The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

A battle of Flodden memorial statue of one of the Hawick Callants on horseback, raising the captured banner aloft in triumph. Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland. (Getty Images)

History explorer: the battle of Flodden. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Painting depicting Cromwell at the head of his troops following the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, by Ernest Crofts. (Photo by De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images)

Oliver Cromwell: the secret of his military genius. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert the Bruce, famous for beating the English army of Edward II despite having far fewer troops, is commemorated at the 1314 battleground in Bannockburn. (Dreamstime)

Robert the Bruce: champion of Scotland or murderous usurper?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene depicted on the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The Normans: a timeline

As many as 15 people may have been killed, and a further 500 badly injured, during the 1819 riot in Manchester that came to be known as the 'Peterloo' Massacre. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)

16 August 1819: Militia massacres protesters at ‘Peterloo’

A First World War silk screened poster c1918 showing a frightening German soldier holding a bloodied bayonet. Caption reads: "Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds". (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Why did the Allies call Germans 'Huns' during World War I?

Britons under Nazi rule podcast

Britons under Nazi rule. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A c1750 watercolour shows workers "mixing the powder" at Woolwich Arsenal. "The institutions that made up the 18th-century British 'state' existed entirely to provide the resources for war," argues Priya Satia. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

How war sparked the industrial revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British former field marshal Douglas Haig, inspects poppies before Armistice Day, October 1922. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Remembering the First World War: blood, poppies and poetry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Allied soldiers with captured prisoners of war after the battle of Amiens during the First World War, 1918. (Photo by Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Remembering the battle of Amiens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Glen McBeth

Did castle defenders pour boiling oil on their assailants during a medieval siege?

A photograph of a crowd in Berlin celebrating Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany's proclamation of war against Great Britain, August 1914. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Library1914: Countdown to catastrophe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Members of the Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill LNER (London and North Eastern Railway) LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) dressed in their civilian clothes march along a platform passing a steam locomotive on 1 July 1940 in London. (Photo by Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Dad’s Army guide to defending Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Podcast with Jonathan Ruffle

The Tommies' final acts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The blue-robed Henry VII pictured performing a variety of tasks at the Tower of London following his accession to the throne, in a contemporary illustration. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Bosworth: the dawn of the Tudors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c1400, English troops use siege towers to capture a French town during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Original Artwork: An illumination from Froissart's Chronicles. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

7 facts about the Hundred Years’ War

The battle of Marston Moor, the largest clash of the Civil War, depicted in a 19th-century painting. Preventing a slide into chaos required "diplomatic panache, not Charles's fabled stubbornness", writes Jonathan Healey. (Photo by A 16th-century portrait of Bess of Hardwick. Bess's talent, ambition and eye for a well-connected husband elevated her to dizzying levels of wealth and power in Tudor England. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The LibraryWhat sparked the Civil War?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German prisoners traipse past Allied anti-aircraft positions near Méricourt-l'Abbé, August 1918. The battle of Amiens fired the starting-gun on a succession of Allied triumphs on the western front that would end in ultimate victory on 11 November. (Photo by Alamy)

Amiens: the battle that broke the Germans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A flight of Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft of No 73 Squadron RAF, over France, 19 April 1940. (Photo by S. A. Devon/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

How the RAF won the war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bronze statue of a she-wolf suckling twin brothers Romulus and Remus, the main characters of Rome's foundation myth. (Photo By DEA/G NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

10 key Roman dates you need to know

Troops in Korea, c1951. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Forging alliances: Britain and the US in the Korean War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The American War of Independence: Three Films

General Sir Douglas Haig (left) and Sir Henry Rawlinson are largely to blame for the failure of the battle of the Somme, says historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. (Photos by Hulton Archive/Getty Images and Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

The British generals whose infighting lost the battle of the Somme. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

US president Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands at a summit in Singapore on 12 June 2018. (Photo by Handout/Getty Images)

The Trump-Kim summit of June 2018: what did it really achieve?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Edward I in parliament with the Archbishop of Canterbury; King Alexander III of Scotland; the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ab Gruffydd and the Archbishop of York. From the Wriothesley MS, 1523, published in ‘The Island Race’, a 20th-century book written by Sir Winston Churchill covering the history of the British Isles from the pre-Roman times to the Victorian era. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Edward I: man of principle or grasping opportunist?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Beevor on Arnhem. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting depicting the battle of the White Mountain

Europe’s apocalypse: the Thirty Years' War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Australian troops head for Gallipoli in 1915

The myths of the battle of Gallipoli. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Norsk Hydro's Vermork plant

The Special Operations Executive: Churchill's secret army. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thomas Becket

The LibraryEngland’s forgotten civil war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.