People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Britain in the early 80s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman invasion of 1066. The tapestry was most likely embroidered by women in Norman England in a workshop setting using four embroidery stitches – stem stitch; split stitch; chain stitch; and laid work, sometimes called ‘Bayeux Stitch’, says Dr Alexandra Lester-Makin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The making of the Bayeux Tapestry: who made it, how long did it take, and how has it survived?

1st May 1975: Three documents, for and against, published for the referendum on the Common Market

Britain decides: the first European referendum. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of a gramophone

Q&AWho do we say 'put a sock in it'?

Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon, in San Francisco during a visit to America, November 1965. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express/Getty Images)

“Cheap men and expensive bottles”: Princess Margaret’s love affairs

James VI and I depicted in Parliament, c1605

Queen Elizabeth I’s ‘Golden Speech’ and 5 more key moments in the history of crown and parliament. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Extinction Rebellion take over Trafalgar Square, London, in protest on 16 October 2019. (Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

From William Wordsworth to Extinction Rebellion: a history of Britain's green activists. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard III, anonymous painting around 1500. (Photo by Alamy)

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

Being invited to become a 'guest' of the Tower of London in medieval England meant, more often than not, that you would soon be food for the crows. (Image by Getty Images/RM Creative)

10 historical haunted sites across Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A visit to the Churchill War Rooms, London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gin Lane, a print issued in 1751 by painter and printmaker William Hogarth. It depicts the perceived evils of the consumption of gin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The 18th-century craze for gin

Inside the fort was a famous spring, St Helen’s Well, today Robin Hood’s Well. (© Bill Henderson)

Brunanburh: Where did the battle that saved England take place?

Peter Hennessy on Britain in transition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the death of King Harold II during the battle of Hastings in 1066. (Photo by Getty Images)

Where did the battle of Hastings actually take place? 8 facts about the 1066 battle

Illustration of pirate John Ward

Pirate John Ward: the real Captain Jack Sparrow

The trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover: how the 'obscene' book caused a moral storm

Margaret Thatcher surrounded by British soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Hampshire Regiment, during a surprise visit to the Falkland Islands, January 1983. Britain has "ceased to be a nation in retreat," declared the prime minister in the wake of the victory over Argentine forces.

How the Falklands War fired up Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Secret listeners. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

1651, Charles Prince of Wales (1630 - 1685) (later King Charles II of England) meets Sir Henry Lee near Oxford during the Civil War, while escaping after the Battle of Worcester.

How Charles II put Britain back together after the Civil War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Billy Fullerton, gang chief of the Glasgow gang the Billy Boys

Who were the real Billy Boys, the Glasgow gang in Peaky Blinders?

William Dalrymple on the East India Company. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

War criminal? William the Conqueror shown on horseback in the Bayeux Tapestry. The king's Harrying of the North was a military success but a human catastrophe – one that even appalled chroniclers traditionally sympathetic to the Norman regime. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Was William the Conqueror a war criminal? The brutal story of the Harrying of the North

A cartoon from 1862 shows a pair 'garroters' attacking a victim. (Photo by The Cartoon Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Gangs and knife-crime fears: how has Britain responded through history?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Giant of literature: A page from the 'Beowulf' manuscript. The story is fictional but some of the characters within it were real people, and others were believed to be the ancestors of Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings. (Photo by Alamy)

Beowulf: The Anglo-Saxons' action hero

Half-timbered medieval cottages, Water Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, England, (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorerA wealth of history: Laversham, Sulfolk

William Dalrymple is an award-winning writer and historian based in India. (Photo by Bikramjt Bose)

“This was a corporation that could topple kings”: William Dalrymple on the East India Company. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British journalist Tom Wintringham (1898–1949), the candidate for the Christian Socialist Commonwealth Party. (Photo by Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

History heroPeter Tatchell chooses Tom Wintringham (1898–1949). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cardinal John Henry Newman

How to become a saint. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The murder of Thomas Becket

Q&A: What happened to the assassins who killed Thomas Becket?