Religion

Dr Hugh Willmott responds to listener questions on Henry VIII’s suppression of the monasteries in the 16th century. (Image by Getty Images)

The Dissolution: everything you wanted to know

A c1520–40 portrait of Henry VI

The miraculous afterlife of Henry VI

A portrait of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400), who modern literary scholars credit for turning Valentine into the patron of love. Chaucer was a major influencer in his day – after him, everyone began calling their beloved “Valentine” and writing love poems on 14 February, says Lisa Bitel. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who was Saint Valentine? A history of the figure’s origins

Forgery was the dirty little secret of the Middle Ages. Levi Roach explains who counterfeited medieval manuscripts and why. (Image by Getty Images)

Medieval forgeries

Author Kate Mosse talks about her historical novel, The City of Tears. (Image by Getty Images)

Novelist Kate Mosse on The City of Tears

This image from the Nibelungenlied manuscript shows Pilgrim welcoming Kriemhild, a fictional character described as his neice in the text (Photo by Alamy)

The forged texts of the Middle Ages: why Europe’s holy men turned to counterfeiting

The ruins of the once magnificent Roche Abbey

The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision?

A fanciful engraving imagines Peter the Hermit presenting Pope Urban II (centre) with a letter from Simeon II

Launching the First Crusade

Henry IV of Germany asking for the forgiveness of Pope Gregory VII in Canossa in 1077. (Photo by De Agostini/Getty Images)

Canossa: a medieval clash between church and state

Illustration of a mummy with mask

How to make an Egyptian mummy in 6 steps

A composite image of Joseph Stalin (left) and Adolf Hitler

Second World War

Hitler and Stalin’s utopian dreams

Jessie Childs tells the story of Tudor gentleman Thomas Tresham, whose faith set him at odds with the Virgin Queen. (Image by Getty Images)

Editor’s pick: covert Catholicism in Elizabethan England

What happened when Thomas Becket, was brutally murdered in his cathedral? (Image by Getty Images)

Thomas Becket: from murder to martyrdom

Monument to Prince Vladimir the Great in Moscow

Q&A Who were the Kievan Rus and what do they have to do with the Vikings?

Vahalla is depicted as a round-topped building in this funerary stone from 8th-century Sweden

Valhalla: fighting and feasting in the Viking warrior afterlife