Historical people

Colourful illustration of 12 historical figures's heads (Winston Churchill, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Thomas Cromwell, Richard III, Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Anne Boleyn, William Marshal, Jane Austen, Hatshepsut, Gandhi and Catherine the Great) shown in a grid pattern.

Top historical figures: 100+ of the most famous people through history – in chronological order

Illustration of Hereward the Wake, the rebel who rose against William the Conqueror

Hereward the Wake: the Anglo-Saxon rebel who became William the Conqueror's nemesis

Johnny Hopper: a nerveless Nazi-killer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photo of several 'matchwomen', who went on strike at the Bryant and May's factory in London in 1888.

The 1888 Matchgirls strike: how a group of East End women changed British labour history

Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia

Haile Selassie, last emperor of Ethiopia and architect of modern Africa

An illustration from The Travels of Marco Polo, showing a teenage Marco on the deck of a ship sailing away from Venice

Why are Marco Polo's travels so famous?

A montage of Romans (Photos courtesy of Getty and Alamy)

How ethnically diverse was Roman Britain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace: a visionary of computing

A reconstruction of a Viking church

Vikings in America: the Europeans who arrived 500 years before Columbus. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight's (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tony Robinson as Private Baldrick and Rowan Atkinson as Captain Blackadder

Q&AWas there a real Blackadder?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of the man in the iron mask standing by the window of his cell and guarded by two musketeers

Unmasking the 'man in the iron mask': do we know the identity of the famous prisoner?

John of Gaunt: prince without a throne. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John of Gaunt shown in a c16th-century portrait

John of Gaunt: The man who would be king. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An image of Hippocrates from the 14th century, sitting and holding a book open in front of him

Hippocrates and humours: medicine in ancient Greece

The Spartan king Leonidas at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The conflict has become the archetype for the courageous last stand, pitting around 200,000 Persians against 7,000 Spartans.

Your guide to the battle of Thermopylae

Tourists at the Sphinx and Great Pyramid of Giza in 1923

Who was ancient Egypt’s most successful pharaoh?

Ancient Greek statesman Solon sits on a throne, with a subject petitioning him

Who’s who in ancient Greece? Meet 14 influential ancient Greeks

A portrait of a member of the Borgias family

The Borgias: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Lady Emma Hamilton

Nelson's sensational mistress: how Emma Hamilton took Europe by storm. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Statue of Ibn Battuta at the Islamic culture center, Quanzhou, Fujian, China

Ibn Battuta: the most famous traveller of the medieval Arab world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo the MagnificentThe astounding life of the ‘delightful tyrant’ of Renaissance Florence

The forgotten matriarch of the Wars of the Roses. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

William Wallace on trial in 1305

William Wallace: who was the Scottish rebel who defied Edward I?

'The Journey of the Magi' by Benozzo Gozzoli, commissioned by Piero the Gouty for the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It features his son Lorenzo, who would become known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, as one of the three kings

“They were on a level with today’s billionaires” – your guide to the Medici: bankers to the Pope, rulers of Florence, patrons of the Renaissance

Thomas Crapper started a plumbing business in Chelsea in 1861 and pioneered some of the most revolutionary designs of sanitary engineering in the 19th century – but he didn't 'invent' the toilet

The legend of Thomas Crapper, the man who didn't invent the toilet

Walter Scott: an engraving after a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence of the Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott: the man who invented Scotland. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The British Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the day of George VI's coronation

Britain’s May Queen: your guide to Queen Mary of Teck

Black and white image of a group of five men sat on the floor in a room in Fiji. One of them is pointing at another with a serious expression on his face.

Cakobau: the first (and last) king of Fiji. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Persian ambassador bows before Louis XIV in the Palace of Versailles

King of the world: how Louis XIV turned France into a global power. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.