Period

Illustration of Despite being outnumbered, the Greeks gained vital supremacy at sea over the Persians at the battle of Salamis in 480 BC

The Peloponnesian War: Athens fights Sparta for dominance in ancient Greece

Otto von Bismarck, pictured on horseback, was instrumental in the creation of a unified German state and was among the most influential politicians of late 19th-century Europe.(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Otto von Bismarck: a brief guide to the ‘founder of modern Germany’

Victorian pet cemeteries: animals in the afterlife. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A c1520–40 portrait of Henry VI

The miraculous afterlife of Henry VI

Norman cavalry on the charge in the Bayeux Tapestry. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Why the Nazis fell in love with the Bayeux Tapestry

How slavery fuelled the British empire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, pictured in 1854. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?

A c1638 oil painting of Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny

History heroJulia Donaldson chooses Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny (d1650). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Aerial view reconstruction drawing of Maiden Castle

A brief guide to the British Iron Age

Harold Godwinson is proclaimed king of England in the Bayeux Tapestry. It may have been commissioned by a Norman but this magnificent artwork repeatedly acknowledges the English leader’s piety and courage. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Why is Harold Godwinson a hero of the Bayeux Tapestry?

17th-century London: a city shaped by catastrophe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval forgeries. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Daily life in ancient Egypt: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Novelist Kate Mosse on The City of Tears. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Volunteers shovel sand in Fulham in 1941, filling bags used to protect windows from bomb blasts. Our clichés of the Blitz don’t tell the whole story, writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners

The Dark Ages: a ‘black hole’ in Britain’s history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Historians have chosen their favourite historical novels.

22 of the best historical fiction novels to help you escape to the past

Adolf Hitler. (Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Your guide to Adolf Hitler: key facts about the Nazi dictator

1962: London’s big freeze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Tudor with her five stepmothers

Mary Tudor and her five stepmothers: what was their relationship like?

Max AdamsThe First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This image from the Nibelungenlied manuscript shows Pilgrim welcoming Kriemhild, a fictional character described as his neice in the text (Photo by Alamy)

The forged texts of the Middle Ages: why Europe's holy men turned to counterfeiting

Edward I’s letters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the US

Elizabeth BlackwellThe ‘first female doctor’, who entered medicine to prove a point

Cary Grant: from humble beginnings to Hollywood icon. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Blitz spirit or broken morale?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An account of the story of James Allen, whose sex at birth was revealed only by an autopsy conducted after their death

'Female husbands': the secret lives of 18th-century transgender pioneers

Actor Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster in James Whale's classic 1931 film

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: the birth of a gothic monster

The ruins of the once magnificent Roche Abbey

The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision?

Photo of an Anglo Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo: a brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon burial site and its discovery