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Anglo-Saxon

Composite image showing a medieval cesspit excavation alongside historic coins found within the deposit.

From health to wealth, here are the strange secrets medieval toilets reveal about life in the Middle Ages

Beyond the podcastMagna Carta

An illustration of the English King Aethelstan, in front of Viking silver.

How England’s first king used an unexpected weapon to defeat the Vikings

A composite image showing the Queen Mother in front of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Could the Queen Mother have secured the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum 45 years ago?

Æthelstan: the king who made England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Find wonder in the world around you. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This scene comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, the nearly 70-metre-long embroidered narrative that chronicles the events leading to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

The Bayeux Tapestry is beautiful, but what was its purpose? New research might have the answer

This composite image brings together Edmond Halley, the comet that bears his name, and the Bayeux Tapestry’s famous depiction of its 1066 appearance. Halley’s calculations in the 18th century revealed the comet’s regular return, transforming a phenomenon once read as an omen of catastrophe — as it was before the Norman Conquest — into a predictable event governed by celestial mechanics.

Has history’s most famous comet been misnamed for centuries? “The answer is clear,” say historians

The REAL history behind Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and more. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 5Anglo-Saxon and Norman cesspits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Who was REALLY buried at Sutton Hoo? The secrets behind the famous helmet. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This 6th-century matrix from Torslunda, Sweden, was used to create helmet plaques depicting armed figures — likely berserkers — wearing horned helmets with bird motifs and animal masks. Such imagery evokes the warrior culture later embraced by Viking champions like Thorkell the Tall, a famed Jomsviking commander known for his fierce loyalty and shifting allegiances during the early 11th century.

Who was Thorkell the Tall? The pragmatic Viking warrior who fought for (and against) all sides

An illustration showing a king dressed in green and orange, sitting on a blue throne made out of books. He is reading from a long scroll

Love learning like Æthelstan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of Matilda of Flanders, queen consort of William the Conqueror. As queen after the Norman Conquest, Matilda played a key political role.

The conqueror’s queen: meet the real Matilda of Flanders

An illustration of a king dressed in a green and orange robe. He is wearing a crown and holding a sceptre

King Æthelstan: England's colossus. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photograph shows two men standing with their faces very close together. They both have serious expressions on their faces and are staring down the lens of the camera. Across the bottom are the words KING & CONQUEROR

The wrong moustache in the Battle of Hastings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

William the Conqueror: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of Emma of Normandy and two of her children

King and Conqueror’s most gruesome death should never have happened and would be “totally out of character”

This 1877 painting by Oscar Wergeland depicts Norwegian settlers arriving in Iceland in 872. Fleeing the unification of Norway under Harald Fairhair, these early migrants laid the foundations of a unique Norse society on the island’s volcanic shores.

Could you survive on the Vikings’ furthest frontier? Here’s the dark reality of Norse life on the edge

A drawing of a king holding a crown on his head, against a black and white image of a church

Far away from England, the mystery of Harold Godwinson's lost crown might have just been solved

Edward the Confessor: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman in a grey cloak holds a swaddled infant to her shoulder

Edith the Fair: the life of Harold Godwinson’s first wife

Luther Ford as Tostig Godwinson in BBC drama King and Conqueror

How Tostig Godwinson’s brotherly betrayal hastened the fall of the Anglo-Saxons

Juliet Stevenson as Emma of Normandy in BBC drama King and Conqueror (Photo via BBC)

Emma of Normandy: not just a two-time queen consort of England

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror in BBC Norman Conquest drama King and Conqueror

How historically accurate is King and Conqueror? Here’s the real history that should have happened

This posthumous portrait of William I, known as the Conqueror, was painted c.1590–1610 and is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London. Though created centuries after his death, it reflects early modern interest in the legacy of England’s first Norman monarch. (Photo by Getty Images)

Meet the real William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy who reshaped England

Illustrations of Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror

How well did Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror know each other prior to the battle of Hastings?

A collage of four images, depicting four different kings against a blue background

1066: who was the rightful king?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A monk with ginger hair and beard, dressed in blue, sits on.a bench with a book. He is against a pink background and around him are a fork, a yellow pencil and a brush

Riddle like an Anglo-Saxon monk. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This 9th-century illustration shows Alcuin of York presenting his pupil Rabanus Maurus to Saint Martin. An influential scholar and teacher, Alcuin played a key role in the intellectual revival of Charlemagne’s court.

The first mafia? How an early medieval kingdom perfected the art of deadly diplomacy