Historical people

Alex Hogh Andersen as Ivar the Boneless

The real Vikings: the early medieval world behind the hit drama

Marble bust of Nero

Rethinking Nero: was the Roman emperor really so bad?

The Huguenots vs France: who were the Huguenots and what did they believe?

The Trojan Horse – seen in the 2004 film Troy

How much of the legend of Troy is real?

Ian Fleming, British author and creator of the James Bond character

James Bond in real life: where did Ian Fleming's inspirations come from?

Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

Claudia Jones at the Brixton offices of 'The West Indian Gazette'

Black British historyBritain's black trailblazers

A portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft: reclaiming the reputation of a feminist icon

Glamis Castle is said to be the most-haunted castle in Scotland. (Photo by mpalis via Getty Images)

A royal ghost tour: 5 haunted sites around Britain

Thomas More: saint or sinner?

The ‘Black Terror’: the story of Britain's first black sports star

Grigory Yefimovich Novykh, also known as Rasputin

Rasputin: the 'mad monk' who became a friend to the Romanovs

The African who transformed Anglo-Saxon England

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I: a queen in a king’s world

William Cecil, also known as Lord Burghley, with Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Your guide to William Cecil, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

It was the need for witnesses in divorce courts – ones who wouldn’t mind their names being linked to scandals, no less – that partly gave rise to female detectives. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Women detectives: meet the Victorian female super sleuths

Painting of Masons building a pillar in a church

General Early Modern

Your guide to...the Freemasons

Old Norse sages describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as 'the loveliest of women and nobel in every trait'. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during on of her intrepid voyages (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

The amazing life of a great female Viking explorer

Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as dictator from 1939 to 1975, raises his arm in salute

Francisco Franco: is it accurate to call the Spanish dictator a fascist?

Edward the Confessor, depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry

Edward the Confessor: 9 fascinating facts

Attila the Hun

General ancient history

Who was Attila the Hun, the barbarian ruler who terrorised the Romans?

An engraving of Margaret Tudor

The forgotten Tudor: Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII

First World War

WW1 poets5 famous figures you should know about

10 facts about Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë

Portrait of the Bronte sisters

The Brontës: the unfortunate and unlikely tale of the world’s "greatest literary sisters"

The arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia

What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke Island?

Four Murder, Inc hitmen are questioned by detectives

Murder, Inc: the rise and fall of New York City's mafia hitmen

The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’

A group of fighter pilots of No. 32 Squadron relax beside their Hawker Hurricane Mk I fighters at RAF Hawkinge in July 1940

The Few: who exactly were the heroes of the Battle of Britain?

A view of Mount Everest

Mystery on Everest: did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit in 1924?