Period

Professor Jan Bill on the HistoryExtra podcast.

At sea with the Vikings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 14th-century depiction of bakers at work. (Image by Getty Images)

Social mobility in the Middle Ages: could medieval people improve their station?

Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A near-contemporary depiction of the 14th-century English monk, mathematician and astronomer Richard of Wallingford. Monks were among the leading scientific practitioners during the medieval period. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The genius of medieval science: from medicine to mechanical clocks. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thomas More: saint or sinner?

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

Tudor queens on screen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Image depicting Roman general Germanicus oversing the burial of the bones of Romans killed in the battle of Teutoburg Forest

What was the Roman Empire's greatest defeat? It might be Teutoburg Forest in AD 9

Moving, medieval-style. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer was a salvage vessel disguised as a mining ship, designed to secretly recover Soviet sub K-129

Project Azorian: the Cold War CIA mission to snatch Soviet nuclear sub K-129 from the sea floor. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An empty knight's armor sitting on a chest.

Q&AHow did knights in armour go to the toilet?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Knights of the Round Table are that the heart of many Arthurian legends

Who were the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, and where does the Holy Grail fit in?

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, observed by Queen Catherine (of Aragon), who is stood in the doorway. Anne has been playing the lute for the king, watched by a gathering of courtiers. Cardinal Wolsey, right of centre, looks on. Painting by Marcus Stone, 1870. Private collection. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Grooms of the stoolWho were the men who changed Henry VIII’s underpants?

Your guide to the Roman empire: when it was formed, why it split and how it failed, plus its most colourful emperors

Enslaved women & resistance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Christian Frederick Cole: England’s first black barrister. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rescue workers at the scene of the wrecked Pantglas Junior School at Aberfan, South Wales. (Getty Images)

Death under the black mountain: surviving the 1966 Aberfan disaster

The Varangian Guard as depicted in the illuminated 12th-century manuscript known as the Madrid Skylitzes. These Viking warriors became the Byzantine emperors' personal bodyguard

What was the Varangian Guard? A brief history of the Viking warriors of the Byzantine empire

Relatives wave off convicts being sent from England

Your guide to...transportation to Australia

A painting by Louis Philippe Crepin depicting the battle of Trafalgar, 1805. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar, hour by hour: what happened and why did Britain win?

Diana and Charles being driven to Buckingham Palace after their wedding

Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s wedding: everything you need to know

Aztecs in their own words. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Staff hard at work at Bletchley Park. The people who worked here did so under conditions of utmost secrecy, and with little idea of how their work slotted into the grand scheme of things. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Bletchley Park: Britain's wartime intelligence factory. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A new take on India’s history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Famous Victorians: Emily Bronte and Isambard Kingdom Brunel

7 famous Victorians: from Brontë to Brunel

A portrait of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. Henry and Catherine's marriage was a happy one, until their failure to produce a male heir began to cast a long shadow. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Catherine of Aragon: Henry's greatest queen

Illustration shows James IV ceding his crown following defeat at the battle of Flodden. (Picture by Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

Your guide to the battle of Flodden 1513

The French Revolution: Everything you need to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Triple Bond Broken: The Destruction of the House of York. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An Atlantic slave war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.