Early comic panel illustration

England

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their third son, Prince Edward, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of royal mothers and childbirth

Stonemason Andrew Ziminski. (Photo by David Hampton)

Written in stone. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & The Light book review: Hilary Mantel's epic finale "lives up to the hype"

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), holding a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow Airport, 17 March 1969. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

In pictures: the history of London’s Heathrow Airport

Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Secrets of Lindisfarne. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Depiction of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) by a late 18th/early 19th unknown artist. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

5 smells that made Georgian England

The Jacobite rebellions: how close were they to returning the Stuarts to power?

Nancy Astor on the campaign trail in 1919

Nancy Astor facts: who was the first female MP in British history to take her seat in parliament?

A Burglar Looks In, Picture Post 1950. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Burglary: a modern history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael Wood on the Peterloo photograph. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Andrew Roberts (Photo by Helen Atkinson)

Secrets of war leadership. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at Admiralty House, London

History heroMichael Heseltine chooses Harold Macmillan (1894–1986). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

During his time in Oxford, Wilde fully embraced ‘aesthetic flair’: growing his hair long; dressing in flamboyant fashions and assuming exaggerated affectations. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

7 facts you (probably) didn’t know about Oscar Wilde

Henrietta Boyle

Fashion history: dressing to impress in the 17th century

A bust of Charlemagne

Charlemagne: creating the myth

William of Orange landing at Torbay, 1688

Your guide to...the Glorious Revolution

The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill

The death of Sir Winston Churchill and the top-secret plans for his funeral

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector

Royalists, beards and cowardice: are these the strangest taxes in history?

Princess Margaret wearing a fur coat

The Queen's "rebel sister": 13 facts about Princess Margaret

Scandalous Tudor marriages: 7 women who braved royal wrath by marrying for love

Edward VI

To kidnap a king: the foiled plot to abduct Edward VI

Richard III, Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence

Blood brothers: Richard III's battle with his siblings

Portrait of Prince Albert

What killed Prince Albert?

Westminster Abbey, London

A brief history of Westminster Abbey

Rotten boroughs cartoon

9 general election curiosities through history

A family at the seaside in the 1960s.

In pictures: English life in the 1960s, photographed by Tony Ray-Jones

Edwardian hat pin head found on the Thames shore. (Photo by Bloomsbury)

Secrets of the river. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.