People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Nancy Astor campaigning

How the battle for female suffrage in Britain was won

King Edward VII in his coronation robes.

Edward VIIA guide to the king who ruled over the Edwardian age

A composite image showing the Edwardians

The Edwardian era: a history guide and timeline of Britain in the reign of Edward VII

Diners watch a waitress chalk up the dishes offered on the day's menu at a British Restaurant in Gillingham, 1941. (Photo by Reuben Saidman/ Popperfoto via Getty Images)

Eat for victory: the British Restaurants of WW2

An effigy of Henry III

The Plantagenet royal dynasty: England's ultimate family drama

Enoch Powell against a union jack flag

Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech: Britain and race in the mid 20th-century

Two women share a tender moment, c1902

Q&AHas it ever been a crime to be lesbian in England?

Soldiers drafted in to work during a coal porters’ strike in London, shovelling coal

The Great Unrest: what caused the industrial action of 1911–14?

Three of the children of Henry VII: Prince Henry; Arthur Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret

Royal rivalries10 of the most famous sibling relationships

The Eridge Hunt, Boxing Day 1952

A brief history of Boxing Day

Christmas merriment in an old English manor in the 1500s

How to host a medieval Christmas

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

An illustration of the Great Fire of London, c1675. St Paul's Cathedral is seen in flames (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What if...The Great Fire of London never happened?

Civil rights campaigner Ida B Wells, acclaimed composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; and footballer Walter Tull.

Black Victorians: the hidden Britons who helped shape the 19th century

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do we kiss under the mistletoe?

The Great Smog of London: what caused the 1952 crisis?

Pat Smith of Mari Arts and the Mari Lwyd (Photo by Western Mail Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

General History

Welsh Christmas traditions through history

City of fur and feather: the animals of medieval London

Men of the SAS returning from a three-month trip behind enemy lines during the war in North Africa. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“They changed the way war is run”: Ben Macintyre on the early SAS

St Andrew, in St Andrew chapel, depicted at his crucifixion displayed in the manner known as the Saltire cross

St Andrew’s Day: 11 things you might not know about Scotland’s patron saint

Sæberht of Essex, who oversaw the building of London’s original church of St Paul’s (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

How to survive the Dark Ages in Britain: 6 crucial tips

Mary, Queen of Scots: The Scottish years

Photo of the display cabinet where the World Cup was stolen

What a pickle: how England lost, found and won the World Cup in a single year

This statue of Alfred the Great stands in Winchester, the former 'capital' of his kingdom (Photo by TonyBaggett via Getty Images)

What if...Alfred the Great lost to the Vikings at the battle of Edington?

Stained glass in Exeter Cathedral depicting King Æthelstan. (Dreamstime)

VideoMichael Wood on the astonishing Æthelstan

Hidden livesVictorian fasting girls

David Dimbleby commands the studio during the May 1997 general election

BBC at 100Into the digital age

Prince Philip played by Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip and Natascha McElhone as Penelope Knatchbull

The Crown S5 E2 real history: Prince Philip’s ‘keeper of secrets’ and Andrew Morton’s book on Princess Diana

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles in episode one of season five of The Crown.

The Crown S5 E1 real history: ‘Queen Victoria Syndrome’ and a second honeymoon

King Henry V (left) in a late-16th- or early 17th-century portrait by an unknown artist; and his son Henry VI (right) in a c1500s portrait (Photos by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Why Henry VI’s reign was such a disaster