Historical people

An illumination depicts medieval women embroidering

Medieval misconceptions: 12 myths about life in the Middle Ages – busted

Queen Victoria on an ivory throne

Top 11 monarchs in British history

Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett

Percy Fawcett and the search for the 'Lost City Of Z'

Spartacus is now associated with political upheaval, as in the 1919 Spartacist uprising.

Who were the gladiators of ancient Rome? Plus Spartacus, Crixus and 8 more fighters you should know

Silver penny of Cnut

Ivar the Boneless, Ragnvald of Ed and 6 more Vikings you should know about

Illustration by Luke Waller for BBC History Magazine.

Æthelwold: Alfred the Great's rebel nephew

Edward the Confessor

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Anglo-Saxons

An early 14th-century portrait of 10th-century leader Edward the Elder

Who was Edward the Elder? A brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon king

The renowned poet Lord Byron has gone down in history for being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. But his ancestors were hardly paragons of virtue. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Adultery, elopement and incest: the scandalous sex lives of the 18th-century Byrons.

The entry of Prince Charles Edward, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', into Edinburgh in Scotland in 1745. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Forty-five rebellion: why did it fail?.

Tomb of Cyrus the Great, Shiraz, Iran

From conqueror to youth icon: who was Cyrus the Great?.

Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene: why do people want to believe she was a sinner and prostitute?

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. (Photo by Getty Images)

Yuri Gagarin: 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the first man in space

Our composite image shows Henry II framed by an Arabic arch. Henry claimed he "would sooner accept the errors of Nur-al-Din" than suffer Thomas Becket remaining as archbishop. (Image by Bridgeman/Getty Images)

King Henry II: the Muslim monarch of medieval England?

A woman in riding gear breaks out in a grin in the c1860s. "The 'WE are not amused' slogan has tarnished the Victorians for long enough," writes Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. (Image by Mary Evans Picture Library)

Smiling Victorians: why it's a myth that our ancestors didn't smile for pictures.

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

The truth about Viking berserkers

Portrait of Madam CJ Walker, America's first female millionaire. (Photo courtesy of Madam Walker Family Archives/A'Lelia Bundles)

Self Made: the real story of Madam CJ Walker, America’s first black female millionaire

Anti-suffrage: the women who didn't want the vote.

Christine de Pizan. (Photo by Getty Images)

Doctors, playwrights and feminists: meet 6 trailblazing medieval women

A 19th-century depiction of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Who was Maharaja Ranjit Singh?

Who is the greatest leader in world history?

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

Once he gained control of the entire Roman Empire, Constantine set about an ambitious programme of reform. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Constantine the Great: the emperor who created Europe

US academic Deborah Lipstadt exults the High Court in London after winning a libel case brought against her by British historian David Irving, 11 April 2000. (Photo by Martyn Hayhow/AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

Holocaust denial on trial: the story of Irving v Lipstadt

Actress Emmy Goring and her husband Hermann

Nazi wives: the women beside Hess, Goebbels, Göring and Himmler

American actresses Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Bennett playing the March girls in George Cukor's film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', 1933. (Photo by RKO Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)

“Fresh and full of soul”: the history of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

"A great social experiment”: a brief guide to prohibition

A portrait of Louis XIV in 1701.

From musketeers to Macron: 10 remarkable facts about the Sun King, Louis XIV

Ragnar Lothbrok. (Illustration by Georgie Gozem for BBC History Magazine)

Ragnar Lothbrok: the legend of the immortal Viking and his sons