Period

A still from the 2018 film 'Robin hood', in which actor Taron Egerton plays the legendary English archer. (Photo by Alamy)

Robin Hood: how the legendary figure has been portrayed across the centuries.

Queen Elizabeth II (centre) makes her 2016 Christmas speech (Photo by YUI MOK/AFP/Getty Images). What would queens before her have said in their festive speeches, if they'd had the chance? Clockwork from top right: Elizabeth I (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images); Queen Anne (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images); Mary Tudor (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) and Queen Matilda (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Alternative Queen's Christmas speeches: what would Elizabeth I and Matilda have said?.

How did Henry VIII and Elizabeth I celebrate Yuletide? (Illustration by Becca Thorne for BBC History Magazine)

Tales from a Tudor Christmas.

Illustration by Femke de Jong

Does it always pay to trust the cash in your pockets?

Wonders of the Middle Ages.

Shapes for pies from T Hall, The Queen's Royal Cookery, 1713.

The taste of Christmas past: 4 historical festive recipes.

The Nuremberg trials have not been universally praised. To some, the trials were a blown-up case of victors' justice. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

A brief guide to the Nuremberg Trials, where some Nazis faced justice after WW2

The National Portrait Gallery attributed this unfinished portrait to Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, and dated it to circa 1810. (Universal History Archive / Getty Images)

What did Jane Austen really look like?

Simon Sebag Montefiore on letters from history. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Letters that changed the world.

10 terrible taxes in history.

Malcolm X speaking at a rally, 29 June 1963.(Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Black radicalism with Kehinde Andrews.

Alfred Nobel (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Great misconceptions: There is a Nobel Prize for economics.

Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

Deadly rivals: Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Adam Zamoyski offers his views on the iconic French leader, Napoleon. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Napoleon: the insecure emperor.

Will Millard – presenter of the BBC series 'Hidden Wales'. (Photo by BBC Wales)

Industrial revolution

The hidden history of Wales

The "brilliant" Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse in 1935. (Getty Images)

My history hero: Walt Disney (1901-66).

A poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children by Dorothea Lange, colourised by Marina Amaral. (Photo courtesy of Head of Zeus)

History in colour.

Queen Victoria, c1860s. Victoria attended her son's wedding in March 1863 wearing full mourning dress – her husband, Prince Albert, had died some 15 months earlier. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Troublesome royal in-laws through history.

A group of skaters on a frozen-over backwater of the River Thames at Abingdon, 1895. (Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A brief history of climate change warnings.

c1935: Beatrice Shilling sits astride her Norton motorcycle. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

5 "bloody brilliant" 20th-century women.

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552–1618 (Photo by Getty Images)

Walter Ralegh: enemy of the state.

Four young members of the largest group of Kindertransport refugees arrive at Southampton, England, in March 1939. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Remembering the Kindertransport.

A view from the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral looking towards Trinity Chapel, which was built in the 12th century to house the remains of Thomas Becket. (Photo by Alamy)

History explorerThe wonder of medieval cathedrals.

My favourite place: Jamaica

Politician and novelist Benjamin Disraeli was twice prime minister, and extended suffrage by introducing the 1867 Reform Act. (Photo by Jabez Hughes/Getty Images)

The LibraryMy history hero: Jacob Rees-Mogg chooses Benjamin Disraeli

James I of Aragon, depicted in a 15th-century portrait. A king dubbed 'the Conqueror' invested enormous energy in projecting an image of power and authority. But behind the facade lay an insecure ruler who feared failure. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The LibraryJames I of Aragon: inside the mind of a medieval king.

A Gallo-Roman image shows wine being transported. According to Barry Cunliffe, there was a long period when the Romans traded extensively with the Celts of Gaul, tribes with whom the Romans co-existed in relative peace. (Photo by BeBa/Iberfoto/Mary Evans)

The Celts: were they friends or foes of the Romans?.

American Flying Fortress bombers and a Mustang fighter practise formation flying over England, training for rain that would help break Nazi resistance. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

The LibraryThe Allies’ big idea: the largest air battle of the Second World War.

Droeshout Portrait. This engraving appeared as the First Folio frontispiece. (© Getty Images)

8 places that shaped the life of William Shakespeare.

Paddy Ashdown. (Photo by Alamy)

The Germans who fought Hitler.