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Georgian

A student party, c1824: Oxford undergraduates drinking together. drinking escapade.

The Georgian guide to university life

Highclere Castle

The secrets of Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle

The engine houses of Botallack mine in Cornwall

A visit to Botallack Mine, Cornwall

US soldiers in Vietnam

From the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam and Iraq: a history of war trauma

Cavalry charge into a crowd of protesters at St Peter's Field, Manchester, as depicted in an 1819 engraving. What followed was the worst violence ever to occur at a political meeting in Britain. (Picture by Alamy)

The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve?

The HMS Victory in Portsmouth

A visit to HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar

A late 19th or early 20th-century painting entitled 'Mother and Child'. As fertility rates fell, sentimental idealisations of mothers and babies developed. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The motherhood revolution: how the great fertility decline affected the lives of women

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

For our forebears, the secret to a good night's sleep lay in the contents of your gut. (Photo by Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

6 sleeping tips and tricks from history

Britain didn't "rule the waves" after the battle of Trafalgar, says historian Sam Willis

Britain’s 7 most amazing stately homes

Clash between the English Temeraire and the French Redoutable ships during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar

Dornier 217 bombers of the Luftwaffe bomb London during the Battle of Britain. "The crucial role of the RAF in denying the Germans control of the air in 1940 and therefore persuading Hitler to abandon his invasion plans is so well known that it might seem almost sacrilegious to question it, " says Sean Lang. "But was it solely responsible for saving Britain from invasion? Not quite." (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

9 of the most overrated battles in history (and one underrated one)

Winner takes all: A painting shows the French ship 'Redoutable' clashing with the British 'Temeraire'. "Regardless of the victory off Cape Trafalgar, it was another decade before Britain and her allies defeated Napoleon. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Trafalgar, a futile victory? Why Nelson's triumph didn't turn the tide on Napoleon

The ruins of Dunluce Castle, which sit on the coastal cliffs of North Antrim in Northern Ireland. They are thought to have been the inspiration for CS Lewis’s castle Cair Paravel in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (1950–56). (Photo by Andrea Ricordi/Contributor/Getty Images)

9 of Britain’s best castles

An illustration of the battle of Agincourt. By attacking over unsuitable ground, Charles d’Albret “doomed his army”, says Rupert Matthews. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The top 10 military blunders in history

Revealed: the history of America’s national anthem

The Peterloo Massacre

The Peterloo Massacre: how a peaceful protest turned into bloody chaos

A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte fleeing from the battlefield of Waterloo (18 June 1815) after his defeat by the British under Wellington and the Prussians commanded by Blucher. A print from 'Le Patriote Illustre'. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

What is the significance of Waterloo?

9 eccentric monarchs through history

The story of Madame Tussaud

Anna WhitelockConfronting slavery’s legacy

Men enjoying a drink and a chat in a coffee house, 1674. Coffee houses became known as ‘schools of the wise’, where people would gossip, argue and discuss the breaking news of the day. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A drink for the devil: 8 facts about the history of coffee

HMS Portsmouth, Hampshire. (Getty Images)

History explorerHMS Victory and the Georgian navy

The pirate Blackbeard

10 brilliant beards from history

Scottish nobles gathering in the 17th century

Scotland on the brink: the nation's final years of independence

Blenheim Palace in a c1880 print from ‘A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland’, edited by Reverend FO Morris, Volume I, William Mackenzie, London. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

10 things you might not know about Blenheim Palace

Gerald Heard had a peculiar idea that the UFOs then being sighted all across the globe, as such as this ‘sighting’ in Sicily, were piloted not by humanoid ETs, as you may have presumed, but by alien super-bees from Mars. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

6 of history’s strangest ever theories about outer space

Lady Sarah Frances Elizabeth Armstrong-Jones (centre) – the daughter of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon – was born seventh in line to the throne. (Photo by Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Getty Images)

7 royal babies who were once seventh in line to the throne

Perkin Warbeck, an imposter and pretender to the English throne, being humiliated in the stocks before his execution in 1499. Warbeck was used by Henry VII’s Yorkist enemies in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty. (Getty Images)

Imposters in history: 16 famous con-artists and pretenders