Period

How to escape the tower. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from ‘A Short History of the English People’ by John Richard Green. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Drowning in Tudor England: why was water so dangerous?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Those meddling bureaucrats...

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

A c15th-century vellum shows the Squire from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For Adam Nicolson, the essence of the gentry was “government-through-networking”. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Stories of the gentry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the leader of a network of French resistance agents during the Second World War. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

My history hero: Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909–89). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Angela Burdett-Coutts, an English philanthropist who supported a wide variety of charitable causes assisting the church, the poor and the hungry. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

Philanthropy: the root of all good

Guy Gibson (centre) with members of his squadron. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The triumph of the Dambusters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Jonty Clark

Ye olde travel guide: Pompeii 79 Ad. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. Famous for being the location of the ‘Great Escape’, it was home to Ron Last for ten months. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The long road home. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An 1860s coloured engraving of Lake Victoria’s outflow at the Ripon Falls, which John Speke discovered in 1862 and correctly declared to be the source of the Nile. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Explorers of the Nile. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles Dickens: his life and works. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King George V and his wife, Queen Mary, pictured during a visit to Dublin in 1911. The royal couple were deeply conservative but common sense taught them they had to adapt to the modern world. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

How George and Mary saved the royal family. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A postboy drives a mail coach in a contemporary illustration. Soon after their introduction in 1784, coaches were traversing the country at speeds of up to 10mph. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Red Letter Days: 10 milestones in the history of the Post Office. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman at a floral tribute to Neville Chamberlain at a florist in Ludgate Circus, London, 1938. In the wake of the Munich agreement, the prime minister was understood to be a hero of women everywhere. (Photo by Harry Todd/Getty Images)

The LibraryGuilty women?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Tower of London. More than 30 inmates successfully broke out of the royal fortress between the 12th and 18th centuries. (Photo by Tetra Images/Getty Images)

How to escape from the Tower of London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American golfer Bobby Jones practising his swing on the roof of the Savoy Hotel in London. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

My history hero: Robert Tyre Jones (1902–71)

BBC History Magazine

Theological debate

How far could a person expect to travel in a single day on horseback or in a stagecoach?

BBC History Magazine

Dangerous fruit

BBC History Magazine

The Eidophusikon

Francisco Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru John Everett Millais. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

A big day in history: Francisco Pizarro's tiny Spanish army takes a mighty Incan leader hostage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Night Piece

BBC History Magazine

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-forgotten Europe

BBC History Magazine

Philospher and scholar

A portrait of King Edward III. By using his offspring as pawns in a series of alliances, the king hoped to wield power over a confederation of dependent states bound together by feudal and family ties. (Photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

King Edward III: the family man. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The mourning of Queen Victoria. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Second World War arctic convoys. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dambusters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The new hearing aid