People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Frank Gillard pictured during a 1944 rehearsal for battle reporting

History heroChris Mason chooses Frank Gillard (1908–98).

From Nelson to Churchill: challenging British heroes with Afua Hirsch.

Men operate a cotton gin in Dahomey, Mississippi, in 1898

7 key questions about the transatlantic slave trade – answered

A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade.

Abolition in Britain: the link between slavery and the British national identity.

Olaudah Equiano (Photo by Getty)

General Early Modern

Who was Olaudah Equiano – and why was his story of slavery so important?

An 1826 illustration from 'The Black Man's Lament

David Olusoga"Thousands of Britons opposed abolition – because they owned slaves".

Saturday lecture: Medieval disease and medicine.

John Profumo in October 1962

Sex, lies and spies: the real history of the Profumo Affair

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1521. This was an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire called by King Charles V in Heylshof Garden, Worms, to address Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation. (Photo by The Print Collector via Getty Images)

What was the Reformation?

Henry Avery: the legendary 17th-century pirate.

The front facade of the prehistoric chambered tomb of Wayland's Smithy

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #6: Viking military mind games, Anglo-Saxon mind maps, and embroidery before the Bayeux Tapestry.

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. When Edward became king in January 1936, he was the darling of the nation. Yet when he abdicated in December 1936, few believed he was making the wrong decision. (Photo by Getty Images)

Love before duty: the story of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson

A researcher examines the medieval Voynich Manuscript with a magnifying glass

The Voynich Manuscript: who wrote the mystery medieval codex and what is it trying to tell us?

The cosmopolitan Chaucer.

Oliver Cromwell and King Charles I.

The Civil War: everything you wanted to know.

Equestrian portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript of his Canterbury Tales (14th century). "The world in which Chaucer moved was very outward-looking," says Marion Turner. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Cosmopolitan Chaucer: the 14th-century poet’s inventive, international life.

Two members of the BEF (British Expeditionary Forces)

Indian soldiers at Dunkirk.

Charles II and his parties

Was Charles II too randy to rule?.

An engraving depicting a scene of chaos at Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital: why did the infamous Bedlam asylum have such a fearsome reputation?

A scene from the Smithfield Decretals depicting a rabbit beheading a man. Rabbits seem to have a strange place in medieval imagery – and are depicted as having strangely violent tendencies. "It’s the sort of thing to give you nightmares," says David Musgrove. (Photo by Album/British Library/Alamy Stock Photo)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #5: chivalry, medieval killer rabbits and prisoners of war in the 15th century.

King Edward II

In profile: King Edward II

King John II made prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers by the English during the Hundred Years War, 1356. Illustration

Medieval prisoners of war.

Medieval punishments, Toulouse, 14th century. (Photo by Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

How bloody was medieval life?

The British home has changed substantially in the past 300 years (Illustration by Ed Crooks)

The evolution of the British home: from the Georgian era to the present day.

Charles Cundall’s painting ‘The Withdrawal From Dunkirk, June 1940’

Second World War

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk

King John hunting on horseback

Was King John really that bad? Yes!

David Olusoga on A House Through Time.

Saturday lecture: Medieval crime and violence.

The Battle of the Atlantic: the "desperate" WW2 campaign featured in Tom Hanks film Greyhound.