Early comic panel illustration

England

'The Last Kingdom' season 4

The Last Kingdom S4 E2 review: winds of change and dramatic father-son relations

An early 14th-century portrait of 10th-century leader Edward the Elder

Who was Edward the Elder? A brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon king

A Viking sword with silver and gold hilt, from Dyback, Skane. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How England rode the Viking storm. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cousins at war: King Stephen is shown holding a falcon in a miniature from 1253. His battle with his cousin Matilda for the English crown plunged the realm into a long civil war. (Photo by Alamy)

The Anarchy: how bloody was Stephen and Matilda’s medieval battle for the English crown?

British author Bernard Cornwell, author of 'The Last Kingdom'

Bernard Cornwell on writing historical fiction and his blockbuster series The Last Kingdom: your questions answered. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Great Fire of London quiz – how much do you know?

The renowned poet Lord Byron has gone down in history for being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. But his ancestors were hardly paragons of virtue. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Adultery, elopement and incest: the scandalous sex lives of the 18th-century Byrons

The scandalous Byrons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The mistresses of Charles II. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c1895: Queen Victoria with her family. Standing left to right: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein; Prince Henry of Battenberg; Count Arthur Mensdorff-Pouilly; Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg; George, Duke of York. Seated left to right: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg; Queen Victoria; Victoria Mary, Duchess of York holding Prince Edward of York; Prince Arthur of Connaught; and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who were Queen Victoria's children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters

Thomas Cromwell. (Photo by Gustavo Tomsich/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The truth about Thomas Cromwell

Julian of Norwich holds her famous book in a sculpture at the doors of Norwich Cathedral. (Photo by Creative Commons Wiki)

Julian of Norwich: Janina Ramirez hails 'the female Chaucer'

A depiction of the Norman army, from the Bayeux Tapestry

Everything you wanted to know about the 1066 Norman invasion and the battle of Hastings – but were afraid to ask

Dance of Death, printed by Jacob Meydenbach, Germany 1492. (Photo by Alamy)

The Black Death and social change. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Church of St Martin of Tours in Canterbury

Q&AWhat is the oldest church in England?

Illustration of Elizabeth I in a cage

What if...The Spanish Armada had landed?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Children in Auschwitz

Second World War

The Windermere Children: the remarkable stories of 300 child survivors of the Holocaust

Our composite image shows Henry II framed by an Arabic arch. Henry claimed he "would sooner accept the errors of Nur-al-Din" than suffer Thomas Becket remaining as archbishop. (Image by Bridgeman/Getty Images)

King Henry II: the Muslim monarch of medieval England?

Illustration of Boudica, victorious over the Romans

What if…Boudica had defeated the Romans?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two scenes from the Chronique de St Denis, late 14th century. The left-hand scene depicts the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France in 1137. The scene on the right shows Louis departing by ship to go on the Second Crusade in 1147. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Eleanor of Aquitaine: the medieval queen who took on Europe’s most powerful men

A portrait of the young Elizabeth I. (Photo by Art Collection 2/Alamy Stock Photo)

Elizabeth I's personality: the unfathomable queen

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

Black Death quarantine: how did we try to contain the most deadly disease in history?

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

Illustration of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on their wedding day

The royal weddings of Henry VIII: Alison Weir on what came before divorced, beheaded, died...

Henry VIII

Q&AWhat was the Sweating Sickness? And how did Henry VIII ‘self-isolate’?

Children play as air raid wardens during the Blitz in London

Q&AHow did WW2 affect schools in London?

Henry V. (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library / Alamy)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry V and the battle of Agincourt

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'The Poor Actress's Christmas Dinner', a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Braithwaite Martineau, says much about the way Victorians had begun to understand the problem of loneliness. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The invention of loneliness: why being 'unhappy alone' is a surprisingly modern idea