Period

The Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England

The Interregnum: Britain's republican decade.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at dusk

9 places where British astronomy flourished.

Cathedrals: from bishops' seats to tourist hotspots.

Portrait of James, Duke of Monmouth, the 36-year-old illegitimate son of Charles II. (Photo by Alamy)

England's greatest royal rebel: why the Duke of Monmouth was a 17th-century hero.

The Restoration: everything you wanted to know.

Eurovision: a political history.

A modern image depicts Caratacus attending a tribunal in Rome, having been captured by Claudius’ soldiers in Britain

Who were the rebels of Roman Britain?.

Episode 2Life in the late imperial age.

In the AD 40s, the British king Caratacus led a huge revolt against Rome's occupying army. (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Caratacus: Roman Britain’s greatest rebel.

Coco Chanel in Paris, 1929

Why we should remember…How Chanel No 5 revolutionised the beauty business.

Free speech: a brief, contentious history.

Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, better known to history as the Ladies of Llangollen

Q&AWho were the Ladies of Llangollen?

American citizens Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, following their arrest by the FBI 1950. They were convicted of passing infomation to the Soviets and executed in 1953

The secrets and lies of Cold War spies

Disabled people in Tudor times.

Magellan: daring explorer or doomed failure?.

Our collage shows three generations of the Dudley family

The Dudley dynasty: the family behind the Tudors

An illustration of Colonel Blood

What happened to Colonel Thomas Blood?.

War in the air: everything you wanted to know.

Dr DA Henderson examines children’s smallpox vaccination scars in Ethiopia

Why we should remember…Target Zero Day.

A group of formerly enslaved African-Americans around the time of the US Civil War

Why we should remember…The Amnesty Act of 1872

The Dudleys: power behind the Tudor throne.

A bust of Vespasian in Bath. The future emperor was responsible for expanding Roman territory into the west of Britain. (Image by Getty Images)

How did the Romans conquer Britain?

Episode 1Introduction, and a mystery mosaic.

The Arnolfini portrait painting – oil on wood – appears to depict a wealthy couple holding hands in a domestic setting, the bed perhaps indicating that they are in a bedchamber

What great paintings sayThe Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, 1434.

Spain’s tumultuous story.

Despatches on dictators: US reporters in 1930s Europe.

American actress, singer and model Marilyn Monroe

Something's got to giveThe dramatic life of Marilyn Monroe

Dancers perform in a Cinco de Mayo celebration

Q&AWhat does Cinco de Mayo commemorate?

Illustration of Queen Matilda of Boulogne, by Eleanor Shakespeare

Matilda of Boulogne: Norman England’s warrior queen

Women from the Auxiliary Territorial Service take a break

Second World War

An army of women: adventures in the Auxiliary Territorial Service