BBC History Magazine

The online archive of articles from BBC History Magazine

An engraving depicts a frost fair on the Thames

Frozen: Britain’s Little Ice Age

Coming up in the next issue of BBC History Magazine…

Coming up in the March 2020 issue of BBC History Magazine

New issue BBCH Feb 20 1024x768

February 2020 issue of BBC History Magazine out now!

Child survivors at Auschwitz

Second World War

A brief history of Auschwitz

Simon de Montfort

10 things you might not know about Simon de Montfort

Henry III during the Second Barons' War

The barons’ crusade: why rebel lords waged holy war against Henry III

German prisoners of war

Second World War

What would you have done? 6 terrible choices people had to make during the Second World War

Jews stand with hands up before German soldiers

Second World War

The brutal blitzkrieg: the 1939 invasion of Poland

Edward VI

To kidnap a king: the foiled plot to abduct Edward VI

Adolf Eichmann during his trial in 1961

Second World War

Forgotten voices: the history behind Holocaust Memorial Day

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Elizabeth I

Richard III, Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence

Blood brothers: Richard III’s battle with his siblings

Queen Victoria with Prince Albert and their children in 1846. After a painting by F Winterhalter. Victoria’s husband, Albert, “carved out for the crown a moral kind of authority as the nation’s first and model family,” says Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Retaining the royals: why has the British monarchy survived – and thrived?

A monk and his mistress

Monks behaving badly

American socialite Wallis Simpson

The vilification of Wallis Simpson: how Edward VIII’s mistress was savaged by society