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'The Fountain of Youth', 1546. Artist: Lucas Cranach the Elder

Everard Digby: the man who taught Tudors to swim

The burning of Templars (From: De casibus virorum illustrium by Giovanni Boccaccio). Artist: Master of the White inscriptions (active ca 1480)

The Templars on trial: a very muted inquisition

Miss Ivy Williams

6 trailblazing women in history

Official First World War Photographers

Britain’s First World War flying aces

Made of basalt, this inscribed stone dates to the sixth century BC. The figure is Nabonidus who was the last king of Babylon before the Persian invasion under Cyrus II. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

Babylon: From riches to ruins

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A portrait of William Hogarth, whom Simon Jones admires for possessing an extraordinary eye for pictorial detail and social nuance. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

My history hero: William Hogarth (1697–1764) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King Arthur addresses his knights in a 12th-century Arthurian manuscript now held in Rennes, France. (Photo by: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

Would the real King Arthur please stand up

Girls shower at a Woodcraft Folk meeting in Stanmore in 1947. (Photo by George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Britain’s green  pioneers

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New US citizens celebrate after taking the oath at a US District Court for the Central District of California naturalisation ceremony, 2007. (Photo by Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Simon Schama on American history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A second-century bronze head of Roman Emperor Hadrian

Hadrian: rescuer of the Roman Empire

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Walking with Che Guevara

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Gentile Bellini

My history hero: Gentile Bellini (1429-1507) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration depicting inhabitants of Hawaii making an offering to Captain Cook

The Library The mystery of Cook’s lost journal

The gardens of the Ursuline Convent, Quebec, Canada

Esther Wheelwright: from survivor to mother superior

Soldiers of the Soviet Union

Did the Soviet Union win the war?