March 2014

Articles from the March 2014 issue of BBC History Magazine

A view of Þingvellir National Park in western Iceland. It was here, in AD 930, that Viking settlers established the first pan-Icelandic assembly – possibly the oldest parliamentary body in the world. (© Dreamstime)

Vikings: A land without kings

British film director Alfred Hitchcock perched on either arm in a promotional still for his film, 'The Birds', c1963. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)

An illustration of King Henry VIII and his six wives

The hidden lives of Henry VIII’s six wives

Louis-Napoléon Geoffroy’s The Apocryphal Napoleon imagined what would have happened if the emperor had conquered Russia in 1812 instead of being defeated at Moscow. In this painting, Napoleon retreats from Moscow. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The history essay: the past that never was

The Oseberg ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/UIG via Getty Images)

How the Vikings ruled the waves

JontyClarke_Amsterdam_final_kindle-8fd8796-44ad946

Ye olde travel guide: Amsterdam, 1648

Portrait of Juliet Gardiner for BBC History Magazine

Second World War

History explorer: the Second World War home front

Alfred the Great

Michael Wood on Alfred the Great

A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, c1796. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Books interview with Michael Broers: “You don’t have to make up myths about Napoleon’s youth – just look at his letters to see evidence that he was a great leader”

Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, speaking at a Nazi rally in 1936. (Photo by ullstein bild / ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

When Hitler’s perfect woman came to call

A group of survivors from the Long March after their arrival in Shenxi in 1934. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

The Library Mao: the legend of the Long March

(Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

A brief history of home ownership in Britain