England

Portrait of William Shakespeare by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about William Shakespeare

"As a patron of crusading, St George easily became the quintessential knight," says Jonathan Good. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

St George’s Day: 10 things you (probably) didn’t know about him

Mount Stuart, a house built for built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. (Photo by Mount Stuart)

8 of Britain’s best historical houses and gardens

AXDC2T The Biddenden Charity Dole Kent UK 2008 Easter Monday. Also know as Chulkhurst Charity after Elisa & Mary Chulkhurst 1100-1134. Image shot 2008. Exact date unknown.

Easter treats: what are Biddenden cakes?

Biddenden Maids Cake. (Public Domain)

Sisters of mercy: the Biddenden Maids

English actor Laurence Olivier as Richard III in a production of Shakespeare's play of the same name. (Photo by Felix Man/Picture Post/Getty Images)

Shakespeare’s best (or worst) villains

Memorial cross at Flodden Field, site of Battle of Flodden 1513, Northumberland, 1994. (Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

8 of Britain’s best battlefields

A depiction of the interior of parliament

9 things you didn’t know about the history of parliament

Kit Harington as plotter Robert Catesby in the BBC drama 'Gunpowder'. (BBC/Kudos)

What if the gunpowder plot had succeeded?

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Bayeux Tapestry Day, St Anne’s College, Oxford – Sunday 17 June 2018

Shackles that were used to tether slaves, on display at the International Slavery Museum. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

History explorer: the British slave trade

From The Library

Henry VIII “regarded his wars as the worthy successors of the great martial victories of England’s past”, says Steven Gunn. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

Total war in Tudor England

From The Library

Harold Godwinson is proclaimed king of England in the Bayeux Tapestry. It may have been commissioned by a Norman but this magnificent artwork repeatedly acknowledges the English leader’s piety and courage. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Why is Harold a hero of the Bayeux Tapestry?