People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Painting of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Several servants as well as Cardinal Wolsey look on.

From service to survival: what happened to the households of Henry VIII’s six wives?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German prisoners of war arrive on British soil in 1944, bound for camps somewhere in England (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Second World War

The German Great Escape? The tale of the WW2 Island Farm escape attempt

Joseph Chamberlain (far right) pictured with his sons Neville (far left) and Austen, daughter Hilda (front left) and third wife, Mary Endicott (Photo by Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Chamberlain and Cadbury of BirminghamThe first families in Britain’s second city. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British Army tanks are unloaded on to Gold Beach on D-Day

D-Day quizTest your knowledge of the Normandy Landings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry III of England.

David Carpenter on Henry III“He was not a great king but he was respected as a most Christian one”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWhat was the fascination behind Tudor codpieces?

Elizabeth is borne from Westminster Abbey in a gold coach first used for the state opening of parliament by George III in 1762. (Getty Images)

Becoming Queen: Elizabeth II’s coronation

William Caxton shows off his new press in Westminster to Edward IV in a 19th-century painting (Photo by Artepics / Alamy Stock Photo)

How William Caxton printed the first-ever book in English. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Geoffrey Chaucer5 key things to know

(l-r): Thomas Turgoose, Charlotte Ockelton, Sophie McShera and Michael Socha star as members of the Hartley clan in BBC Two series The Gallows Pole (Photo by BBC Pictures)

The Gallows PoleThe true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners

Prime minister Ramsay MacDonald (left) and chancellor Philip Snowden (right) at 10 Downing Street in 1929, two years before they formed a controversial National Government (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Alleged coups and government traitors: conspiracy theories in 20th-century British politics. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 1380s depiction of the Knights of the Round Table. Their heroics were routinely celebrated at medieval feasts (Photo by Heritage Images / Contributor / Getty Images)

6 ingredients for a memorable medieval feast. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

London in the 16th century map, illustration by Theresa Grieben

Trade, religion and diversity: how Tudor London became a global city. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bishops tumble, with “popish” paraphernalia falling from their pockets, in a woodcut from a 1641 Puritan pamphlet titled 'A Decade of Grievances' (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

How people power fuelled England's century of chaos. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Replicas of necklaces belonging to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife (Photo by Angela-Treasures For A Queen - Etsy)

Queens of bling: the importance of jewellery to Henry VIII's six wives. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Laurie Avon

Medieval warfare: five deceptive ways to win a battle. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman teaches a child to read in a 15th century depiction. The medieval period saw women challenge the male stranglehold on intellectual life, says Ian Mortimer (Photo by Marcello Fedeli / Electa / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

What does medieval mean? Why the Middle Ages was actually an age of transformation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woodcut from Frances Rose-Troup’s book about the Prayer Book Rebellion, in which some 4,000 people from Devon and Cornwall died (Photo by Collection PJ / Alamy Stock Photo)

The Prayer Book Rebellion: Mark Stoyle on how the 1549 rising almost changed Tudor history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A clown, c1970s. The next decade, there would be a panic over "stalker clowns" in the US (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)

Clowns, agoraphobia and kayaks: a history of fear and loathing. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath: how Chaucer's character gives a voice to medieval women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 1577 portrait of Arbella Stuart, great- great-granddaughter of Henry VII, as a toddler clutching a doll

What were the games and pastimes enjoyed by Tudor children?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elsie Wright, who with her cousin Frances Griffiths took photos of sprites, gnomes and fairies, 1917 (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Fake news: 8 of the most notorious photograph hoaxes, from fairies to UFOs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The debtors’ exercise grounds at Newgate prison in 1809. The debtors’ prison was a feature of everyday life in 18th-century England (Photo by Rischgitz/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Inside debtors’ prisons: what life was like for people jailed in Georgian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Passengers and crew leap from the Gloucester after the ship is wrecked in 1682, in a contemporary painting by Johan Danckerts (Image by National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)

The sinking of the Gloucester: the shipwreck that rocked Restoration England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prince Charles, aged 4, driving a toy car in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

King Charles IIIA life in pictures

Michael Wood on the coronation of Charles III"The symbolism of the royal promise still means something today". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What makes a good coronation? Tracy Borman answers

General History

What makes a good coronation?

Which British monarch had the most successful coronation?

Which British monarch had the most successful coronation?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The real story of Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte: from glittering courts to tragic decline

Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Wales, (1796-1817), was the only daughter of George IV. Engraving by Henry Thomas Ryall (English, 1811-1867), after an original painting by Alfred Edward Chalon.

Princess Charlotte of Wales: the original people's princess