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The Duchess of Richmond's ball

Before Waterloo: what happened at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball?

The reconcilliation between Thomas Becket and Henry II. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From the handshake to the high-five: a brief history of gestures

Princess Arthur of Connaught (in black) was very much a traditional member of the royal family, quite reserved, with one exception: her passion for nursing. (Image by Getty Images)

A nurse, a banker and… a TV producer? The royals through history who have held other jobs

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The cast of Belgravia

Behind the scenes on Belgravia . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Immigrant children are examined by a city health officer upon arrival at the battery from Ellis Island during a Typhus scare, c1911. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

A short history of quarantine

A group of men stand at a booth whose banner reads 'Headquarters National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage,' early 1910s. (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

Anti-suffrage: the women who didn’t want the vote

A line-up of girls ready to play football, somewhere in England during the First World War, c1917. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

First World War

10 facts you (probably) didn’t know about the First World War

Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in Amazon Prime's 'Hunters'.

A historian’s review of Amazon’s “Holocaust revenge saga” Hunters

Queen Elizabeth greets the crowd from the top of a huge elephant minutely decorated during a walk to the gates of the Jaipur Palace, c1961 in Jaipur, India. (Photo by Keystone-FranceGamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The Queen and the Commonwealth: a force for international change?

Female aviators Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower in a bungalow in Reading, 9 September 1931. Gower later became an officer of the Air Transport Auxiliary's No 5 Ferry Pilots Pool. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

When women flew Spitfires

Christine de Pizan. (Photo by Getty Images)

Doctors, playwrights and feminists: meet 6 trailblazing medieval women

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & The Light book review: Hilary Mantel’s epic finale “lives up to the hype”

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler watch a Nazi parade staged for the Italian dictators's visit to Germany. (Photo by Getty Images)

How do dictators seize power? The malevolent careers of eight 20th-century leaders explained

A 19th-century depiction of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Who was Maharaja Ranjit Singh?