People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

BBC History Magazine

Murder most horrid

King George VI and stories from Africa. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Chair used for the last execution at the Tower of London, c1940. Wooden chair on which the German Corporal Josef Jakobs was seated when he was shot as a spy in the Tower of London in August 1941. Two of the spindles have been shot away and the frame broken by bullets. Jakobs, who was seated due to an injured leg, was the last person to be executed at the Tower of London. (Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Armouries / HIP / TopFoto)

Q&A: Why was Josef Jakobs the only WW2 spy to be shot rather than hanged?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Identifying the English: A History of Personal Identification 1500–2010

Whithorn Priory, Dumfries and Galloway

Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge. (David Levenson/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Moses I Finley (1912–86). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The Kings of Alba: c1000–c1130

Royston Cave, Hertfordshire

A portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from an early 15th-century manuscript of the poem ‘De Regimine Principum’ by Thomas Hoccleve. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The LibraryChaucer and the idea of Englishness. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Cornish invention

How to escape the tower. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from ‘A Short History of the English People’ by John Richard Green. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Drowning in Tudor England: why was water so dangerous?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

A c15th-century vellum shows the Squire from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For Adam Nicolson, the essence of the gentry was “government-through-networking”. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Stories of the gentry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Angela Burdett-Coutts, an English philanthropist who supported a wide variety of charitable causes assisting the church, the poor and the hungry. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

Philanthropy: the root of all good

Guy Gibson (centre) with members of his squadron. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The triumph of the Dambusters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. Famous for being the location of the ‘Great Escape’, it was home to Ron Last for ten months. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The long road home. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles Dickens: his life and works. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King George V and his wife, Queen Mary, pictured during a visit to Dublin in 1911. The royal couple were deeply conservative but common sense taught them they had to adapt to the modern world. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

How George and Mary saved the royal family. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A postboy drives a mail coach in a contemporary illustration. Soon after their introduction in 1784, coaches were traversing the country at speeds of up to 10mph. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Red Letter Days: 10 milestones in the history of the Post Office. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman at a floral tribute to Neville Chamberlain at a florist in Ludgate Circus, London, 1938. In the wake of the Munich agreement, the prime minister was understood to be a hero of women everywhere. (Photo by Harry Todd/Getty Images)

The LibraryGuilty women?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Tower of London. More than 30 inmates successfully broke out of the royal fortress between the 12th and 18th centuries. (Photo by Tetra Images/Getty Images)

How to escape from the Tower of London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How far could a person expect to travel in a single day on horseback or in a stagecoach?

BBC History Magazine

The Eidophusikon

BBC History Magazine

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-forgotten Europe

A portrait of King Edward III. By using his offspring as pawns in a series of alliances, the king hoped to wield power over a confederation of dependent states bound together by feudal and family ties. (Photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

King Edward III: the family man. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The mourning of Queen Victoria. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey

English soldiers in the ruins of Palmyre in charge of taking over the Syrian Territory occupied by Vichy’s France. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

The untold Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Clarence Harry Willcock MP, who refused to show his identity card to a policeman, 13 June 1951. (Photo by Walter Bellamy/Express/Getty Images)

My history hero: Clarence Willcock. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.