England

Harold Godwinson is proclaimed king of England in the Bayeux Tapestry. It may have been commissioned by a Norman but this magnificent artwork repeatedly acknowledges the English leader’s piety and courage. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Why is Harold Godwinson a hero of the Bayeux Tapestry?

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Margarette Lincoln reveals how a century that saw plague, fire, revolution and civil war transformed England’s capital. (Image by Getty Images)

17th-century London: a city shaped by catastrophe . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Volunteers shovel sand in Fulham in 1941, filling bags used to protect windows from bomb blasts. Our clichés of the Blitz don’t tell the whole story, writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners

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Juliet Nicolson reveals how the frozen winter of 1962 helped change Britain for good. (Image by Getty Images)

1962: London’s big freeze . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Tudor with her five stepmothers

Mary Tudor and her five stepmothers: what was their relationship like?

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Dr Kathleen Neal explains what we can learn about Edward I, the famously militaristic “Hammer of the Scots”, from his letters. (Image by Getty Images)

Edward I’s letters . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Mark Glancy reveals how Cary Grant made the journey from working-class Bristol lad to the most celebrated actor in Hollywood. (Image by Getty Images)

Cary Grant: from humble beginnings to Hollywood icon . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Jeremy Crang investigates reports on British morale made during the Second World War and considers what they can tell us about the ‘Blitz spirit’. (Image by Getty Images)

Blitz spirit or broken morale? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An account of the story of James Allen, whose sex at birth was revealed only by an autopsy conducted after their death

‘Female husbands’: the secret lives of 18th-century transgender pioneers

Actor Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster in James Whale's classic 1931 film

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: the birth of a gothic monster

The ruins of the once magnificent Roche Abbey

The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision?

Photo of an Anglo Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo: a brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon burial site and its discovery

A depiction of Robin Hood, the heroic archer in English folklore who supposedly robbed the rich and gave to the poor. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Robin Hood: 7 myths about the legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation

A scene from an early rugby union game

The history of rugby: when was the sport invented?