Great fire of London

An engraving of John Milton in 1670. By that time he’d been blind for nearly two decades – but continued to express strong views on religion and the monarchy in his writing (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

Long road to paradise: the life of John Milton and how he created his masterpiece, Paradise Lost. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of Charles II entering London on 29 May 1660 after the restoration of the monarchy (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Restoration periodA timeline of key moments

An illustration of the Great Fire of London, c1675. St Paul's Cathedral is seen in flames (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What if...The Great Fire of London never happened?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration depicting the Great Fire of London.

Your guide to the Great Fire of London, plus 10 surprising facts

The tombstone of a Roman soldier named Vivius Marcianus.

How the Great Fire of London revealed the city’s Roman past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Great Fire of London, 2-5 September 1666 (Photo by Alamy)

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

17th-century London: a city shaped by catastrophe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Samuel Pepys, English writer and diarist. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Samuel Pepys

People flee to boats on the River Thames to escape the Great Fire of London, September 1666.

Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of living in Restoration London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Six-Day War and the Great Fire of London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video: Historian Dan Jones on the Great Fire of London 1666

Everything you know about 17th-century London is wrong. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Great Fire of London: two historians discuss the events and legacy of the 1666 blaze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.