Early comic panel illustration

England

Historian Nick Barratt.

Medieval civil war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tudor advent calendar

24 facts about Christmas in the Tudor period

Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, c. 1521 - 1608, known as Bess of Hardwick (Photo by Alamy)

Bess of Hardwick: a Tudor success story. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, England. (Photo by Getty Images)

The house that Bess built: the secrets of Hardwick Hall. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Codex Amiatinus – one of three huge Latin bibles produced at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the north-east of England in the early eighth century. (Photo by Sam Lane Photography/British Library)

Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: 10 things we learned

A still from the 2018 film 'Robin hood', in which actor Taron Egerton plays the legendary English archer. (Photo by Alamy)

Robin Hood: how the legendary figure has been portrayed across the centuries

How did Henry VIII and Elizabeth I celebrate Yuletide? (Illustration by Becca Thorne for BBC History Magazine)

Tales from a Tudor Christmas

Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

Deadly rivals: Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

Queen Victoria, c1860s. Victoria attended her son's wedding in March 1863 wearing full mourning dress – her husband, Prince Albert, had died some 15 months earlier. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Troublesome royal in-laws through history

A view from the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral looking towards Trinity Chapel, which was built in the 12th century to house the remains of Thomas Becket. (Photo by Alamy)

History explorerThe wonder of medieval cathedrals. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel in July 1588, by Hendrick Cornelis Vroom, c1600. (Picture by DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Spanish Armada

Mike Leigh at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014. (Photo by dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo)

"Peterloo felt relevant, given all the crazy and chaotic things that are happening now": Mike Leigh on a massacre

A wooden cross marks the spot, just over 20 miles west of Newcastle, where Oswald apparently raised his own cross before ambushing Cadwallon. If the Anglo-Saxon warlord's attack had failed, writes Edoardo Albert, England might now be a lot smaller. (Photo by Getty Images)

Hell in Heavenfield: the Anglo-Saxon battle "as important as Hastings"

Sir Walter Ralegh (c1554–1618, shown here in a painting attributed to William Segar) is often remembered as a favourite of Elizabeth I and an adventurer, yet he was also one of the most influential political philosophers of his era. (Photo by Alamy)

Walter Ralegh: the traitor who inspired Cromwell

The remarkable Codex Amiatinus, a "giant of a book", and part of a new exhibition at the British Library. (Photo by Sam Lane Photography/British Library)

Watch: Highlights from the British Library's new Anglo-Saxon exhibition

18th August 1819: 'The Massacre of Peterloo or Britons Strike Home', by George Cruikshank (Photo by Spencer Arnold/Getty Images)

The Peterloo Massacre. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ‘Pit Brow Lasses’ of 19th-century coal mines

Thomas Cromwell (Illustrated by Sarah Young)

Thomas Cromwell reconsidered. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

York History Weekend: Last-minute tickets and venue information

Director Peter Jackson in 2015 in Beijing, China (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Peter Jackson on the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A detail from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the death of Harold Godwinson at the battle of Hastings, 1066. Victory at Hastings did not make Duke William of Normandy king of England – at least, not immediately. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat happened after the Battle of Hastings?

8 unconventional royal wedding dresses in history

Treaty Of Paris, 1783, by Benjamin West (Photo by Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

Brexit and American independence. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A vintage colour lithograph depicting King Richard III at the battle of Bosworth. The battle of Bosworth (or Bosworth Field) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York. (Photo by Getty Images)

The battle for Bosworth field: Historians react to decision to build on battlefield where Richard III died

In c1500, the young Thomas Cromwell travelled from his humble Putney home to the great cities of Italy, as shown in our illustration. The connections he established on the Italian peninsula would prove key to his meteoric rise to power back in England. (Illustration by Sarah Young for BBC History Magazine)

Thomas Cromwell: the best Italian in all England

The opening ceremony of London’s Tower Bridge on 30 June 1894. The bridge became a symbol of London’s importance as a global maritime hub (Photo by Francis Frith/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Britain's imperial landmarks: The empire on our doorsteps

A statue of Robert the Bruce at Stirling Castle in Scotland. The castle "is in many ways like a bottleneck – so much of Scottish and British history passes through it and goes off to its eventual destination,” says Neil Oliver. (Photo by Iain Masterton via Getty Images)

BBC presenter Neil Oliver on his top 5 must-visit places in Britain

The entrance to Bodiam Castle. "If any castle conjures up the ‘romance’ of the mediaeval world, this is it," says Michael Smith. (Photo by Andrew Ray/LOOP IMAGES via Getty Images)

From magnificent ruins to imposing forts: 10 must-visit British castles

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts scenes of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. To characterise the English response in 1066 as "deliberately acquiescing" is a little hard on our 11th-century compatriots, says Professor George Garnett. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Did English leaders “deliberately acquiesce” to foreign rule in 1066?

The Shah Jahan Mosque was saved from developers and renovated from 1913 by Kashmiri lawyer Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who also founded the Woking Muslim Mission. (Photo by Alamy)

Muslim worship in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.