Georgian

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

John Higgs discusses the extraordinary life and art of William Blake – an eccentric outsider once dismissed as a madman, but now hailed as a genius. (Image by Getty Images)

William Blake: “artist or genius, or mystic, or madman”

An aerial view of Tahiti

Jeanne Baret: the first known woman to circumnavigate the globe

Ayanna Thompson discusses the history of blackface – a story spanning William Shakespeare, US race relations and Dartmoor Prison. (Image by Getty Images)

Blackface: a brief history

Portrait of Carlo Broschi (stage name Farinelli), the most famous opera singer of the 18th century. (Photo By DEA/A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Castrated Georgian opera stars: the stars of the 18th century

'Sanditon' - an adaption of Jane Austen's unfinished novel of the same name – is currently airing in the UK on ITV. Pictured: Clara Brereton (played by Lily Sacofsky), Esther Denham (Charlotte Spencer), Lady Denham (Anne Reid) and Edward Denham (Jack Fox). (Photo by RED PLANET/ITV)

Your guide to Sanditon, Jane Austen’s last unfinished work

This caricature of those meetings depicts proceedings turning to chaos, thanks to the arrival of Napoleon – freshly escaped from his exile on Elba before 'the cake' (Europe) has even been cut

Europe after Napoleon: what the Congress of Vienna meant for the coalition powers