know.

Actor Stephanie Levi-John as Lina in 'The Spanish Princess'

Catalina: the real history of The Spanish Princess favourite

The battle of Dover, 24 August 1217, (image c1880). (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Eustace the Monk: one of medieval Europe's unholiest holy men.

In 802 Charlemagne took delivery of an elephant, sent to him by Harun al-Rashid, the caliph in Baghdad. Here, a manuscript illumination from a late 12th century English Latin bestiary. (Image by Alamy)

8 turning points in medieval European history.