Sex and love

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

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A history of Valentine’s Day celebrations – from fertility festivals to the first cards

Lettice Knollys

A Tudor love triangle: Elizabeth I, Lettice Knollys and Robert Dudley

Charles and Camilla, 1979

Charles and Camilla A history of their romance

Victorian wedding, circa 1900: A wedding group poses in the garden, 1900. (Photo by F J Mortimer/Getty Images)

Living in sin: unmarried relationships in Victorian Britain

Claire Foy as the Duchess of Argyll in A Very British Scandal (left); Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll (right)

The Argyll divorce: the society scandal that rocked 1960s Britain

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Tudor Royal Women with Tracy Borman The Private Life of Elizabeth I . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Katherine Harvey discusses whether attitudes to sex in the Middle Ages were really so different from our own. (Image by Getty Images)

Sex lives of medieval people

Chaucer reading his work to the court of Richard II

Katherine Swynford: the scandalous duchess and ancestress of royal dynasties

From the courtesans of Edo Japan to the mollyhouses of Regency London, Kate Lister discusses the long and varied history of sex work. (Image by Getty Images)

Sex work: a brief history

Sir Lancelot of the Lake and Queen Guinevere seen embracing by King Arthur in a medieval illustration

Tudors in love: what were the dynasty’s romantic secrets?

(Illustration: Clair Rossiter for BBC History Magazine)

Beans, ale & ‘windy meats’: surprising 17th-century aphrodisiacs

A medieval miniature depicts a monk and a woman in a bed.

Sex in the Middle Ages: have attitudes really changed?

A mosaic that shows two Roman women exercising, one holds a flower and another holds a leaf

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Roman women

An ancient Greek vase depicting sexual intercourse

A brief history of sex and sexuality in Ancient Greece