France

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Vaux-le-Vicomte: the inspiration for Louis XIV’s Versailles

Edward the Black Prince receiving from his father, King Edward III, the conquered provinces of France gained during the Hundred Years' War. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince of Darkness?

Crew members of the French destroyer Bourrasque, sunk by mine at Dunkirk, are hauled aboard a British vessel from their sinking life-raft. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Dunkirk: 6 big questions on a remarkable rescue mission

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Portrait depicting Mary, Queen of Scots.

History quiz – surgeons and Mary, Queen of Scots . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ross Poldark travels to Republican France in the latest episode of the BBC drama. France was a 'brutal and dangerous' place to be at the time, says historian Hannah Greig. (BBC/Mammoth Screen)

The real history behind ‘Poldark’ series three: episode three

John Buckley and James Holland next to a fighter plane at the Imperial Museum, London

Second World War

The War in the West: James Holland in conversation

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Scandal, conspiracy and the affair of the poisons: inside the court of Louis XIV

Two members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps find another use for discarded helmets in France during the First World War. (Alamy)

Female Tommies: women in the First World War

British reenforcement land on 'Gold Beach' for the big push into the Normandy town of Caen

An eyewitness account of the Normandy landings, France, 1944

A painting depicting the storming of the Tuileries. (Photo By DEA/G DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Socialite, spy, saviour: Grace Dalrymple Elliott

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Eleanor of Aquitaine.

History quiz – spacewalks, battles and Eleanor of Aquitaine . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The medieval hilltop village of Vézelay in north central France enjoys a spectacular location. (Photo by Andia/UIG via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Vézelay, France

Singer Germaine Lubin in conversation with officer Hans Speidel at the German Embassy in Paris, 1941. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Les Parisiennes: how the women of Paris lived, loved and died in the 1940s

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British reserve troops waiting to move up to the forward area during the battle of the Somme, France, 1916. Photograph from the Daily Herald Archive. (Photo by Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)

The Somme: was it really a monstrous failure? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Paris’s women at war and the Housewives’ League . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.