Early comic panel illustration

England

Charles Dickens: prison reformer, scourge of capitalists, champion of the poor

Workers repair Fleet sewer in 1854. London’s creaking sewer network sparked anxieties over what lay beneath the sprawling capital. (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Christmas ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The effigy of Eleanor of Castile on her tomb

The love lives of medieval queens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Were the suffragettes terrorists?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ten things to do with a medieval donkey. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Magna Carta: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard III

Richard the radical: was Richard III a champion of the people?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nelson's passion for Emma – with whom he had a six-year affair – is writ large in his letters

Nelson in his own words. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History heroAndrew Marr chooses Charles Darwin (1809–82). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portchester Castle in Hampshire was intended as a coastal defence against raiders. (Photo by Getty Images)

The collapse of Roman Britain: what happened, plus 9 places which tell us more. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Fishbourne Roman Palace, plus 5 more Roman mosaics you can explore in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Imperialism on the oceans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wrens operating the Colossus computer at Bletchley Park, 1943

Second World War

Your guide to Bletchley Park, the key WW2 decryption centre

Jane Austen's fiction: an accurate portrayal of life in Georgian England?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rushton Triangular Lodge was ostensibly a warrener's lodge but the biblical references that adorn its three exterior walls tell a different story. (Photo English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

History explorer: Catholic resistance to Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The orphan hero who fought at Trafalgar. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This engraving by William Hogarth shows the final instalment of a sequence of artworks called 'The Four Stages of Cruelty' (1751). In it, the fictional Tom Nero is being dissected for anatomical studies at Cutlerian theatre near Newgate prison after being hanged for murder. Nero looks like the Dead-Alive, as though he can see and smell his own executed body on the dissection table. The chief physician sits in the centre on a high-backed chair, resembling a high court judge. He is surrounded by various medical men, including penal surgeons, who did gallows work. The skeletons of dissected criminals were usually refused a Christian burial and so were displayed as specimens, as can be seen top left and top right. (Photo by Guildhall Library/Getty Images)

Surviving the gallows: the Georgian hangings that didn't go to plan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The colonial secrets of Britain’s stately homes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How did the Reformation impact Jews?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Scrooge and Marley's ghost

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Bah Humbug’ and what does it mean?

David Olusoga“Desks went from a niche furniture item to the work station of millions”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thomas Cromwell, Tudor statesman and 'alter rex'.

Your guide to Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor statesman and prince of the church

Henry VI of England. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

Henry VI may have had a "sex coach" - plus 4 more curious facts about his life

The future King George VI playing at the Wimbledon tennis championships, 1926

How George VI's sheer ordinariness made him the darling of the nation

A 14th-century illustration showing medieval butchery. (Photo by Prisma/UIG via Getty Images)

The medieval marketplace: a time traveller’s guide to shopping in the Middle Ages

Shakespeare: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Claudia Jones at the Brixton offices of 'The West Indian Gazette'

Black British historyBritain's black trailblazers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bernard Cornwell on The Last Kingdom’s finale and the next Sharpe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Your guide to...debtors' prisons