Georgian

The decapitation machine now known as the guillotine was not a French invention and wasn't invented by Joseph Guillotin. (Image by Getty Images)

Q&A Did the French invent the guillotine?

Sir Tom Devine responds to listener questions on the causes and consequences of one of the most notorious episodes of Scottish history. (Image by Getty Images)

The Highland Clearances: everything you wanted to know

The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) in 1807, the spire of the Church of Our Lady on fire, watercolour by Christofer Willem Eckersberg (1783-1853). Napoleonic Wars, Denmark, 19th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Britain’s illegal war: the story of the battle of Copenhagen

Jacqueline Riding discusses the life and work of the famed artist and satirist William Hogarth, and explores how his many engravings and portraits charted the morals and vices of the 18th century. (Image by Getty Images)

Hogarth: the chronicler of the 18th century

A depiction of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July, 1776, from a painting by John Trumbull. The men standing are (l to r) John Adams, Roger Sherman Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Why does the United States of America celebrate Independence Day on 4 July?

A contemporary illustration of the Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789 – an event that helped create the idea of 'revolution' as we know it today. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Fighting for freedom: the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution

Pregnant woman before giving birth in the 13th century

16 things you (probably) didn’t know about the rituals behind royal births, from the medieval era to the present day

Ritchie Robertson responds to listener questions on the intellectual and philosophical movement that swept Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. (Image by Getty Images)

The Enlightenment: everything you wanted to know

From Roman emperors and medieval saints to enslaved people, Olivette Otele charts the long history of Africans in Europe

African Europeans

French cuirassiers charging a British infantry square at the battle of Waterloo, 1815 (1906). From Cassell's Illustrated History of England, Vol. V. (Cassell and Company Limited, London, Paris, New York, Melbourne). Artist P Jazet. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

How the French won the battle of Waterloo (or think they did)

Colour portrait of Jane Austen

Jane Austen: a guide to her life, books and death – plus 8 fascinating facts

A depiction of the Haiti Rebellion

The Haitian Revolution: the enslaved Africans who rose up against France

Front door of No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister

From Walpole to Johnson: lessons from the 300-year history of the British prime minister

Prisoners exercise and play sport in the courtyard of the Fleet Prison, circa 1872

Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain

The ‘Eye of Providence’, a symbol linked to the Illuminati, stares out from the reverse side of all US one-dollar bills

The Illuminati: 13 questions about the clandestine secret society answered