February 2015

Articles from the February 2015 issue of BBC History Magazine

Pancake day celebrations

The history of Shrove Tuesday: why do we eat pancakes?

BL52779 Roy 2 B VII f.78 Reaping corn harvest in August, from the Queen Mary Psalter, c.1310-20 (vellum) by English School, (14th century); British Library, London, UK; © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved; PERMISSION REQUIRED FOR NON EDITORIAL USAGE; English, out of copyright

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What did Magna Carta mean to the English in 1215?

The Victorians' grisly fascination with murder. (Illustration by Ben Jones for BBC History Magazine)

The Victorians’ grisly fascination with murder

The medieval city of Carcassonne

My favourite place: Languedoc, France

William Hogarth

My history hero: William Hogarth (1697–1764)

A British major pictured in German captivity

First World War

“How I fell captive to the Germans”: the experience of First World War PoWs

Parts of the Magna Carta

The amazing legacy of Magna Carta

A demonstrator vents his spleen at police officers during an anti-Vietnam War rally in London's Grosvenor Square

Britain at war over Vietnam

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh

Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

Dinner at a Victorian workhouse

History explorer: Life in the Victorian workhouse

A statue of Aphrodite

Christianity’s rocky relationship with sex

Textiles. Shoes/pumps. Silk taffeta, bound with ribbon; floss silk embroidery in French knots, long and short, satin and split stitches; tied with ribbon. Ground covered by a pattern of trailing and scrolling stems with leaves and flowers, carnation, rose, etc., so arranged that there is a carnation on each toe and a rose on each heel with a five petalled blue flower above it. The left shoe has a rose, the right a carnation at each side of the seam. Silk, length, whole, 7 in, height, back, 5.25 in, height, heel, 3 in, circa 1700-circa 1749. English.

In pictures: Treasured Possessions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

1906-Conservative-Throw-Out-Liberal-Postcard-©-Peoples-History-Museum-9e97f6a

In pictures: a history of British elections

LMG876025 Peggy Jean Laughing, 1921 (bronze) (see also 876023-6) by Epstein, Jacob (1880-1959); 23.5x21x23 cm; © Leeds Museums and Art Galleries (City Museum) UK; English, in copyright

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In pictures: Sir Jacob Epstein – Babies and Bloomsbury

L0030628 Bertillon, Instructions Signaletiques Alb

In pictures: the anatomy of crime