Crime and punishment

A 19th-century lithograph showing a medieval criminal claiming sanctuary by placing his arm through the ring on a church door (Picture by Bridgman)

Sanctuary in medieval churches: how criminals found protection from capture and punishment

Pod Diarmaid Ferriter WL

Bloody Sunday: 50 years on

Illustration by Luke Waller

Industrial revolution

The Pentrich Rising: England’s forgotten armed revolution

PM6241 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Seemingly led by the skeletal figurehead, Blackbeard's sinister ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, at full sail on the open seas.

Queen Anne’s Revenge: why was Blackbeard’s flagship named after the Stuart queen?

Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, seen standing on a dock with fuses in his beard

Blackbeard: dastardly sea-devil or kind pirate?

Barbary pirates Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa, the siblings who famously captured Algiers from the Spanish in 1516

Barbary pirates: the Muslim corsairs and their role in the slave trade

Henry Avery stands on the shore holding a cutlass, while his ship Fancy battles the Ganj-i-Sawai in the background

The real pirates of the Caribbean: your guide to Nassau’s pirate republic

Henry Morgan on ship's deck in battle taking a hostage

Q&A Did pirates really live on the island of Tortuga?

Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged from the gallows

Hunting pirates: how piracy’s golden age came to an end

Female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read holding cutlasses

Anne Bonny and Mary Read: the deadly female pirate duo

Map showing Sir Francis Drake's privateering fleet attacking Ribeira Grande the capital of Santiago

Privateers, buccaneers and corsairs: why not all pirates were created equal

A pirate ship flying the Jolly Roger closes in on another vessel during a storm

The golden age of piracy: when pirates ruled the waves

Captain Edward Teach, better known as 'Blackbeard', a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The most famous and despicable pirates from history

The Jolly Roger, a black flag showing a skuyll and crossbones. (Photo by Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&A Did all pirates fly the Jolly Roger?

A pirate uses his cutlass to force a bound and blindfolded man to walk the plank

Q&A Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment?