Culture

An illustration of King Richard speaking to James Tyrrell in William Shakespeare's 'The Tragedy of King Richard the Third

Have we completely misinterpreted Shakespeare’s Richard III?

The then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taking part in the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, 19 October 2016. Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was “rigged” against him. (Photo by Joe Raedle/AFP/Getty Images)

A brief history of election “rigging” in the United States

14th century miniature showing a child's baptism. (Photo by Getty Images)

Exclusive podcast What’s in a medieval name?

Naming of St John the Baptist, c12th century. From a wall painting in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Medieval baby names: what were people called in the Middle Ages?

Afrikaners with a Nordenfeld-Maxim field gun at Mafeking during the Second Boer War, 1900. (Photo by Getty Images)

Authors in the Boer War

Fasil Ghebbi, a 17th-century fortress city in Gondar, Ethiopia. (Photo by Getty Images)

Peter Frankopan on global history in 2020

Portrait by Sherril Schell of British poet Rupert Brooke. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

First World War

5 influential WW1 poets you should know about

Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII

Henry VIII’s wives quiz: how well do you know the six women he married?

The magnificent ruins of the Great Mosque at Kilwa Kisiwani

Africa’s medieval golden age

British writer Hilary Mantel photographed at home

Hilary Mantel on the secrets of successful historical fiction

The Voynich Manuscript is written in a unique alphabet that has thus far defeated some of the world’s greatest codebreakers. (Photo by Alamy)

History’s greatest mysteries The Voynich Manuscript

Aztec double headed serpent carved in wood and decorated in turquoise mosaic pieces (Universal History Archive / Getty Images)

The real Aztecs: brutal, bloodthirsty… and caring?

Colour portrait of Jane Austen

A brief guide to Jane Austen, plus 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about her

York Minster's rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red

A brief history of the English rose

Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones as the Schuyler sisters in 'Hamilton'. (Image: Disney+)

The women of Hamilton: Angelica, Eliza and… Maria Reynolds