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Stuart

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

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

Illustration of pirate John Ward

Pirate John Ward: the real Captain Jack Sparrow

Seismic splits: This map from c1659 shows blood being spilled across the British Isles during the Civil Wars. Charles II's agenda for restoring order to his kingdoms was a cocktail of pragmatism, compromise and brutality.

How Charles II put Britain back together after the Civil War

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

A c1616 edition of King James bible. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

5 reasons why the King James version of the Bible matters

The capture of the pirate Blackbeard, 1718. Painting by JLG Ferris. One of history’s most notorious pirates, Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach almost certainly had a West Country twang because he was born in Bristol in around 1680. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Q&A Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?

Roman toilet

Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z

The Acts of Union was signed in 1706 and 1707, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The historical differences between Scottish and English Law, and what it means for Brexit

Suzie Lipscomb by Steve Sayers.

Suzannah Lipscomb on women’s lives in Reformation France

A 16th-century portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: the real history behind the film

An illustration depicting the Great Fire of London. (Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Great Fire of London

The Kray brothers

The A-Z of gangs and gangsters

Queen Victoria with Prince Albert and their children in 1846. After a painting by F Winterhalter. Victoria’s husband, Albert, “carved out for the crown a moral kind of authority as the nation’s first and model family,” says Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Retaining the royals: why has the British monarchy survived – and thrived?

Tracy Borman

“If you think you know Henry VIII, think again”: 5 minutes with Tracy Borman

William of Orange at the battle of the Boyne

Q&A When was England last successfully invaded by a foreign power?