Death

A painting by Vincenzo Camuccini depicting the death of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The death of Caesar: do we know the whole story?

"For those of noble birth who were condemned to die, execution by beheading (which was considered the least brutal method of execution) was used until the 18th century," says criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal. This illustration depicts the execution of Charles I in January 1649. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of capital punishment in Britain

Queen Victoria pictured c1862 during her period of mourning after the death of her husband, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Library Prince Albert: the death that rocked the monarchy

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This engraving by William Hogarth shows the final instalment of a sequence of artworks called 'The Four Stages of Cruelty' (1751). In it, the fictional Tom Nero is being dissected for anatomical studies at Cutlerian theatre near Newgate prison after being hanged for murder. Nero looks like the Dead-Alive, as though he can see and smell his own executed body on the dissection table. The chief physician sits in the centre on a high-backed chair, resembling a high court judge. He is surrounded by various medical men, including penal surgeons, who did gallows work. The skeletons of dissected criminals were usually refused a Christian burial and so were displayed as specimens, as can be seen top left and top right. (Photo by Guildhall Library/Getty Images)

Surviving the gallows: the Georgian hangings that didn’t go to plan

The funeral procession of Queen Victoria. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

History on film: Queen Victoria’s funeral

As Queen Victoria ended the 19th century, she was not her usual self. She was visibly fading: her voracious appetite had disappeared and she had lost almost half her body weight. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The final days of Queen Victoria

Dramatic view of the sun setting over a megalithic tomb and stone circle. (Dreamstime)

Egypt’s lost tombs

A 14th-century Flemish illustration depicting the burying of plague victims in coffins in Tournai in 1349. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Black Death: “Oh father, why have you abandoned me?”

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Victorian surgeon Robert Liston during an operation

An appointment at the house of death: the horror of the early Victorian hospital

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The execution of Charles I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Murder, conspiracy and execution: six centuries of scandalous royal deaths

The skull of a Roman man from London

In pictures: Romans and their dead

Outbreaks of dance mania saw sufferers foaming at the mouth and trying to beat demons out of their bodies with sticks. (Photo by The Granger Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)

The Library The medieval dance of death

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The death of Stalin

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Seeking eternity: 5,000 years of ancient Egyptian burial