People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Painting of Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great and Edington: how the King of Wessex became great.

Harold Wilson in 1971, after his first period as prime minister. He would take power again in 1974. (Photo by Getty Images)

History heroJason Watkins chooses Harold Wilson (1916–95).

Members of the royal family: Prince Louis; Prince George; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Princess Charlotte; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; Princess Anne, Princess Royal; and Queen Elizabeth II during the Queen's annual birthday parade on 8 June 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

From The Crown to Queen Elizabeth’s corgis: 24 history questions about the royal family for your home pub quiz

Marble statue of a young Roman girl

Everything you wanted to know about Roman Britain – but were afraid to ask

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.

Victorian family. (Photo by Sean Sexton-Getty images)

The Victorians: everything you wanted to know.

Linda Porter

Linda Porter“You’ve got to be impressed by how these women played the system”.

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.

Queen Victoria on an ivory throne

Top 11 monarchs in British history

Irish people starving during the Potato Famine

The Corn Laws crisis.

The opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851. (The Print Collector/Getty Images)

"A wonder of the world": Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition at the famous Crystal Palace.

Old Norse: Page from the manuscript Codex Regius, which was written in Iceland and contains the poems of elder Edda. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

BlogMedieval matters #1: The Last Kingdom, Robin Hood and how to learn Old Norse in lockdown.

The dark side: A man summons demons in a 14th-century English encyclopaedia. "Some educated men were determined to contact the spirit world – and took great risks to do so," writes Catherine Rider. (Photo by Bridgeman)

From healing spells to conjuring demons: the medieval obsession with magic.

Harvest time in Surrey in the mid-19th century. Powerful Tory landowners had agitated for the introduction of the Corn Laws to protect the income from their farms. (Photo by Christie's Images via Bridgman)

The Corn Law crisis: the bitter political war that threatened thousands with starvation.

Detail of the carved portal of Hylestad stave church, 12th century. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

5 forgotten Viking battles that shaped Britain's destiny.

Haesten (Jeppe Beck Laursen) in the 'The Last Kingdom'.

The Last Kingdom S4 E9 review: a tense penultimate episode sees the Saxon heart “ripped out”

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred in season 4 of 'The Last Kingdom'. (Photo by Joe Alblas/Carnival)

The Last Kingdom S4 E10 review: resettled pieces on the board allow drama to “catch up” with history

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

How the world made us.

Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in 'The Last Kingdom'.

The Last Kingdom S4 E8 review: a fiery opening paves the way for a new ruler of Mercia

The Last Kingdom season 4

The Last Kingdom S4 E7 review: a royal funeral, the abuse of power, and a little artistic licence

Oscar Skagerberg as Bjorgulf in 'The Last Kingdom' season 4

The Last Kingdom S4 E5 review: “This has to rank among the more gruesome episodes of the season, if not the series”

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

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

The unexpected Vikings.

Illustration by Luke Waller for BBC History Magazine.

Æthelwold: Alfred the Great's rebel nephew

Timothy Innes as King Edward and Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred

Who were the key players in the struggle to succeed Alfred the Great?.

The Last Kingdom series 4

The Last Kingdom S4 E3 review: moments of introspection remind us of history’s “shared humanity”

British prehistory: everything you wanted to know.

'The Last Kingdom' season 4 episode 1

The Last Kingdom S4 E1 review: will Alfred’s legacy come tumbling down?

'The Last Kingdom' season 4

The Last Kingdom S4 E2 review: winds of change and dramatic father-son relations

Edward the Confessor

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Anglo-Saxons