Period

Mary Beard on the HistoryExtra podcast

Mary Beard’s life in Classics.

Sunset over the causeway to St Michael's Mount, Marazion, Cornwall, England (Getty Images)

9 places associated with the Prayer Book Rebellion.

As many as 15 people may have been killed, and a further 500 badly injured, during the 1819 riot in Manchester that came to be known as the 'Peterloo' Massacre. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)

16 August 1819: Militia massacres protesters at ‘Peterloo’

A painting in the tomb of Inherkha – a priest wearing the mask of Horus is performing the opening of the mouth ritual. The purpose was to restore to the deceased the use of the senses, thus restoring life in the next world. Ancient Egyptian 20th dynasty c1186-1070 BC. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Why was mummification used in Ancient Egypt, and why did they leave the heart in the body?

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's funniest jokes

Historical fact and fiction.

Elizabeth I podcast

Inside the mind of Elizabeth I.

A First World War silk screened poster c1918 showing a frightening German soldier holding a bloodied bayonet. Caption reads: "Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds". (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Why did the Allies call Germans 'Huns' during World War I?

Mrs Frederica Bell, photographed with her children Freda, Roy and 'King' on the Pacific island of Raoul. (Photo courtesy of Lydia Syson/Mr Peacock's Possessions)

A real Swiss Family Robinson?.

Kill or cure? 10 medieval medical practices and their effectiveness

Britons under Nazi rule podcast

Britons under Nazi rule.

Barristers' wigs

Q&AWhy are barristers ‘called to the bar’?

"Queen Victoria was more than just a token ruler of India. Passionately interested in its people and culture, she intervened frequently in Indian politics," says Miles Taylor. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The LibraryQueen Victoria’s Indians.

Nurses serve lunch to patients at a Birmingham hospital, 1939. (Photo by Humphrey Spender/Picture Post/Getty Images)

What was healthcare like in Britain before the NHS?

Guillaume de Jumieges, Cesta Normanorum, f° 116, letter with dropped initial, William the Conqueror receives the chronicler's manuscript, 11th century, France, Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale.

William the Conqueror: hero or villain?

The Ripper of our nightmares: 5 theories about Jack the Ripper's identity

Composite image of famous women: Cleopatra, Marie Curie, Mary Wollstonecraft, Madame CJ Walker, Jane Austen, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ethel Smyth, the Virgin Mary, Rosa Parks, Frida Kahlo, Diana, Princess of Wales, Amelia Earhart.

100 women who changed the world

The Fountain of Arethusa on Ortygia, the historical heart of Syracuse, separated from the main city by a small channel. (Photo by Alamy)

General ancient history

My favourite place: Syracuse, Sicily

A portrait of King James I of Scotland. James was taken prisoner by the English in 1406, and it would be 18 years before he was freed to take the reins of power in his native nation. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

James I: Henry V’s Scottish protege.

A c1750 watercolour shows workers "mixing the powder" at Woolwich Arsenal. "The institutions that made up the 18th-century British 'state' existed entirely to provide the resources for war," argues Priya Satia. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

How war sparked the industrial revolution.

A New York opium den. Although US legislators cracked down on opiates in the early 20th century, organised crime networks continued to fuel the illegal trade in narcotics. (Photo by Getty Images)

Books interview with Lucy Inglis: “Opium has held mankind’s hand since the beginning”.

Intellectuals, dieting businessmen, Indian students and fitness fanatics were among those to exhort the benefits of a meat-free diet in the 19th century, as shown in our illustration. (Illustration by Femke de Jong for BBC History Magazine)

Veggie Victorians: how Britain responded to the rise of the meat-free movement.

Jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, shown here in 1969, was central to the story of jazz. (Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)

My history hero: Miles Davis (1926–91).

Medieval medicine: killer or cure?.

Australian PoWs in a camp at the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, c1945. More than 80,000 forced labourers, including PoWs, died during the construction of Sumatran railway, most the victims of disease, starvation and maltreatment. (Photo by State Library of Victoria)

The Sumatran Railway: the forgotten death railway.

The ‘Princes in the Tower’: Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, disappeared in mysterious circumstances following the death of their father, King Edward IV. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

6 notorious unsolved crimes from history.

British former field marshal Douglas Haig, inspects poppies before Armistice Day, October 1922. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Remembering the First World War: blood, poppies and poetry.

Allied soldiers with captured prisoners of war after the battle of Amiens during the First World War, 1918. (Photo by Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Remembering the battle of Amiens.

Islam’s struggle with modernity podcast

Islam’s struggle with modernity.

Agincourt was one of the major battles of the Hundred Years' War.

Agincourt: medieval England's finest hour?