Historical people

A c1780 portrait of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges and talented composer, violinist and swordsman (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chevalier de Saint-Georges: how the mixed-race musical maestro Joseph Bologne became a star in 18th-century France

Stained glass in Exeter Cathedral depicting King Æthelstan. (Dreamstime)

The astonishing Æthelstan

A memorial tomb to King Æthelstan, in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire. (Photo by Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images)

If King Alfred was great, was Æthelstan even greater?

Illustration by Cat O'Neil

David Ingram: the Tudor sailor who hiked across pre-colonial America

Philip Augustus of France (left) and Richard I of England

Medieval masculinityWhat Richard I can tell us about male friendship in the Middle Ages

The Romantics: everything you wanted to know

My history heroSam Naz chooses Noor Inayat Khan

The Love Letter, 1834.

How to write a love letter6 tips from the historical figures who did it best

Brian Epstein (centre) with the Beatles, who he managed from 1962 until his death in 1967 (Photo by Harry Benson/Getty Images)

Brian EpsteinThe brilliant but troubled man behind The Beatles

Photograph of Pauli Murray

Pauli MurrayThe Civil Rights and LGBTQ+ icon who fought Jim and Jane Crow

A depiction of Empress Wu Zetian

Empress Wu ZetianThe only woman to rule China

A Japanese tattoo artist at work on a large scale tattoo design on the back of a woman, Japan, circa 1940.

Tattoo historyThe stories of 11 inked individuals

Edward Tull-Warnock, who qualified as one of the first black dentists in Britain

The forgotten contributions of black Edwardians in Britain

Vanessa Bell, the sister of Virginia Woolf and wife of art critic Clive Bell, all of whom were members of the Bloomsbury Group.

Famous EdwardiansFrom Beatrix Potter to Captain Robert F Scott

King Edward VII in his coronation robes.

Edward VIIA guide to the king who ruled over the Edwardian age

Mavia of Tanukh, illustration by Lynn Hatzius

Mavia Of TanukhWarrior queen of Arabia

Historian Caroline Dodds Pennock (Photo by Ellie Grace)

Caroline Dodds Pennock“Indigenous Americans were horrified by inequalities in European society”

Billy the Kid, also known as William H Bonney, was one of the most notorious gunslingers in the Wild West

Billy the KidThe Wild West's most wanted gunslinger

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll: maker of wonderlands

Emblema of Cleopatra Selene

Cleopatra's daughter: the tragic inheritance to triumphant reign of Cleopatra Selene

Illustration of Major Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate

Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate: how a mid-life crisis created the 'worst pirate of all time'

Emmett TillThe murder that reshaped the American civil rights movement

J. Edgar Hoover holding a gun

How J Edgar Hoover secretly ruled America

Howard Hughes: the troubled tycoon

The cover of Le Petit Journal, 13 January 1895, showing the "degradation" of Alfred Dreyfus during which his sword was snapped over a warrant officer’s knee (Photo by Leemage / Corbis via Getty Images)

The Dreyfus Affair: how France was divided over a miscarriage of justice

A portrait of Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad II, whose bloodlust and cruelty was said to have inspired the most famous vampire of literature

The real Dracula? The bloodthirsty life of Vlad the Impaler

Edda Mussolini, c1929

Second World War

Edda Ciano & Hilde Beetz: how the women stood up to Hitler

Secret Santa Getty Dreamstime

General History

What gift would you buy figures from the past? Find out in historical Secret Santa 2022

The real Wenceslas is that he was not actually a king, but Duke of Bohemia.

Q&AWho was Good King Wenceslas, and was he actually good?

St Andrew, in St Andrew chapel, depicted at his crucifixion displayed in the manner known as the Saltire cross

St Andrew’s Day: 11 things you might not know about Scotland’s patron saint