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An 18th century village in Germany. Strict laws regulated the goods that each social class could buy. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Beware what you buy: the goods German citizens were forbidden to consume

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Murder most horrid

A gold head, thought to represent the head of an important enemy killed in battle, from the Asante kingdom. The abundance of this precious metal greatly shaped the region's history. (Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

The Golden Coast

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Illustration by Jonty Clark.

The Library Ye Olde Travel Guide: Mainz 1455 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge. (David Levenson/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Moses I Finley (1912–86) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade, c1200. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Why Islam crushed the crusaders

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A statue of Joan of Arc in the home where she is thought to have been born, in Domrémy-La-Pucelle, eastern France. (PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images)

Where history happened Joan of Arc . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from an early 15th-century manuscript of the poem ‘De Regimine Principum’ by Thomas Hoccleve. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Library Chaucer and the idea of Englishness

An illustration from ‘A Short History of the English People’ by John Richard Green. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Drowning in Tudor England: why was water so dangerous?

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View towards Steel Rigg from Hadrian's Wall in Northumbria. (Photo by VisitBritain/Rod Edwards via Getty Images)

History explorer: Early Roman Britain . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A stone relief depicting men bringing gifts to the king, c500 BC. (Getty Images)

The Persian empire: myth vs reality

A portrait of Henry VII in 1505. His claim to the throne was tenuous and he had to see off a posse of pretenders, yet he proved a canny and competent ruler, modernising the justice system and filling the crown’s coffers. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Henry VII: the survivor and stabiliser

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Is public spending elbowing out private endeavour?

A poster depicting a First World War soldier musing over having caught a venereal disease while on furlough.(Photo by David Pollack/Corbis via Getty Images)

Sex and the First World War: the Tommies who visited brothels

A Saracen attack on Crusaders, from the French manuscript 'Chroniques de Saint Denis', c1200. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Traders and crusaders