Stuart

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?

Mary, Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: what happened to her ladies-in-waiting?

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

Now a protected species in many countries, the hedgehog was once also a health food. A German cookbook dating from the mid-15th century recommends the meat of a hedgehog as useful for leprosy and urinary retention. (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

General ancient history

Hedgehogs, cannabis bread and horse placenta: 13 weird and wonderful health foods in history

Dire straits: Beggars are depicted in a woodcut. In the 16th century, waves of crop failures persuaded the government to place poor relief on the statute book. (Image by Bridgeman)

Taxing the rich to feed the poor in the 17th century: the world’s first welfare state

1935: Two men making a fireworks set piece with the slogan 'God Save The King' for despatch abroad, for the Silver Jubilee celebrations of King George V. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Q&A How old is the British national anthem?

A portrait of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland.

Your guide to Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs

For our forebears, the secret to a good night's sleep lay in the contents of your gut. (Photo by Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

6 sleeping tips and tricks from history

Illustration by Owen Davey

A brief history of human filth

A portrait of 17th-century scholar John Wilkins

Ye final frontier: the 17th-century space race

Chatsworth House, where Elizabeth I ordered for Mary, Queen of Scots to be imprisoned after she abdicated and fled from Scotland to England in 1567. (Photo by Chatsworth House Trust)

Britain’s 7 most amazing stately homes