Period

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages.

A group of American soldiers captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Java, 1942 (Photo by Getty Images)

Prisoners of the Japanese.

Portrait of Catherine of Aragon

Your guide to Catherine of Aragon: Henry VIII’s first wife and mother of Mary I

Krystyna Skarbeck, also called Christine Granville

History heroMichael Morpurgo chooses Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952).

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

A painting of the Tudor succession

The truth about the Tudors: what 5 kings and queens were really like behind closed doors.

London burns behind Tower Bridge on 7 September 1940

Second World War

Days of destiny: 5 key dates in the Battle of Britain

A Hawker Hurricane in flight over Britain

Second World War

Your guide to the Battle of Britain: how the RAF turned back the Luftwaffe

Medieval rebellions.

History graduate Steve Humphries' 1998 film exploring the stories of women who worked in Magdalene laundries

How my history degree led to my dream job.

Charles SpencerThe White Ship.

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren

The marriages of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren: how the dynasty shaped Europe

How did England react to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1751? (Illustration for BBC History Magazine)

Q&ADid the introduction of the Gregorian calendar spark riots?.

A suffragette march

The Suffragettes: everything you wanted to know.

Scythians: Warrior Nomads of the Steppe.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor playing Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII in the 1963 film, Cleopatra. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

7 of the most memorable couples in history

Dag Hammarskjöld

The mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld: a Cold War killing?.

Elizabeth I knights Francis Drake on his ship Golden Hind after his round-the-world voyage. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

How did Elizabeth I feel about being queen in a 'man's world'? | Tracy Borman explains

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?.

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I: a queen in a king’s world.

An illustration depicting the deposition of the body of Edward the Confessor in the tomb at Westminster in 1066. (

Was the early medieval period a "golden age" for the elderly?.

Simon Schama photographed in Hauteville House, Guernsey (Photo by Oxford Films, Photographer Eddie Knox)

Simon Schama on the Romantics.

William Cecil, also known as Lord Burghley, with Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Your guide to William Cecil, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

Isabel Wilkerson on caste in America.

London during the Blitz - the systematic night-time bombing of the British by the Luftwaffe in 1940 - 1941. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rationing, school closures and 'Blitz spirit': how did people cope in WW2?.

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

Elizabeth I: a guide to her life and rule, plus 7 facts you might not know

AFS firemen tackle a blitz fire amidst the rubble surrounding St Paul's Cathedral, London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Your guide to the Blitz, plus 9 places affected by the bombings

King Arthur and a hand holding the sword Excalibur.

The legends of King Arthur: everything you wanted to know.

Exclusive podcastAnita Anand on an orphan radicalised by the Amritsar massacre.

It was the need for witnesses in divorce courts – ones who wouldn’t mind their names being linked to scandals, no less – that partly gave rise to female detectives. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Women detectives: meet the Victorian female super sleuths.