England

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The HMS Victory in Portsmouth

A visit to HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

A depiction of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (10 September 1547), the last formal battle between England and Scotland. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&A When was the last battle between England and Scotland?

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (© 19th era/Alamy)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose

A cartoon showing a man in a suit of armour on the moon

Q&A Did NASA really pick the brains of the Tower of London armoury when designing the first space suits?

Illustration by Glen McBeth.

Q&A When did the leopards on the royal arms of England become the lions depicted today?

Chatsworth House, where Elizabeth I ordered for Mary, Queen of Scots to be imprisoned after she abdicated and fled from Scotland to England in 1567. (Photo by Chatsworth House Trust)

Britain’s 7 most amazing stately homes

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Clash between the English Temeraire and the French Redoutable ships during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dornier 217 bombers of the Luftwaffe bomb London during the Battle of Britain.

9 of the most overrated battles in history (and one underrated one)

High heaven: Lindisfarne Castle rises above the beach. It's a steep climb to the castle entrance. (Photo by Alamy)

History Explorer The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

Ruth Ellis and her friend Desmond Cussen, who supplied the gun with which she shot David Blakely. (Photo by Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo)

Ruth Ellis and the hanging that rocked a nation

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The ruins of Dunluce Castle, which sit on the coastal cliffs of North Antrim in Northern Ireland. They are thought to have been the inspiration for CS Lewis’s castle Cair Paravel in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (1950–56). (Photo by Andrea Ricordi/Contributor/Getty Images)

9 of Britain’s best castles . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A selection of treasure from the Staffordshire Hoard.

A closer look at the Staffordshire Hoard . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wrens worked as code-breakers at Bletchley Park.

Second World War

Female codebreakers: the women of Bletchley Park

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Diminutive circus performer George Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb poses in Highland dress for the appreciation of two young ladies. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

Victorian freak shows . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.