People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Laurence Olivier plays Richard III in the 1955 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In it, the controversial monarch is damned as everything from a "bottled spider" and "lump of foul deformity" to a "poisonous bunch-backed toad". (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Why did Shakespeare revile Richard III?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Plantation of Ulster: The British Colonisation of the North of Ireland in the 17th Century

Abergavenny Castle, Monmouthshire

A cast of a Roman warship carrying armed soldiers. (Photo By DEA / G. NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The Roman invasion: whose side were the Britons on?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is portrayed as pirate in an Argentine newspaper from 30 April 1982.(Photo by Alain Nogues/Sygma via Getty Images)

Sir Max Hastings: Witness to the Falklands War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Queen's silver jubilee took place in 1977. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

Why the Seventies still matter

Richard II, led captive by Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), renounces the throne in Jean Creton's 'Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard II' (1401-05). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Richard II: “I find myself a traitor”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sue Townsend admires Charles Dickens (pictured c1960) for his battles against social injustice. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens (1812-1870). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The RMS Titanic. (Image by Perspectives/Getty Images)

Where history happened: The Titanic disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The death of Aelfeah at the hands of the Danes, portrayed in a window of St Luke's church, Bath. (Photo by: MyLoupe/UIG via Getty Images)

St Ælfheah: Canterbury’s other martyr. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What are the origins of the ‘mutes’ that attended Victorian funerals?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Stamford, Lincolnshire

BBC History Magazine

Remembered in wax

St Albans Clock Tower, Hertfordshire

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

Castle Campbell, Clackmannanshire

Queen’s Corporal

Porthcumo Telegraph Museum, Cornwall

BBC History Magazine

The Right Kind of History: Teaching the Past in Twentieth-Century England

When did the practice of funeral rings begin/end and how widespread was it?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The White Man’s World

A view towards the Carew estuary between a dry stone wall and the ruins of Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, UK. (Dreamstime)

Where history happened: Tudor courtiers with Suzannah Lipscomb. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Painting depicting medieval nuns. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

17th-century nuns on the run. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Philip of Spain, King of England: The Forgotten Sovereign

BBC History Magazine

Able Seamen: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy 1850–1939

St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh

Mikado Maids

A big day in history: Gilbert and Sullivan unveil 'The Mikado'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain’s medieval identity crisis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Tirpitz' hiding in a Norwegian fjord in 1942. “She outclassed anything in the British fleet,” says Patrick Bishop. (Getty Images)

The Second World War: sinking the Tirpitz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting depicting the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo. "Wellington’s victories at Roliça and Vimeiro in 1808 were the first significant defeats inflicted upon the French emperor’s armies in Europe," says Saul David. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The triumph of the redcoats. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.