Period

Historian Nichola Tallis

“Margaret Beaufort wielded enormous power. She was a queen in all but name”: Nicola Tallis on the mother of the Tudors

The footprint of Old Sarum cathedral

ExploreOld Sarum: the regal and the rotten

A c1860 depiction of Wentworth Works steel manufacturer in Sheffield

Why Britain punched above its weight

Tutankhamun's blue and gold funerary mask

Tutankhamun unmasked: 7 intriguing truths about the pharaoh and his treasures

6 novels that captured life in Britain

A contemporary portrait of scientist Ada Lovelace

History heroKonnie Huq chooses Ada Lovelace (1815–52)

King John out hunting

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about medieval elections

A man attacks the Berlin Wall with a pickaxe on the night of November 9th, 1989 as news spread rapidly that the East German Government would now start granting exit visas to anyone who wanted to go to the West. The announcement was misinterpreted as meaning the border was now open and East German border guards were unable to stop the rush of people to the Wall. Within hours people were smashing sections of the Wall with their own hand tools and these first cracks in the Wall led to the complete opening of the border within days. (Photo by robert wallis/Corbis via Getty Images)

In pictures: remembering the Berlin Wall 30 years on

Simon the cat

10 top cats in history

Britons. Join Your Country's Army! (Photo by Alfred Leete/ Imperial War Museums via Getty Images)

The death of Kitchener: a World War One mystery

A fruit and vegetable market, painted by Joachim Beuckelaer.

A brief history of veganism in Britain

A depiction of a 13th-century parliament, sitting under Edward I. The Good Parliament of 1376, during the reign of Edward III, sowed the seeds for discontent that was to come.

The Good Parliament of 1376: Crown v Commons

Britain in the early 80s

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman invasion of 1066. The tapestry was most likely embroidered by women in Norman England in a workshop setting using four embroidery stitches – stem stitch; split stitch; chain stitch; and laid work, sometimes called ‘Bayeux Stitch’, says Dr Alexandra Lester-Makin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The making of the Bayeux Tapestry: who made it, how long did it take, and how has it survived?

1st May 1975: Three documents, for and against, published for the referendum on the Common Market

Britain decides: the first European referendum

Photo of a gramophone

Q&AWho do we say 'put a sock in it'?

Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon, in San Francisco during a visit to America, November 1965. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express/Getty Images)

“Cheap men and expensive bottles”: Princess Margaret’s love affairs

James VI and I depicted in Parliament, c1605

Queen Elizabeth I’s ‘Golden Speech’ and 5 more key moments in the history of crown and parliament

Scores of people milled about the entrance to the Stock Exchange on 24 October 1929, as the market went through the greatest shake up in its history. It was a light tremor heralding the earthquake to come. (Photo by NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

The Wall Street Crash: the day the bubble burst

Extinction Rebellion take over Trafalgar Square, London, in protest on 16 October 2019. (Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

From William Wordsworth to Extinction Rebellion: a history of Britain's green activists

Richard III, anonymous painting around 1500. (Photo by Alamy)

The house of York

Being invited to become a 'guest' of the Tower of London in medieval England meant, more often than not, that you would soon be food for the crows. (Image by Getty Images/RM Creative)

10 historical haunted sites across Britain

Queen of hearts: When Catherine's husband Tsar Peter III alienated his people, they instead turned to his wife, and she was proclaimed the rightful ruler.

General Early Modern

Catherine the Great: your guide to the famed Empress of Russia

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

A visit to the Churchill War Rooms, London

Gin Lane, a print issued in 1751 by painter and printmaker William Hogarth. It depicts the perceived evils of the consumption of gin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The 18th-century craze for gin

Inside the fort was a famous spring, St Helen’s Well, today Robin Hood’s Well. (© Bill Henderson)

Brunanburh: Where did the battle that saved England take place?

The Haiti slave revolt. (Image by Getty)

Slave revolt

The Monteagle letter, which shares a warning about the Gunpowder Plot. (National Archives)

In their own words: 6 of history’s most fascinating letters

Portrait of Marie Antoinette in deep mourning, while in prison

The final days of Marie Antoinette