Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

Painting of an auto-da-fé

Your guide to...the Spanish Inquisition

Elma Brenner on medieval wellbeing: "People in the Middle Ages were absolutely focused on staying healthy"

A French 15th-century covered market

10 things you (probably) didn't know about the Middle Ages

Rethinking the Renaissance.

Picture of the Battle of Beziers

In a nutshellThe Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade

A monk and his mistress

Monks behaving badly.

An illumination depicts medieval women embroidering

Medieval misconceptions: 12 myths about life in the Middle Ages – busted

Clothes infected by the Black Death are burned in medieval Europe, c1340. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Black Death facts: your guide to "the worst catastrophe in recorded history"

Why Florence Nightingale was so much more than the ‘Lady with the Lamp’.

The Vikings: everything you wanted to know.

Britain at War.

View of the Norse Buildings, L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, Newfoundland. (Photo by Alamy)

Medieval globetrotters.

8 May 1945: Crowds celebrate VE Day in London, at the end of World War 2. (Photo by Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

"Hooray! The war is ended": 5 people's recollections of VE Day.

Expelled Germans leaving Poland's western territories

"The war without an end": what happened in Europe after VE Day?.

The rise of spiritualism after WW1.

Ill mannered discussions: Chinese leader General Chiang Kai-shek, US president Franklin D Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill meet at the Cairo Conference in November 1943. (Photo by Getty Images)

VE Day at 75Preparing for peace: why WW2 felt like a war without an end.

Flying the flag: A sailor signals a merchant ship in the Thames Estuary, 1939. Allied maritime capacity was paramount in the final victory. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

WW2: Why did the Allies win the Second World War?

Tectonic foliation in metamorphic rocks at Porthleven, Cornwall. (Photo by Getty Images)

How the world made us.

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

History quiz: how much do you know about the Black Death?.

Crowds in Piccadilly Circus in London celebrate VE Day

Countdown to VE Day: the week World War 2 ended in Europe.

Spartacus is now associated with political upheaval, as in the 1919 Spartacist uprising.

Who were the gladiators of ancient Rome? Plus Spartacus, Crixus and 8 more fighters you should know

Ewan Mitchell as Osferth, Mark Rowley as Finan and Aenas Fedaravicius as Sihtric. (Photo by Adrienn Szabo courtesy of Netflix)

The Last Kingdom S4 E6 review: a mysterious medieval ‘Sickness’ leaves its mark

Silver penny of Cnut

Ivar the Boneless, Ragnvald of Ed and 6 more Vikings you should know about

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton, replica Viking helmet by Dreamstime)

The unexpected Vikings.

A Nazi mystery.

A portrait of Isabella of Castile

Isabella of Castile: a brief guide to the medieval queen.

Stained glass image of King Cnut

Your guide to King Cnut: the fierce Danish warrior who ruled England

What began as small raids on British coastal towns soon developed into all-out war, as a Great Viking Army arrived with a very different aim: to conquer (Photo credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Vikings in Britain: how did raiders and marauders become lords and kings?.

Coco Chanel photographed in Paris, c1936

Chanel and the Riviera.

Coins depicting Viking longships

A brief history of the Vikings