Sex and love

Athenian red-figure cup showing a seated man with a naked boy in the inside tondo, 470 BC

What was pederasty in ancient Greece?

Top, left to right: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour. Bottom, left to right: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr.

Who were Henry VIII’s six wives? Your guide to the Tudor king’s queen consorts

The Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies (Public Domain)

The real Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold on Covent Garden’s courtesans

Half-sisters and daughters of Henry VIII: Mary Tudor (left) and Elizabeth I, who both reigned as queen of England. (Photos by Getty Images)

Did Elizabeth I and her half-sister, Mary Tudor, have a good relationship? Historian Tracy Borman explains

Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII

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

Portrait of Catherine Howard

11 facts about Catherine Howard

Colour portrait of Jane Austen

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

Left: Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their wedding day, 29 July 1981. Right: Prince William and Catherine Middleton on their wedding day, 29 April 2011. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

The 8 most famous royal weddings in British history

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, during their first visit to England after the Duke's abdication, September 1939. (Photo by Getty Images)

Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson and the Abdication crisis

Portrait of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s most successful queen?

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

Henry VIII portrait

5 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII

Thomas Becket murder

7 controversial saints in history

Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester

Amy Robsart: a Tudor tragedy

Portrait of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532–88) an English nobleman. Dated 16th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Robert Dudley: Queen Elizabeth I’s great love