Painting of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille

Kings and queens

A portrait of Queen Victoria and her family

Q&AWho were Prince Albert's family, the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Archduchess Ileana’s great grandmother, Queen Victoria, whose birth certificate Ileana desperately needed to get hold of (Getty)

Queen Victoria and the Nazis: the strange tale of the search for the royal family's Aryan origins. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Ditchley portrait

What did Queen Elizabeth I really look like at 60?

Henri III: Elizabeth I’s unlikely ally. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 16th-century portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: the real history behind the film

Portrait of Prince Albert

8 fascinating facts about Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert

Ladies-in-waiting

General History

Q&AWhat did a lady-in-waiting actually do?

Mary, Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: what happened to her ladies-in-waiting?

A portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh

Q&ADid Sir Walter Ralegh really lay down his cloak for Elizabeth I?

Professor Dame Janet L Nelson

Charlemagne: medieval empire builder. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark. The BBC television drama is putting Cornwall’s coastline at risk of "over-tourism” as visitors flock to the area to visit the show's scenic filming locations, tourism chiefs have warned. (Photo by BBC/Mammoth Screen/Mike Hogan)

Poldark, Peaky Blinders and 6 other historical TV shows that have tourists flocking to Britain

Professor Dame Janet L Nelson has published extensively on early medieval Europe. She is professor emeritus at King's College London, a fellow of the British Academy and a former president of the Royal Historical Society. Her previous books include 'Charles the Bald' (1992) and 'The Frankish World' (1996). (Photograph by Frank Monks)

Books interview with Janet Nelson: "The only way this huge regime could work was by Charlemagne trusting his own instincts". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruins of Dunluce Castle, which sit on the coastal cliffs of North Antrim in Northern Ireland. They are thought to have been the inspiration for CS Lewis’s castle Cair Paravel in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (1950–56). (Photo by Andrea Ricordi/Contributor/Getty Images)

9 of Britain’s best castles. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles I. (Photo by World History Archive/Alamy)

King killers in America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

At home with the royals. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

9 eccentric monarchs through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Woodvilles. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Tudor rose on a wooden ceiling beam.

Monarchy and faith in Tudor England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The first state visit by American President George W Bush in 2003 was highly controversial, attracting protesters opposed to the involvement of the United States and Britain in the Iraq War. Here the president is pictured with the Queen in 2008. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

From pageantry to controversy: a brief history of state visits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What was it like meeting Queen Victoria? 6 royal encounters as told by famous Victorians. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

After her recovery from smallpox, Queen Elizabeth I started using a ceruse foundation on her face, neck and chest. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

5 weird habits of royals through history

Henry, who would would later accede to the throne as Henry VIII, as a baby. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Young Henry VIII: the boy who would be king

The name Archie was originally a nickname for Archibald, which derived from the Anglo-Saxon name Eorconbeald, and the Old High German name Erchenbald, says Carolyn Harris. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor: the history behind the royal baby name. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King Edward IV, who used the surname Plantagenet. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&AWhen did British kings and queens start using surnames?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A c1850 bronze statue by Thomas Thornycroft commemorating Boudica and her daughters. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Boudica: scourge of the Roman empire

Rye House in Hertfordshire, which became the Parr family home in 1517, when Katherine was around five years old. (© James Schutte/Alamy Stock Photo)

8 places associated with Henry VIII’s wives. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Love before Prince Albert: Queen Victoria’s suitors

The marble statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace, designed by her daughter Princess Louise in 1893. (Image by Alamy)

Victoria’s great palaces: 5 of the queen’s grandest and most significant homes

Edward the Confessor depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Q&AWhat did Edward ‘confess’?

A depiction of Henry VIII and his only recognised illegitimate child, Henry Fitzroy. (Illustration by Glen McBeth for BBC History Magazine)

Q&ADid Henry VIII acknowledge any of his illegitimate children?