Plantagenet

King John hunting on horseback

Was King John really that bad? Yes!

Old Norse: Page from the manuscript Codex Regius, which was written in Iceland and contains the poems of elder Edda. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Blog Medieval matters #1: The Last Kingdom, Robin Hood and how to learn Old Norse in lockdown

Cousins at war: King Stephen is shown holding a falcon in a miniature from 1253. His battle with his cousin Matilda for the English crown plunged the realm into a long civil war. (Photo by Alamy)

The Anarchy: how bloody was Stephen and Matilda’s medieval battle for the English crown?

Our composite image shows Henry II framed by an Arabic arch. Henry claimed he

King Henry II: the Muslim monarch of medieval England?

Richard III, Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence

Blood brothers: Richard III’s battle with his siblings

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

The house of York

A portrait of Richard III. Was the last Yorkist king a usurper? Historian John Ashdown-Hill explains why this is a myth. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Did fear drive Richard III to the throne?

Adrian Tinniswood explores the fascinating history of Britain’s royal households, from the Tudor period until today. Here, Queen Victoria is surrounded by members of the royal family at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. (Photo by Getty Images)

At home with the royals

A portrait of Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Woodvilles

In 1937, Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most famous aviators, apparently disappeared without a trace during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

From Jack the Ripper to Amelia Earhart: 17 unsolved historical mysteries

King Edward IV, who used the surname Plantagenet. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&A When did British kings and queens start using surnames?

Oil on canvas of the Princes in the Tower

An enigma at the heart of British history: who killed the Princes in the Tower, Edward V and Richard Duke of York?

As a child king, Henry VI – shown in a c16th-century portrait – learned the lessons of kingship from books. Unfortunately, those books didn't extol the merits of ruthlessness and practising realpolitik. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

How Henry VI’s love of peace cost him the throne – and his life

A memorial tomb to King Æthelstan, the first Saxon king of all England, in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire. (Photo by Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images)

A brief history of England

My history hero: Robert Lindsay chooses Richard III