People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Crowds flock to the beach at Hastings in August 1938. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

Summer holiday revolution: when were Britons first allowed to take paid holiday?

A portrait of Henry VIII

The surprising place where Henry VIII is buried

Two lovers rest after a hunt, Codex Manesse

Saturday lecture: Medieval love and marriage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Bronze effigy of King Henry III on his tomb, Westminster Abbey, London (Photo by Alamy)

Henry III: inside the mind of a medieval king. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruined monastery walls of Lindisfarne priory on Holy Island, on 27th June 2019, on Lindisfarne Island, Northumberland, England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish monk Saint Aidan, and the priory was founded before the end of 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, also known simply as Holy Island, is an island off the northeast coast of England. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic and Anglo-saxon Christianity. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was re-established. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #8: Did medieval people care about the time? And did they get bored?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria of Great Britain with her husband, Prince Albert, and their nine children. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s children

Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton: life, discoveries, rivalries and the truth about the apple

Francis Drake portrait

Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade

Britain and the slave trade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A police officer uses his baton on a protester in Glasgow, 1919

1919: Britain's red summer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tournament between the Duke of Brittany and the Duke of Bourbon. (Photo by Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #7: what it meant to be 'blue' in the Middle Ages (and more killer rabbits). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

People flee to boats on the River Thames to escape the Great Fire of London, September 1666.

Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of living in Restoration London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Frank Gillard pictured during a 1944 rehearsal for battle reporting

History heroChris Mason chooses Frank Gillard (1908–98). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From Nelson to Churchill: challenging British heroes with Afua Hirsch. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Men operate a cotton gin in Dahomey, Mississippi, in 1898

7 key questions about the transatlantic slave trade – answered

A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade

Abolition in Britain: the link between slavery and the British national identity

Olaudah Equiano (Photo by Getty)

General Early Modern

Who was Olaudah Equiano – and why was his story of slavery so important?

An 1826 illustration from 'The Black Man's Lament

David Olusoga"Thousands of Britons opposed abolition – because they owned slaves"

Saturday lecture: Medieval disease and medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John Profumo in October 1962

Sex, lies and spies: the real history of the Profumo Affair

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1521. This was an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire called by King Charles V in Heylshof Garden, Worms, to address Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation. (Photo by The Print Collector via Getty Images)

What was the Reformation?

Henry Avery: the legendary 17th-century pirate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The front facade of the prehistoric chambered tomb of Wayland's Smithy

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #6: Viking military mind games, Anglo-Saxon mind maps, and embroidery before the Bayeux Tapestry

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. When Edward became king in January 1936, he was the darling of the nation. Yet when he abdicated in December 1936, few believed he was making the wrong decision. (Photo by Getty Images)

Love before duty: the story of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson

A researcher examines the medieval Voynich Manuscript with a magnifying glass

The Voynich Manuscript: who wrote the mystery medieval codex and what is it trying to tell us?

The cosmopolitan Chaucer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Oliver Cromwell and King Charles I.

The Civil War: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Equestrian portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript of his Canterbury Tales (14th century). "The world in which Chaucer moved was very outward-looking," says Marion Turner. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Cosmopolitan Chaucer: the 14th-century poet’s inventive, international life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.