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'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings: a guide to 8 famous works

Bog bodies: what can they teach us?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Irregulars. From left to right: Prince Leopold (Harrison Osterfield), Jessie (Darci Shaw), Bea(Thaddea Graham), Spike (McKell David), and Billy (Jojo Macari)

The Irregulars: the real history behind Netflix’s supernatural Sherlock spinoff

Our illustration shows Thomas Boleyn, whose flair for diplomacy and mastery of languages made him one of Henry VIII's most trusted ambassadors. (Illustration by Sean McSorley)

Thomas Boleyn: why Anne Boleyn's father was more than a grasping courtier

A section of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the battle of Hastings. Anglo-Saxon foot soldiers are seen defending themselves with a wall of shields against Norman cavalry. (Photo by Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

What the Normans did for us

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: your guide to the poet’s life, work and love

Triumphant Death chases Londoners from their city

How 17th-century London reacted to the Great Plague

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, c1870. He was the youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany: the sickly fourth son of Victoria and Albert

Battle of Culloden. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Your guide to the battle of Culloden – plus 7 myths busted

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry HistoryExtra podcast series title card

Unravelling the Bayeux TapestryEpisode 3: What story does the Tapestry tell?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Newark Castle flanked by the river Trent. To say that King John's death here in 1216 was little-lamented is something of an understatement. "With John's foul deeds all England is stinking, as does hell, to which he is now sinking," wrote the chronicler Matthew Paris. (Getty Images)

King John and the French invasion. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Da Vinci's sketch 'The Vitruvian Man'. Da Vinci's talents ranged from anatomy to military engineering, and many of his innovations were not explored further for several centuries. (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Your guide to Leonardo da Vinci: his life, inventions and milestones in his career

500 years of women’s self-portraits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Eadwine the Scribe, c mid-12th century. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

A history of left-handed writing. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Ammonite and the real fossil hunter Mary Anning. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The exact location at which John Cabot came ashore in North America is the subject of debate. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

A tale of Tudor travel: John Cabot's voyage to America

Excerpt from the Textus Roffensis showing Christ and a dragon

The Textus Roffensis: a medieval manuscript to rival Magna Carta

Tales of Irish emigration. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A union flag flown on HMS Queen Charlotte at the battle known as the Glorious First of June, 1794

Q&AWhen was the Union Jack or Union flag created?

Kate VigursThe women of SOE in WW2 France. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Aesop's fables: The Fox and The Crow. Illustration after 1485 edition printed in Naples by German printers for Francesco del Tuppo. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images

A 'superfluity of nuns' plus 9 more collective nouns that originate from the Middle Ages

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and known as the Kingmaker, meets his end at the battle of Barnet in 1471

Q&AWhy was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker?

The mystery of the vanishing lighthouse keepers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Battle of Barnet: This lively, if inaccurate, 15th- century illustration of the shows a coronet- wearing Edward skewering Warwick with his lance

The battle of Barnet, 1471: the Wars of the Roses clash that killed the Kingmaker

Jayaben Desai salutes fellow pickets at the Grunwick film processing factory in 1977

The Grunwick protests: remembering the 1970s strike for migrant workers' rights

Virginia Woolf, writer and critic. (Image by Getty Images)

Virginia Woolf: a brief guide to the writer's life

Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) in Francis Lee's new film 'Ammonite'. (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate UK / See-Saw Films)

The real history behind Ammonite

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry HistoryExtra podcast series title card

Unravelling the Bayeux TapestryEpisode 2: How was the Tapestry created?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hate mail & mutilated horses: Conan Doyle investigates. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.