Stuart

Charles I's great weakness was that he made a strict distinction between his role as king, in which he could not compromise, and his personal role, which was entirely pleasant and courteous, says Sean Lang. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

8 of the nicest kings in history

Pancake day celebrations

The history of Shrove Tuesday

Olivia Colman as Queen Anne in 'The Favourite'. (Photo by Twentieth Century Fox/Entertainment Pictures)

The Favourite: the real history behind the new Queen Anne film

The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway, 1888. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

In pictures: fairytales through history

The regions of Britain in 1635, before the 1707 Acts of Union that united England and Scotland. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

“The anglocentric view we have of British history is unsustainable,” says Misha Glenny

A portrait of Samuel Pepys

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Samuel Pepys

Vintage postcard showing Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and a pet corgi. (Photo by the History Press)

8 of the best dogs in history

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A brief history of Valentine’s Day cards

York Minster's south transept rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red. The Tudor Rose became known as “the flower of England” and is today England's national flower. (Angelo Hornak/Alamy Stock Photo)

A brief history of the English rose

A British military post in a street in Dublin during the Easter Uprising, 1916. (Photo by ullstein picture via Getty Images)

The Library The history of Ireland: 11 milestone moments

Engraving of frost fair on the frozen Thames, 1897. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

6 of the most catastrophic weather events in British history

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

A painting depicting Oliver Cromwell gazing at the body of Charles I

Killers of the king: the men who dared to execute Charles I

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 new film