Animals

The Beagle sailed with a young Charles Darwin on board, his influential ideas yet to be formulated. (Image by Getty Images)

Charles Darwin and the Beagle: how the voyage transformed our understanding of the world

A miller and a donkey

9 things you could do with a medieval ass

This 15th-century painting from a manuscript shows men fishing in a river. In medieval England, eels were both meals and de facto currency. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Fishing for gold: how eels powered the medieval economy

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the ‘Origin of Species’ cause a clash between church and science?

A late 16th century portrait of Anne Boleyn (c.1500-1536)

Anne Boleyn, Beefeaters, Guy Fawkes and the princes: a brief history of the Tower of London

A watermill, with fish nets and eel traps visible beneath the waters of the mill leat Luttrell Psalter. England, c 1325-1335. (Photo by Alamy)

Medieval eels and Englishness

A spider on its web, woodcut, 1547. (Image courtesy of Wellcome Collection)

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages

A scene from the Smithfield Decretals depicting a rabbit beheading a man. Rabbits seem to have a strange place in medieval imagery – and are depicted as having strangely violent tendencies.

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #5: chivalry, medieval killer rabbits and prisoners of war in the 15th century

Medieval prisoners

What was it like to be a Prisoner of War during the Hundred Years’ War?

HistoryExtra’s top 15 most listened to podcast episodes

An illumination depicts medieval women embroidering

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

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an ‘ancient’ tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits

Cynocephali – Dog-headed men (Photo by Getty)

Basilisks, manticores and more: medieval fantastic beasts (and where to find them)

Simon the cat

10 top cats in history