Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

The renowned poet Lord Byron has gone down in history for being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. But his ancestors were hardly paragons of virtue. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Adultery, elopement and incest: the scandalous sex lives of the 18th-century Byrons.

The Jews who fought back: the story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Rewriting the past: the history that inspired Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Hollow victory: Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, attends Paris VE Day celebrations. But many faced privation and uncertainty as the war drew to a close. (Photo by Getty Images)

VE Day at 75The bitter taste of victory: why May 1945 was not a time of celebration for everyone.

A Wall Street speculator tries to sell his car to passersby

Your guide to the Great Depression

Prisoners at Bergen-Belsen

Second World War

A brief history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank died

Roman Britain: everything you wanted to know.

Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene: why do people want to believe she was a sinner and prostitute?

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

'The Landing of St Augustine in Kent', AD 597

General ancient history

Q&AWhen did Christianity first arrive in Britain?

Engraving of emperor Commodus's death

Cheese, angry gods and shoddy surgeons: the unlikely deaths of Roman emperors.

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

The Black Death and social change.

Illustration of Elizabeth I in a cage

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

Self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi as a lute player (Photo by Getty Images)

The genius of Artemisia.

Children in Auschwitz

Second World War

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

Tomb of Richard the Lionheart

Q&AHow did Richard the Lionheart die? And where is he buried?

Viking women.

An oil portrait of Charlemagne (c747–814), King of the Franks, by 15th/16th-century artist Albrecht Durer. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

The legacy of Charlemagne: how the king of the Franks continues to cast a shadow over Europe

Steve McQueen stars in the 1963 film that turned the 'Great Escape' into a symbol of Allied pluck and ingenuity. (Image by Alamy)

The not-so Great Escape.

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an 'ancient' tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

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.

From 'eyesore' to icon: a brief history of the Eiffel Tower

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

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.

Photo of the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles

The palace of Versailles: Sun King Louis XIV's ultimate power play

Pompeii wall painting depicting an erotic satyr and nymph

In bed with the Romans: a brief history of sex in Ancient Rome

Simon Wiesenthal, who became famous after World War II for his work as a 'Nazi hunter'. (Photo by: SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The real Nazi hunters: how the infamous escaped – and those who brought them to justice

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

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

Greg Jenner. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interviewFame, fortune and falls from grace: Greg Jenner on the rise of celebrity culture.