Stuart

The ‘Pilgrims’ stride onto American soil in 1620 after crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower, as shown in a 20th-century painting by WJ Aylward (Photo by Getty Images)

The Mayflower

An official of the British East India Company riding on an elephant with an escort of foot soldiers and mounted Indian retainers, India, end of 18th century (Photo by Getty Images)

The East India Company: everything you wanted to know

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London: how the ferocious blaze of 1666 destroyed the capital

The Pilgrim fathers arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts on board the Mayflower. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

“They decided that God must be leading them to North America”: the Puritans journey to the Mayflower

The pilgrim fathers

Your guide to the Pilgrim Fathers, plus 6 interesting facts

A medieval king dining

Pig-chickens, beavers’ tails and turtle soup: 8 fascinating foods through history

Sunbathers on Blackpool beach in 1954. (Credit: John Chillingworth/Getty Images)

Caravans, spa towns and seaside resorts: a brief history of British holidays

A portrait of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland.

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

The Kray brothers

The A-Z of British gangs and gangsters

York Minster's rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red

A brief history of the English rose

Oliver Cromwell at the battle of Marston Moor. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

ON THIS DAY 2 July 1644, the battle of Marston Moor

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno', depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents.

General ancient history

A brief history of the afterlife

Battle of Culloden

General prehistory

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about Scottish history

Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton: life, discoveries, rivalries and the truth about the apple